(Image: DARKstyle Pictures; M47 Patton tank abandoned in the forest)
Urban Ghosts has featured a number of impressive tank and armoured vehicle graveyards in recent months, from vast war machine cemeteries to a corroding collection of old tanks abandoned to the elements. This article visits another site – smaller but equally compelling – where derelict fighting vehicles hide amid the trees of Western Europe.
(Image: DARKstyle Pictures; abandoned M47 Patton)
Photographer DARKstyle Pictures discovered several abandoned tanks while exploring a forest in an undisclosed location on the continent. The military vehicles include M47 Patton medium tanks and a lighter M41 Walker Bulldog, all of which were manufactured in the United States.
(Image: DARKstyle Pictures)
Named after General George S. Patton, the M47 was produced during the early 1950s. It only remained in US service for around a decade though Spain continues to operate a modernised version today. The tank saw action during a variety of conflicts including the Suez Crisis, the Six Day War, the Iran-Iraq War and as recently as the Yugoslav Wars.
(Image: DARKstyle Pictures; abandoned M41 Walker Bulldog light tank)
The 23.5 ton M41, meanwhile, served during the Korean and Vietnam Wars and even today remains on the charge of a small number of countries in Central and South America, Africa and Asia. The forlorn M41 tank above lies in a clearing in the forest, its port side long-sunk into the earth as weeds engulf its rusting tracks.
Despite remaining largely intact, these corroding fighting vehicles appear to have been discarded in the woodland many years ago. The reason for their presence – and whether they stand on a former firing range or represent a past military epoch long absent from this landscape – is unclear. But whatever their stories may be, these abandoned tanks reflect the wealth of hidden history lurking in plain sight all around us.
Related – Abandoned Russian MiGs in an Obscure Moscow Aircraft Graveyard
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