A few interesting fieldmade EKMs. The first one is from a "HiWi" - Hilfswilliger. The middle one is a Stalag tag with some engravings on the back. The last one is also a Stalag tag, a German EKM with the sides cut of to make it look square.
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Bottles,jars,all glass items really is great to find when digging out some buried metal. It is a very fragile material and it is always amazing when a tiny bottle with hairthin walls have survived 70-100 years in the ground, and equally frustrating if an item accidentally breaks while being uncovered. I wanted to show some of the smaller bottles I have found. These have mostly been found in dumping pits near field hospitals, medic barracks or office barracks in camp areas, and some have been dug out in frontline- and second line bunkers in combat areas,and also on the sites of kitchens. First off some ink bottles,one or two of them with crystalized ink inside. Bottles and a jar found around fieldkitchens. Perfume was heavily distributed to the troops and I have found lots of different shaped bottles.A few times there have been alittle bit left in the bottles and some wonderful smells. "Birkenwasser" Dralle. Nivea skinoil bottles. Medical bottles.
I am always trying to see a practical use for nice looking relics and shrapnel or grenade fragments makes great candle holders. Perfect for Christmas and the long dark winter days. I have cleaned them using electrolysis. The bottom of a WW1 german 77mm grenade. 81 mm mortar grenade. 155mm grenade. WW1 british "cricket" handgrenade. WW1 77mm artillery shell. WW1 77mm artillery shell. 105 mm shell. Shrapnel.
Ever since humans tamed the dog it has been used in warfare. Dogs has been used in combat, as guards,mascots, trackers, rescue dogs and messengers to name a few. The German Wehrmacht had a lot of dogs in their units and some even served by the frontlines and then mostly as messengers and rescue dogs. While searching a capitulation site in Northern Norway this summer, where units from I.R 193 capitulated after having withdrawn from the fronts around Kirkenes-Murmansk, I found three brass tubes which was used by messenger dogs. They wore it around their neck and carried messages between i.e the frontline and HQ. The message was written on paper, the tube was unscrewed in one end and the message scrolled up and the tube was closed. The next photo is the paper label from a german crate which had contained bangers used for training guard dogs.This was found near a coastal fortification in Nordland.
Ammo casings is one of the items one often find while searching on battlefields. I have a thing for damaged and exploded casings of any caliber and am always happy when I find a torn example. Here is some of the ones I saved this season. Two WW1 7.62 Mosin casings. Two Russian 12.7mm casings from IL2 Sturmovik or the DP Machinegun. A German 20mm FLAK. Russian 14.5 mm for a heavy machinegun.
During WW2 there were many variations of close combat knifes made for soldiers to carry. This season I found three Puma fighting knives in he same pach of forest. In May 1945 Gebirgsjägers having fought in Finland and Russia capitulated and threw a lot of their equipment at this place before returning home to Austria and Germany . They have all seen better days, but one of them had the bakelit grip still intact, and I found a scabbard in the same forest so it makes a cool little set.
Some trench-art items found this season. Both German soldier made and Soviet/Yugoslav POW items. A signal flare casing made into a candle holder. Found in a dumping pit in a German WH camp. Another flare casing made into a shot glass or candleholder. This is engraved "Radfahrberg" which was a fighting position on the front west of Murmansk. Found on a capitulation place in Nordland. Carved wooden ashtray. Found on a German WH camp. "Home-made" POW dog-tag. It read : Stalag 2H 13530 and has some artistic engravings on the other side. Found in a garbage pit near a German WH camp where POWs stayed after the liberation in 1945. A piece of scrapped trench art. Found in the same place as the tag above. POW shank? Found in the same pit as the two last items above. Part of a carved wooden bird. Traces of red paint on it. Found together with the last items above.
A few small tin boxes found on German WW1 positions. Incredible conditions to have been lying in the forest for 100 years. Zahnpulver
At work one day last week a guy from the oldendays told me about some british trenches in a patch of forest not far from my workplace. After work I grabbed the detector from the car and made a stroll into the forest to try locate the place. Before I found the trenches the detector screamed here and there and one of the signals was a couple of .303 lying together. When I found the trenches I was pissed that I had forgot the camera and phone in the car. I searched around alittle bit just to see if it would be worth doing any digging here when I had a good signal. It was a little deep and under the forestfloor it was grey clay. Very soon I saw metal and got it dug out and rinsed it with the water I had remembered to bring. It was one of the parts from a british food canister in a great condition, and it even had a nice bullet or shrapnel damage. Im well chuffed with it and will go back there soonish.
Some pick-ups from the battlefields. Sprocket from a RSO. Large shrapnel.. 7.5 cm barrel and projectiles.. BM-8 Katushya converted into a flower pot.. Grenades..
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