About the tanks recovered in Bulgaria

[Vonforhud]

Any news on these?

[lebus12]

Any news on these in 2013?
Cheers
Michel

[herrzark]

????great question.

[pitfighter]

Interested to know what happened, also curious what happened to the two Germans they were extraditing.

Pit.

[Sokol]

Nothing happened to the Germans. Long ago they fled back to Germany. There is some legal action slowly going on, but in the end nothing will happen.

However much more happened to the tanks! A Museum of the Battle Glory, a new military museum, was established in the old pioneer barracks at Yambol, where the tanks were stored. Even before the museum was opened, several of the more complete and rare vehicles were sent to an army tank repair workshop for external work. The hulls were sandblasted, primed, painted. The missing elements were taken from the more damaged hulls, some bits and pieces were made new. The final product is brilliant, keeping in mind the budget was symbolic, something like 250 Euro per tank! Now the 7-8 externally restored tanks are in the exhibition of the new museum. The museum takes just a part of the military base, the rest of the recovered hulls and parts are stored nearby, in another part of the base.

almost finished, at the tank workshop: Âîåííà òåõíèêà :: Íåùàòà ñå ðàçâèâàò

And in the new museum, several externally restored and two unrestored: :

[Sokol]

And here is a video from the museum. Starts with the internal exhibit, the vehicles appear after 13:40 min. A great part of the work on the museum is still ahead. They hurried to open it, just to make sure they will not lose the property or the exhibits. But in the next years lots of work will be done. The museum is in old, pre-WW2 pioneer barracks, neglected for years. In future another part of the base will be added to the museum, I think. Lots of work will be needed on the yard, building, exhibition. The internal exhibition is still modest, in a small old building. But it develops well! As a beginning, the gate-monument of the fallen soldiers and officers from the regiment was restored. It was removed during the totalitarian years, but now it is rebuilt exactly. Here's the video: Музей -Бойна слава-град Ямбол - YouTube

[lebus12]

Very interesting, perhaps some English text for Tourists...

[kiwiwreckdiver]

At least some have made it indoors and given a safe place and facelift.
Maybe just maybe to get some money behind the museum they should release the excess tanks for sale as projects, that would keep them afloat for some time to come.
JUST SAYING

[Sokol]

It is not a decision of the museum. The tanks are owned by the MoD. The restored tanks and all the artillery, trailers and the jet plane were given to the museum by the MoD. The museum can not sell anything. The remaining tanks and parts are owned by the MoD. I think there are some ideas to restore the buildings and get at least some of the tanks under roof, lets hope it won;t take many years to happen!

[rudicantfail]

Thanks for the information Theo, it is great news that these historic vehicles have been saved, and even restored to a very credible condition. I really thought that they would be lost to the scrap metal merchants.