How were tanks scrapped after World War Two?

Question

Both Axis & Allied nations produced thousands of tanks during the Second World War. However, not many of these vehicles survive to this day (there are exceptions of course). When reading about the fate of these vehicles, it's always said that these tanks were "scrapped" after the war for their resources.

What was the scrapping process? Are they pushed into a giant scary blender, or are they dismantled piece by piece and melted?

I would think the second method would make more sense, but then again, I also find cases like the M4 Sherman in Wibrin (Belgium) which was saved during scrapping to be preserved as a monument. (This tank looks like it was bitten in half.)

Can anyone clear this up for me and perhaps provide pictures of the scrapping process?

Thanks!

The last part of my answer on scuttling u-boats has a section on other weaponry (as requested by the OP there) with quite a few details and links on tanks etc. — Lars Bosteen, Sep 28 '18 at 14:15
In reference to your statement: When reading about the fate of these vehicles, it's always said that these tanks were "scrapped" after the war for their resources ... Can you provide information on the various sources you read which always said that? — Kerry L, Sep 28 '18 at 15:14
There's a line in "Naples 44" where the narrator notices a disabled tank "melting away like ice" over a period of weeks - the locals went at it with chisels to sell for scrap. — pjc50, Sep 28 '18 at 17:13
Not the same war, but a blacksmith I met in S. Korea described that after the Korean war ended, disabled/abandoned tanks and other such vehicles were the main source of his and other smiths' steel for quite some time. — HammerN'Songs, Sep 28 '18 at 19:21
Somewhere in this site I read that some military equipment were sunk in ocean instead of scrapping, since scrapping was too energy consuming. The below answers seem to indicate otherwise. But it would be interesting to find which equipment was sunk and why it was different. — Roland Pihlakas, Sep 28 '18 at 23:53
If you have a giant scary blender that is capable of grinding up tanks, just lure the enemy tanks into it :) — rackandboneman, Sep 29 '18 at 19:54

score 60 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 29 '18 at 10:29

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Once nobody was willing or able to use them(either in other conflicts or as bulldozers), tanks were stripped of any particularly valuable or reusable parts, and whatever was left was disassembled/cut up to be used as scrap metal.

(All of the images and detail can be found here or here.)

Vehicles which were destroyed on the battlefield were recovered to either be repaired or stripped. The recovery operations were aided by specialized vehicles(such as the M32) which could move the disabled tanks to scrapyards:

At the scrapyards(also called "strip out yards"), the valuable bits that still worked were removed from the disabled tanks to be used as replacements in more usable tanks. This was also a great time for military research, as engineers could poke around allied and enemy tanks looking for vulnerabilities and areas of improvement.

As for the rest, whatever could be removed from the hull or cut up using on-site tools was piled together. If there were no on-site tools to cut up the tank hulls, then the hulls were shipped to better equipped processing facilities elsewhere. Once disassembled, whatever couldn't be directly used for other tanks was used as regular scrap metal wherever metal was needed:

However, once the war was over there were still hundreds of thousands of working vehicles that needed a home. For those that didn't get sold/lent to other countries for other conflicts, there was plenty of room in military depots like those in the American Southwest:

In the years after WWII, the vehicles that weren't expected to ever be used again were stripped, chopped up, and scraped in pretty much the same way as those in the post-battlefield scrapyards(though with much less urgency):

A few of those that weren't scrapped were converted to monuments(as you found) or stored/refurbished in museums or private collections, but many chose a much more humble retirement and were cheaply sold to farmers to be used as tractors(ammo not included):

edited Sep 29 '18 at 10:29

Pieter Geerkens

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answered Sep 28 '18 at 15:16

Giter

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I love the farmer picture – Cullub Sep 28 '18 at 18:03
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"And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks, and their tanks into tractors." – Michael Seifert Sep 28 '18 at 18:30
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Do you happen to know whether those items in depots were fresh from the assembly line, putting out at 100% until Sep '45; or are those shipped back from the various theatres as well? – LаngLаngС Sep 28 '18 at 20:34
@LangLangC: They look like M2 and/or M3 light tanks, which stopped production in 1942 and 1944 respectively, so they certainly weren't fresh off the line in 1945 and were probably shipped back from the front. However, considering that the US alone demobilized about 90% of their armed forces by 1947 I'm sure at least some of the finest tanks of 1945 ended up going straight to the scrapyard simply because they didn't plan on using them before more advanced designs made them obsolete. – Giter Sep 28 '18 at 21:22
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Yeah, I am sure many went from factory to permanent parking lot. I was thinking more into the opposite direction: why ship all those heavy things back? Scrap them in Asia or Europe, or park them over there if you are so afraid of Russians or whatnot… – LаngLаngС Sep 28 '18 at 21:27
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@LangLangC: I haven't been able to find a solid source on where all of the materiel ended up, so when I get a chance I might write up a question about it. Perhaps there was some sort of official post-war lend-lease-esque system for any ally willing to do the shipping and handling. Since WWII vehicles were used for decades after the war they clearly weren't all shipped back, and I'd imagine a good amount were used in Europe/Japan to help with rebuilding efforts: converted to bulldozers to clear buildings, then converted to girders to make buildings. – Giter Sep 28 '18 at 21:56
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How did the farmers bear the immense fuel cost of a tank? – rackandboneman Sep 29 '18 at 19:56
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@rackandboneman: I'm sure fuel consumption drops a lot once you get rid of all of the ammo, firing/loading/turret mechanisms, barrel, most armor plating, etc., plus it doesn't really need to go any faster than walking speed. – Giter Sep 29 '18 at 20:28
@Giter Only to an extent though. Armor plating, not really. A modular system where you can remove armor would have made the armor weaker - the whole "tub", the cover on top and the turret are armor plate. Actually especially the turret makes me think this photo doesn't show the norm, because tank turrets are heavily armored and leaving it on there doesn't make a lot of sense with the drivers seat (and hence the driving controls) not being in there, but further down. – R. Schmitz Oct 01 '18 at 10:20
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@rackandboneman Fuel was a lot cheaper in those days. For example, many British diesel railway locomotives of the 1950s and 1960s were built on the assumption that they'd just be left with the engines idling when not in use. – David Richerby Oct 01 '18 at 11:11
@R.Schmitz wouldn't surprise me if the "turret" on that thing was recreated from sheet metal or even wood by the new owners rather than being the real thing. – jwenting Jan 03 '19 at 08:25
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and to think that tanks were devised from tracked farm tractors in the first place :) – jwenting Jan 03 '19 at 08:25
Some Shermans was turned into the Sherwick (bulldozer conversions done in Elswich) and then exported to East Africa. see https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/05/01/photographs-elswick-works-britains-major-arms-developer-world-war/ – Stefan Skoglund Jul 25 '22 at 19:45

score 11 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 28 '18 at 17:25

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Lightweight items such as car bodywork can be recycled by shredding them but there is no blender that's giant or scary enough to blend a tank. They would have been scrapped in much the same way as other large items such as ships or railway locomotives: partly by being dismantled and partly by being cut up with torches or saws. The resulting scrap would have been separated into the different metals and then melted down to be recycled.

answered Sep 28 '18 at 17:25

David Richerby

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Dropped piecewise into a crucible of molten steel when the job is done, like the T800 in Terminator2 finale ? – Criggie Oct 01 '18 at 00:39
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@Criggie Yes, only more of a T-34 than a T800 (they hadn't got to such high model numbers in the 1940s). – David Richerby Oct 01 '18 at 09:35
First you need to get it "piecewise" - and you'll need a big crucible with a lot of molten steel, otherwise you probably end up seizing the steel already in the crucible :) – rackandboneman Oct 08 '18 at 20:58

How were tanks scrapped after World War Two?

2 Answers2