WWII Tank thieves in Bulgaria
His name is Alexei Petrov. He used to be an officer, now he is a defendant in a case, accused of being part of an "organised crime group" and facing a 15-year sentence. But he's not "that" Alexei Petrov, the one arrested in "Operation Octopus", just a namesake. His alleged crime is stealing a tank.
If you follow the news closely, you will likely remember the story from two and a half years back, when police arrested two German nationals as they attempted to smuggle out of the country a Panzer IV tank, whose price on the black market can easily exceed 100 000 euro. At that time, Major Alexei Petrov was second-in-command at the military unit in Yambol charged with guarding the precious relics. According to prosecutors, he is also the man that helped the Germans steal the tank.
On that December 2007 day, about 80 Nazi tanks and assault artillery units were still on Bulgaria's border with Turkey, where they had been half-buried as part of the Krali Marko line that was meant to protect Bulgaria from land invasion during the Cold War.
Two months before the group was caught, the legendary Tsaritsa – a Sturmgeschütz III Ausf. G assault artillery gun made in 1943 – disappeared from the area near the village of Fakia. The gun is said to have been a personal gift from Hitler to the Bulgarian queen-mother Yoana, hence its name. It is believed that the gun was loaded onto a truck and taken to Germany, where it was sold.
The three men allegedly decided to steal a tank using the same scheme, but the military counterintelligence was tipped off about the deed and arrested Petrov and the two Germans on December 13 2007. They were arrested while a group of Roma workers, hired for 20 leva each, were digging out the Panzer.
The story is curious not only because it is the first larceny of a tank from the Bulgarian army, but also because it set in motion a series of events that prevented the loss of one of Bulgaria's largest military treasures, the so-called tank collection of the Defence Ministry.
Residents in Yambol are convinced that the trio did not act alone and had the protection of someone in the Bulgarian General Staff. If not for that case, the Panzer tanks even now might have been the subject of looting, much to the joy of collectors and scrap buyers. Without meaning to, Petrov and his German "colleagues" made possible saving this piece of Bulgarian history....
Read entire article at The Sofia Echo (Bulgaria)
If you follow the news closely, you will likely remember the story from two and a half years back, when police arrested two German nationals as they attempted to smuggle out of the country a Panzer IV tank, whose price on the black market can easily exceed 100 000 euro. At that time, Major Alexei Petrov was second-in-command at the military unit in Yambol charged with guarding the precious relics. According to prosecutors, he is also the man that helped the Germans steal the tank.
On that December 2007 day, about 80 Nazi tanks and assault artillery units were still on Bulgaria's border with Turkey, where they had been half-buried as part of the Krali Marko line that was meant to protect Bulgaria from land invasion during the Cold War.
Two months before the group was caught, the legendary Tsaritsa – a Sturmgeschütz III Ausf. G assault artillery gun made in 1943 – disappeared from the area near the village of Fakia. The gun is said to have been a personal gift from Hitler to the Bulgarian queen-mother Yoana, hence its name. It is believed that the gun was loaded onto a truck and taken to Germany, where it was sold.
The three men allegedly decided to steal a tank using the same scheme, but the military counterintelligence was tipped off about the deed and arrested Petrov and the two Germans on December 13 2007. They were arrested while a group of Roma workers, hired for 20 leva each, were digging out the Panzer.
The story is curious not only because it is the first larceny of a tank from the Bulgarian army, but also because it set in motion a series of events that prevented the loss of one of Bulgaria's largest military treasures, the so-called tank collection of the Defence Ministry.
Residents in Yambol are convinced that the trio did not act alone and had the protection of someone in the Bulgarian General Staff. If not for that case, the Panzer tanks even now might have been the subject of looting, much to the joy of collectors and scrap buyers. Without meaning to, Petrov and his German "colleagues" made possible saving this piece of Bulgarian history....