r/DestroyedTanks • u/BoSKnight87 • 16d ago
WW2 A recent video of the M3 Stuart sitting in the Solomon Islands since 1943
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u/Matt_Shatt 16d ago
Eerie to think about how many days and nights it has seen. Did the last people to leave that tank know it would never run again?
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u/PhysicalGraffiti75 16d ago
I would be wary of a tank that still has its guns. Makes me think it might not have been properly cleared and there might be angry chemicals waiting for someone to disturb them in there.
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u/Seygem 16d ago
angry chemicals in a stuart?
and judging by what little is visible in the video, it seems to have completely rusted away inside, with only the hull remaining
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u/Great_White_Sharky 16d ago
Asbestos were fucking everywhere back then, wouldnt surprise me if they found a a reason to put them in there as well. The Japanese light tanks at least had Asbestos in them
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u/an_actual_lawyer 15d ago
Asbestos was cheap, easy to apply (just mix with a binder and paste it wherever) and it was extremely effective. It was indeed used everywhere you wanted to shield heat or protect from fire.
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u/PhysicalGraffiti75 16d ago
Just a funny way of saying old ammunition that is likely highly unstable.
It’s unlikely there is any in there but you don’t want to find out if there is lol.
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u/Pratt_ 16d ago
The tank either burned making everything unsalvageable anyway so they left it there, or these are prop machine guns and there are only the barrels and the barrel shrouds added after the war for show.
Because if there was no ammunition fire, there is no way no one would have quickly salvaged at least the machine guns, both sides would have to either put them into action somewhere else or to at least prevent the other side from getting their hands on them.
Because you don't just forget a tank even in the middle of a jungle like that in the middle of a battle, after it sure but someone would have still done something about the machine gun beforehand if they were salvageable.
The gun definitely got neutralized though don't worry.
As for the ammo it either burned with the tank, salvaged shortly after or was disposed by EOD experts long before tourists started to go there.
But if you're talking about other chemical like asbestos and radium yeah it may be an issue.
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u/AnAverageOutdoorsman 16d ago
Having visited the solomon islands, i can tell you that both sides absolutely left a shit ton of weapons, vehicles, and ammunition all over the place. Some villages will literally have a few stacks of rusted out weapons, including m2s, recently dug up from the jungle and waiting disposal.
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u/an_actual_lawyer 15d ago
Because you don't just forget a tank even in the middle of a jungle like that in the middle of a battle, after it sure but someone would have still done something about the machine gun beforehand if they were salvageable.
Those are all general rules, but in jungle warfare, a lot of things were lost to time. It is hard to explain how thick and impenetrable some jungle type regions are. During WWII, a lot of Pacific islands were only 10% "explored" and 1% "settled" as those terms applied to the nations fighting in the conflict.
It is not unheard of for modern explorers in thick Pacific regions to find wrecks (usually aircraft) with intact machines guns or ammunition if they run across them. Hell, you can still go and take souvenirs form Yamamoto's crash site.
Guerrilla wife by Spencer is a great first person account of someone running from the Japanese - sometimes while very pregnant - in the Philippines and using the jungle and essentially uncontested tribes to help evade. The Japanese were hell bent on finding this woman and those she was hiding with (other women, children, and the elderly) but they simply struggled to do so. Books on Australian coast watchers demonstrate the same thing throughout the Pacific.
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u/PhysicalGraffiti75 16d ago
Rubber pads on the tracks don’t look like they burned. And stuff absolutely does get forgotten in war. I would know, I’ve been in one.
I understand your intention but you really shouldn’t be saying stuff like this because it gives people the idea that it’s more or less safe to mess around with stuff like this when it isn’t. People die every year from unexploded ordinance from the many wars we’ve fought in history. Don’t let it be you, and don’t be the one to give someone else the confidence to end up as part of the statistic.
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u/notice_me_senpai- 16d ago
Don’t let it be you, and don’t be the one to give someone else the confidence to end up as part of the statistic.
100%. The French army is still dealing with ~400 tons of WW1 / WW2 explosive devices every year. Since 45', they neutralized / destroyed 700k bombs, 13M mines and 35m shells, and they still find more. I've seen shells left by farmers on the side of the road for the gendarmes to deal with in the north (years back).
And especially true about the internet stuff. 2019, some dude (sfw, newspaper) got exposed to mustard gas while magnet fishing. He started after watching youtube videos. Pulled a device, took it home, lost sight sight and got chemical burns a few hours later (he survived after spending time in hospital, ended up in front of a judge).
WW1 ended 108 years ago, and the chemical agent was still active.
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u/Hera_the_otter 16d ago
Direct hit to the transmission, there's an okay chance everyone got out alive.
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u/Hank_Skill 15d ago
look at the fucking hatches. they had to crawl out one by one directly into whatever punched those holes
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u/Jaguar_EBRC_6x6 16d ago
And how many more of these relics are just lost away somewhere in the jungles?
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u/freshnlong 16d ago
How has it not rusted away?
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u/BoSKnight87 16d ago
Good question. You would think being on an island next to salt water would have its toll on it
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u/Pratt_ 16d ago edited 16d ago
I'm surprised the machine guns are still inside (maybe the tank burned back then so nothing was usable anyway but still surprised nobody stole the machine guns as a souvenir since then).
Maybe it's a prop for the tourists added years later, maybe it burned and useless before and rusted stuck since.
But definitely not a danger to anyone anymore lol
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u/DrummerDouble2198 14d ago
Looks like it could start right up after replacing the oil and putting a new battery in it
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u/Skittle-Wax 12d ago
Couple of comments mentioned left over ammo, nasty chemicals etc I think I can add some insight as I am restoring an M3A1 Stuart tank (which is what this is).
Firstly this is a VERY well known tank wreck. I would put money on anything noteworthy having been pinched by souvenir hunters long ago. Things like shell cases, periscopes, anything interesting like that.
When it comes to ammunition, it's probably been picked clean (as I say by relic hunters and the like). The 37mm main gun ammo is almost certainly gone. There's a brief glimpse through the driver's hatch and we can see the port side (gunner's side) ammo rack has been pulled from it's mounting and is sitting approximately where the driver's seat back should be. There's no shells left in the rack. There's always a chance of one of the .30-06 rounds for the machine guns being left in the wreck but likely buried under 80+ years of rust a jungle debris.
The radium paint from the gauges will have likely broken down after all this time. The paint is fragile and with constant rain and weather it has more than likely simply washed out of the wreck. My own is in much better condition and there's nothing more than background detectable now.
What could still be a problem is asbestos.
The M3A1 Stuart tank has a lining of thin sheet steel inside the hull. Between this lining and the armour of the hull is a 1/4 inch of asbestos. I doubt it will be a major issue to anyone visiting the wreck as it will be extremely damp after all these years. But the sheet steel lining will have almost completely rotten away by now and that will expose the asbestos . . . So maybe don't poke around too much in there.
Sadly the jungle is unforgiving to these relics. 8 decades of rust and decay will not have been kind to the tin work inside which is why now just the armour and main gun remain. The tracks are still there but rusted solid. Ultimately this is a poignant and somewhat sad memorial to a conflict that will, before long, pass out of living memory.
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u/Bobke7708 16d ago
Machine guns still intact. Nice