25/06/2026 - 14:43 GMT+2
According to Germany’s Federal Agency for Real Estate (BImA), finds of this kind usually yield only isolated remains or vehicle parts. In this case, however, workers came across an almost completely preserved assault gun – a rare relic from the final months of the Second World War in north-west Germany.
The find is a StuG III assault gun, one of the Wehrmacht’s most frequently produced tracked armoured vehicles. Unlike conventional tanks, the vehicle had no rotating turret. Instead, the gun was fixed facing forwards, meaning the entire vehicle had to be moved each time to aim.
Dr Andreas Hüser, head of archaeological heritage management for the district of Cuxhaven, told Euronews that the object is “quite simply” a Second World War assault gun: “It was the most frequently built fully tracked vehicle of its time.”
The defence company Rheinmetall built more than 9,300 of them. Production continued into the final weeks of the war and did not end until April 1945. The assault guns were used mainly to combat enemy tanks.
