An intact, 15-ton cannon barrel left over from World War II was brought up yesterday from a dig site near Hiiumaa island's Lehtma port.
A team working for the Hiiumaa Military Museum spent three hours removing the 180-millimeter cannon, part of one of several field guns the Soviet Union had installed on the island at the beginning of the war to guard its western front, ETV reported. Fragments of the other cannons have been found on the island.
The presence of a large object at the site had been discovered by accident three years earlier by members of a local volunteer organization, but the museum had not been able to properly investigate until recently, said its director, Ain Tähiste.
Tähiste called the discovery the nation's biggest military find of the year and said it was unlikely that other Soviet cannons in such a good shape exist anywhere else in the world.
The gun will be on display at the museum until September 15.
Robin Ilves
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