Russian Engineering

I believe this may be the first time Estonians have celebrated on seeing a Russian tank. A local historical society unearthed (literally!) a Russian T34 after 60 years and took pictures of the event. How did they know it was there?

...a local boy walking by the lake Kurtna Matasjarv noticed tank tracks leading into the lake, but not coming out anywhere. For two months he saw air bubbles emerging from the lake. This gave him reason to believe that there must be an armoured vehicle at the lake's bottom. A few years ago, he told the story to the leader of the local war history club "Otsing". Together with other club members, Mr Igor Shedunov initiated diving expeditions to the bottom of the lake about a year ago. At the depth of 7 metres they discovered the tank resting under a 3-metre layer of peat.

They pulled it out with a large bull dozer. The result?

After the tank surfaced, it turned out to be a 'trophy' tank, that had been captured by the German army in the course of the battle at Sinimaed (Blue Hills) about six weeks before it was sunk in the lake. Altogether, 116 shells were found on board. Remarkably, the tank was in good condition, with no rust, and all systems (except the engine) in working condition.

116 shells aren't as fun as you might think. The Army Ordnance Museum here at APG has a bunch of tanks parked on concrete pads in a field. By "parked" I mean slowly rusting away because of exposure to the elements. A storage compartment on one rusted out once a while back and several live rounds tumbled out of the tank. I think the curators had to call the base bomb squad.