With every passing week the saga of the Nazi "Gold train", which legend has it carried some 300 tons of Third Reich gold when it disappeared somewhere between the Polish cities of Wroclaw and Walbrzych, gets more interesting. In the last train update a week ago, [5] we learned that the Polish culture ministry had confirmed the discovery of the train, but promptly backpeddaled, warning it may be boobytrapped, before toning down the "discovery" rhetoric saying it had no knowledge of the issue to keep the wannabe-Indiana Joneses away.
Instead, as the Telegraph reports [6], it was none other than Polish soldiers who arrived on Friday at the "X marks the (alleged) spot" of the train's final resting place. "Polish soldiers arrived on Friday at the spot where authorities suspect a German Nazi-era train that could be carrying guns and looted jewels is buried."
The military personnel arrived in Walbrzych, an old mining town in south-west Poland, as the two treasure hunters who last month claimed to have found the fabled train went public.
In addition to the involvement of the military, another key development took place when the two formerly anonymous men who claimed to have found the train, finally revealed their identity and spoke to the Polish media: Piotr Koper, from Poland, and German national Andreas Richter appeared before the cameras of TVP, Poland’s public television station, insisting that they had "clear evidence of the so-called gold train."
[7]
Peter Koper and Andreas Richter who have claimed that they have
discovered an armoured train from World War II in the area of Walbrzych
Until now the two men had kept their identity secret, fueling suspicion that their claims were a hoax.
“We have clear evidence of the train,” said Mr Koper from reading a short prepared statement, adding they had found it by using “our own resources, eyewitness testimony and our own equipment and skills.”
The reason the two had shied from media reports is because they were trying to negotiate a 10% finders fee on the value of the find, said to be in the billions. And while the duo had pledged to place the train in a local museum if it is discovered, Koper insisted that evidence the pair had presented confidentially to local authorities on August 18 had later been leaked to the media.
Whether that dilutes their "finders" leverage, or fee, remains to be seen, as remains to be seen if indeed the legendary train is hidden where the two claim it can be found, some 70 years after its final voyage.
As proof of their discovery, the men released an image taken with ground penetrating radar purportedly showing the armored train. It is shown below.
[8]
A graphic taken with a GPR KS-700 reportedly showing a section of land in 3D with a visable shaft
With the Polish army already in place, and certainly doing its best to reach the train as fast as possible, the answer whether the mysterious Nazi gold train has indeed been found should be available in the next several days.
