Two Soviet tanks -
T-34 and IS-2 -
of the 19th Tank Corps
are found ! 

  
  In August 1999 in Latvia in places of battles in Kurland (late December 1944) two Soviet tanks: T-34/85 and IS-2 of the 19th Tank Corps were extracted by a group of enthusiasts.
 
 

   
    They sank in the marsh without crews and any damages while attempting to break through the defense line of German troops.
    The tanks are in good condition, particularly T-34/85 (year of prod.  1944). After having  changed oil and  some parts of the starter and refueling, three days after its lifting and cleaning from clay and peat,  we were able to start the engine  and  to drive the tank. This fact was filmed by Latvian TV channel LNT.

   The mentioned tank T-34\85 and heavy tank IS-2 are real battle machines from the 19th tank corps of the Soviet Army. They sank during military operations at the end of December, 1944 while attempting to break the defense of German forces, surrounded  on Kurland Peninsula (Latvian Republic) near  Pienava. 

According to our data, they managed to break through the first line of the German defense near a railway station and were close to the second line, defended by the 19-th division Waffen SS. In front of it there was a small bog with some spots of solid surface.

    Presumably, Russian tankmen did not notice the danger as the  surface was covered with a thick layer of snow. Taking into account some flat space before the second line of defense, Russian tanks could speed up in hope to break through positions of the 19-th division Waffen SS. But the front tanks, entering a bog on high speed, lost ability to maneuver, some of them beginning to sink very quickly. 

According to our data, the 19-th corps had lost in that fight  about 46 tanks, part from which went down in the mentioned  bog.

     The tanks are very well preserved, especially T-34.  Their battalion numbers, painted in white, are clearly visible: A-412 (T-34) and 304 (IS-2). The tanks had almost 100% set of arms, ammunition,  spare pats and instruments set. While extracting T-34 from a bog, it has lost one of its external fuel tanks.  Probably, they remained in a bog and were lost during extraction of the tank, since both tanks laid in a bog upside down .  

 IS-2 does not have such tanks and may be did not have them at all - they could be damaged in the previous fights and removed from the tank. 

While extracting ammunition, which in both tanks made approximately 90% from the fixed amount (each one, breaking the first line of a defense, has shot several fragmentation shells, also several machine-gun disks were spent, armour-piercing shells were all aboard), we were staggered by the fact that  after clearing from peat the ammunition had the appearance of just obtained from a warehouse. The explanation is that, on the one hand, the peat is of some kind of a preserving element, on the other hand, the mixture of fuel and the motor oil, leaked from the fuel tanks, punched by splinters, has created the peat-oil environment, which has allowed the tank to be saved in a so good condition, which is especially characteristic in the case of T-34. Besides, T-34, by our estimations, had entered the fight as a practically new machine without any hit traces, its run was hardly more than 200 km.

   As to IS-2, in spite of the fact that the distance between the places of detection of tanks made only about 200 meters, the condition of IS-2 is a little bit worse, because the fuel and oil environment was less, than around T-34, and  presumably IS-2 was in fights for already about one year: the great number of traces from hit of splinters and shells has been discovered. 

Also, to our estimations, the hull of the tank is as in IS-2 of  October, 1943 sample, and the tower with the cannon D-25T, caliber 122 mm is proper to the modification of IS-2 produced in 1944.

    
On trials of  tank IS-2 in 1943 a shot was made by the cannon D-25T from    distance of 1500 meters into the front part of the hull of the German tank T-V Panther. As a result, the shell pierced the frontal armour, the interior of the tank  was shot through and the shell has torn off a back sheet of the hull of Panther along the welded seams. (According to "The Complete Encyclopedia    of Tanks of the World, 1915-2000", issuing of 1998, Harvest, Russia).

    
     Only about 3500 of IS tanks of different modifications were manufactured in Russia (less, than “Panther” or “Tigers” in Germany). 

    During extraction of tanks it was necessary to discharge machine guns, the cannons (there were shells in both), to extract ammunition, grenades, a lot of cartridges, etc. All mechanisms of machine guns and cannons worked properly, the extraction of cartridges and shells was not difficulty at all. 

Later  several bursts of machine-gun fire were made using ammunition taken from the same tanks .  For the obvious reasons, the cannons were not checked in the same way, but we are sure they would be in order as well.   Now the ammunition is partially unloaded, partially destroyed by the combat engineers. The cannons and the machine guns are put into out-of-condition state by the police experts.

At present, board numbers of tanks  known for us, the queries in archives of the Soviet Army in Russian Federation are made about the future of crews, operational history of the tanks, and also about the details of the battle, last for them.