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What is very common with these metal cups, made from a low quality aluminum-zink alloy, is that they most of the times are decorated with so called trench-art. In their spare time soldiers personalized these items with names and illustrations, reminding them about home, a dear one and other positive memories.

On the wall a stiff old jacket hanging on a nail caught my attention. At first glance it could be any old hunter jacket, but when I saw the white inside its hood I knew I had found gold. Hanging less than a meter from the missing wall and being exposed to all sorts of insane polar weather

At some point I decided I wanted to build a collection of pegs, and today I have a bit more than thirty with different markings. Doublets I have traded, given away or sold. Most of them were found by myself in Norway or Kurland, Latvia, while a couple were gifted to me by friends searching the old battlefields in Karelia, Russia.

I have heard tales about great finds being made inside such canisters. Medals hidden in the spare lense compartment, caps-, guns-, personal items, ammo- and even treasures in the form of gold instead of the gasmask. Naturally with such tales floating around digging up a heavy unopened box is very exciting, and opening one even more so.

The tools used to make trench art depended on what the maker could get access to, and would range from a primitive home made engraving pen to a full metal workshop.

Each of the POWs that came from all over the Soviet Union, had been issued a small ID tag, made from a square piece of metal when arriving to one of the large Stammlagers. It was the same concept as with the Wehrmacht EKMs.

I thought I should continue a bit with the "battle damage" theme and show you my collection of canteens and mess kits picked up from

I love finding erkennungsmarke as they are very interesting pieces of history. They have an iconic design and often have different styles of

Some years ago I was bitten by the Beltbuckle bug and began hunting for german belt buckles. The small aluminum and steel squares are great

On my digs I am often finding ashtrays and lighters, and now and then pipes and cigarett mouthpieces. Naturally I like the trench-art

I thought I should share some battle damaged helmets I have collected through the years. Often when you see helmets like this posted online

Over the years I have collected a small pile of such tags which were attached to the soldiers backpack. All of them looks to be "field made"

2024 was a really good metal detecting season. I moved more soil than a large family of groundhogs could manage and brought home half a shed

All this fishing equipment has been found in dumping pits in gebirgsjäger camps during the last couple of years. The field kitchen units

I spent an hour sorting the brushes by color and the cream tubes after brands and ended up with 83 brushes, 49 tubes, 6 toothpowder tins and

2023 was a good year for helmets, many of the lids I dug up were in bad shape, but some had survived very well. Here Im sharing pics of the

A Gebirgsjägers field shower made from a 10l triangular fuel can. The bottom was perforated, a rubber hose attached between the "shower head

Wound Badge and IAB found together. The bent needles hints of an abrupt separation from the uniform they sat on.

I carried many helmets out of the forest in 2022. Some were rusted and deteriorated beyond any hope, but quite a few had survived the eighty

Before October ended the ground had already frozen and closed the digging season. I hoped for a while that we would get a few weeks of mild