Defence Forces sell off obsolete tanks at auction

Wartime German assault gun makes phenomenal price

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A Finnish Defence Forces auction, at which a number of obsolete armoured vehicles and tanks were sold to civilian collectors and devotees, gathered a surprisingly large crowd in the southern town of Ruovesi on Tuesday.
      For the first time in Finland, civilians were offered a chance to purchase armoured army issue vehicles, albeit rather rusty and elderly ones.
      The popularity of the event surprised everybody. Hundreds of curious locals had gathered to witness dozens of interested buyers - many of whom came from abroad - bidding for the material.
      In addition to Finnish, at least Estonian, French, German, and English were heard in the crowd.
     
Right from the word go, when the auctioneer called for bids on more than a dozen British-made Comet and Charioteer tanks dating originally from the 1940s and 1950s, the pace was fast and furious.
      The bids were raised by thousands of euros at a time, with the highest bids ranging from just under ten thousand euros to over twenty thousand.
      And yet, to an untrained eye these were more or less just piles of steel junk that had been left to rust under the open sky for decades. Many of the vehicles had been stripped of everything detachable, including the engines.
      But the bidders were not ordinary people. These were devotees, and they looked on the hulks with different eyes.
     
The real surprise came towards the end, however, when three German-made Sturmgeschütz assault guns purchased during the war were placed under the hammer.
      The first one was knocked down for EUR 115,000, the second for 125,000, and the last one for the whopping sum of no less than EUR 185,000.
      "These guys must really love junk", someone said in an astonished voice as the audience gasped and applauded by turns, when bids were raised by ten thousand euros at a time.
      In the 1980s, these tanks were still used for target practice, before their value for collectors was gradually recognised. The dents and holes in the armour-plating on some of the sold items, created by bazooka shells, bear witness to those times.
     
All three Sturms were claimed by the British tank dealer Mike Stallwood, whose company buys, restores, and sells old military equipment.
      "Once they get moving, their price will increase several times over", explained Stallwood, who purchased five dilapidated tank carcasses in all to take home from Finland.
      The Finnish Defence Forces earned a very respectable EUR 669,200 with the stunt. Twelve of the sold vehicles will find their new home somewhere in Finland, while nine will travel overseas.
     
Part of the attraction for buyers was the all-important "provenance" - the tanks had a service history that could be relied upon. Another major consideration was that the sales were guaranteed to be perfectly kosher and legal with such an authority as the FDF behind them.
      The German-made tanks were particularly sought-after for their rarity value. Nearly all wartime German hardware was destroyed by the Allies after WW2.
      Curiously enough, only the cheapest of the three sold on Tuesday actually saw action against the Red Army in 1944. The two more expensive assault guns never made it to the front line.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Newspaper claims Finnish Defence Forces to sell old tanks to civilians (30.7.2007)

Links:
  Comet tank (Wikipedia)
  Sturmgeschütz (Wikipedia)
  Defence Forces announcement of auction (in Finnish)
  Charioteer Tank (Wikipedia)

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