Until September 2003 locals near the Czarna Nida river in Poland could see a Panther lying under it. It had belonged to the 17th Panzer Division and was lost during the crossing of the river in 1945. The operation to recover the lost Panther began early on 3rd September 2003, an historic date for Poland. The diving team from the White Eagle Museum at Skarzysko - Kamienna, (a town about 100km South of Warsaw), set about inspecting the Panther prior to attaching the first cables. A fire hose was used to blast out decades of sediment from inside the hull of the Panther. By 10am a large crowd had gathered to see the recovery operation.

Above: And a large crowd has now gathered to see the Panther as the team battle to get it to dry land once more.
The White Eagle recovery team had not perhaps realised that the German tank still had some fight left in it. They had not come fully prepared for this long struggle.
As the crowd waited steel cables were attached to the hull and a large truck started to drag the German behemoth to the shore, but she was having none of it.
The cables parted and the tank refused to come out of the Czarna Nida.

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