Global warming across the world has resulted in water levels in rivers, lakes and reservoirs dropping, leading to the reemergence of long-submerged buildings and even villages. But in Budapest, a decrease in the level of the Danube has led to a particularly interesting discovery.
People walking along the side of river in Batthyány Square opposite the Hungarian Parliament spotted something sticking out from the rocks that appeared to be part of a motorcycle. The Hungarian Military Institute and its Museum of Military History was called in to try and determine what it was and then to try and extricate it. Its experts soon determined that it was a German DKW NZ 350-1 which would have been used as a courier machine during the Second World War. However, a bigger problem than getting the bike out was to deal with German Tellermine 35 anti-tank mines and hand grenades that were also found near it and which had to be dealt with by bomb disposal experts.
Once the area was made safe, the DKW (or, of course, ‘Das Kleine Wunder’ – ‘the little wonder’) was excavated, again not without some difficulty as the decades of accumulated mud had led to the little motorcycle now weighing some 440lbs.
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Sadly, two sets of human remains were also found near the motorcycle and have yet to be identified, according to the German War Graves Commission. Two dog tags were recovered, apparently intact, near the area and these belonged to a Wehrmacht soldier and a Waffen-SS member. But whether the two are connected to each other or to the motorcycle is also unknown.
The German military used two-part identification tags so that, in the event of a soldier’s death, one part would remain with the body and the other used by authorities to record the death. That the tags are intact indicates that these are of two missing soldiers whose deaths were never recorded. While it could be that the remains are of the rider and passenger, it is also possible that they are unrelated to the motorcycle and might have been casualties of war, buried in an unmarked pit as was often the case during battle. (Budapest was the scene of fierce fighting during the closing months of the Second World War, as German and Hungarian forces fought Soviet and Romanian troops for control of the city.) Identification is currently in the hands of the German War Graves Commission which is trying to ascertain who the men were before they are reburied in a Budapest cemetery.
Meanwhile the DKW was found to be in an unexpected state of preservation, that sediment which had collected around it having protected much of it from the deleterious effects of being submerged for eight decades. Not only was the bike in good order, so was its saddlebag which contained a Bosch W175 T1 spark plug and Bakelite spark plug holder, an oil bottle, a tube of grease, electrical tape, a cylinder head spanner, a spark plug spanner, a small wire brush, and a tyre pressure gauge. Amazingly, the tyre repair kit’s adhesive and patches were also still intact while in the DKW’s side case were a chain link, a few screw heads, a hammer head and belts.
The motorcycle is on display at the Museum of Military History, and it is hoped that the bodies will be identified and bring closure to two families after so many years.
Original article appeared in Old Bike Mart. To subscribe, click here: https://www.classicmagazines.co.uk/old-bike-mart
