MSC brings 'mystery' tank home
What they had found slumped on a hill-side close to the U.S. Army base of Camp McGovern, was a U.S.-built M-47 ?Patton? tank. But, thanks to the efforts of both the U.S. Army and the Navy?s Military Sealift Command, the tank is now home and heading for display at an Army museum.
Exactly how the 1950?s-era tank ended up abandoned in the Bosnian countryside, or anything definite about it?s history over the last 50-plus years, is a mystery. ?We found spent 40 mm shell casings and the wear and tear on the tank says this tank has a lot of stories to tell,? said Capt. James Etheridge, USA, a transportation officer with the 25th Infantry Division stationed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and one of those officers responsible for bringing the tank home.
After World War II, the U.S. first sent M-47 tanks to West Germany in response to the Soviet Union?s positioning of it?s tanks in then communist East Germany. M-47s were later provided to the armies of Austria, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, and to the former Yugoslavia.
According to Etheridge, news of the ?find? quickly spread among the SFOR troops, and even back to the states. The Texas National Guard took particular interest since, in the 1950?s, the 36th Texas Infantry Division, along with other regiments, once trained extensively with the M-47.
The Texas National Guard made the request to bring the tank home to Camp Mabry, Texas. The challenge was to find a feasible method to transport the 50-ton tank. Many options were considered, including flying the tank home in a C-5 cargo aircraft, to sending it by rail to Bremerhaven, Germany, for shipment back to the states.
?But, we hoped from the start that we could place the tank aboard a ship during the next cargo redeployment,? said Capt. Etheridge, referring to the mid-September load aboard the MSC-contracted ship, Scan Bothnia.
First, two trucks slowly winched the tank from its resting place? probably for the first time in decades. The tank was then loaded aboard another U.S. Army truck where it was driven to the Croatian port of Rijeka. There, and after an extensive wash down and cleaning, the tank was loaded on the main deck of the Scan Bothnia, which was loading over 35,000 sq.ft of cargo on Sept. 15, for the SFOR-11 equipment rotation.
The tank was later off-loaded at the port of Beaumont, Texas, on Oct. 7.
Named for the legendary World War Two general, The M-47 entered U.S. service in 1952, but did not see any action in the Korean War. In all, Chrysler built about 3,500 tanks between 1952 and 1954.
MV Scan Bothnia is an Isle of Man-flagged, German-built cargo vessel. Military Sealift Command often contracts commercial vessels as a cost-saving measure to move cargo around Europe.
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