One of the 10 first tanks delivered to Sweden in 1921 has been restored to running condition and is now the oldest running German-produced tank in the world
In 1918 Germany developed the LK II tank, a lighter and faster tank than the A7V but World War One came to an end before the tanks arrived at the front line.
After the war Swedish agents were sent out with the task to try to buy a few tanks and 10 of the LK II were smuggled in from Germany as tractor parts and sheet metal: due to the Versailles treaty in 1918 Germany was not allowed to produce military equipment.
It is said that the purpose was to protect the king and government from a revolution; not an unlikely scenario based on what happened in Russia, Finland and the Baltic states in 1917- 20.
Assembled in Sweden, the tanks were used from 1922 to the late 1930s. In 1929, five of the tanks were upgraded with a more powerful engine and in 1929 the German officer Heinz Guderian served at the Swedish Tank Battalion for one month to study the result of the Swedish trials.
‘Most of the original parts have been reused as they only needed cleaning’
Out of the 10 tanks, four have survived, one is on permanent display at the Swedish Tank Museum, Arsenalen,…
