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A few days before we had made a longer trek to another camp, and there we actually spotted a moose when we were leaving the site. Not more than 40-50 meter from the forest road something caught my attention, and as I stared in between the trees I suddenly saw it clearly. A large moose.

Buttons. Small aluminum buttons for shirts and trousers were hiding under the birch. I opened up some more of the ground and a uniform button jumped out. It was made of glass, and had text on the back. Kriegsmarine, I thought.

Near the barrack I opened another rather strong signal and through the next 45 minutes I dug up around twenty full MG belts and loads of full stripper clips for the K98. Around the place there were an abundance of signals,

I had several days off work this week and spent the first around the site where I found the Close Combat Clasp last week.

Close to the old camp road I saw a dug out and went to check around it. Below two old pines the detector picked up strong signals. There was a faint sign after a short ditch in the terrain and signals from the whole lenght. I cut open the moss and saw charcoals and soot and my bayonet poked into some metal. I flicked the item loose and saw the shape of it. I held my breath.

I opened up the suspected dumping ditch, but sadly it was nothing but a thin layer of roofing zink and some flattened chimney hats in the wet mud. Just behind the ditch I found a small fragment of a Stalag tag, and from there I spotted a leather strap sticking out from the ground.

In November 1944 der Führer ordered these positions built to become an unpenetrable fortress, but as we know the war ended the following spring and all the sweat and blood that had been shed on the construction of these positions were for nothing.

I completed a previously opened dumping ditch early in the week. A few bakelite bits, a vehicle searchlight and an unmarked coffee mug were some of the few items having escaped deterioration.

The finds were worse. Rifle casings, most often rotted steel casings, and food tins. We searched a spot for a while where we had a tiny bit more luck, finding uniform buttons and coins. There a silver topped salt shaker also came out of the soggy mud.

A little bit away from the wetness I got a whole mass of signals from a small patch under a tree. Here I dug up nine or ten german coins, a leather pouch they probably had been kept in, an Eastern Front medal and several cream tubes! Together with these things was also a small but very interesting piece.

I don`t know what kind of pixie powers she have, but directly where she had stood I got a great signal and dug up a Lapplandfront Cross!! This badge was also denazified, but otherwise in good condition that I think will look great after a quick dip in the oxalic acid!

On my first trip out I were checking signals for an hour before I stumbled upon a small trash pile in a sandy slope. I lured out some intact perfume-, medical- and beer bottles, and a few bits that looks like they belong to some pulley system. When removing more sand a pocket watch appeared, a bit destroyed, but a lovely find in my book.

under some more junk was a lovely piece of trench-art! A circa fifteen centimeter long piece of a driveband from a grenade, and half of it had been hammered into a blade. A really cool little letter opener.

The fort was operational in 1941 and armed with four french 10.5 cm guns, K331 (f), with a range up to 12000 meter, plus 2 cm Flak guns, MGs, mortars, stationary flamethrowers and a wide minefield.

Since many of the local diggers are starting their season in this camp it is slim pickings when it comes to finds, so three hours in all I had was a couple of food tins, a signal flare and a german made lamp fixture.

The shovel has been in the ground and rust has been dug up, so it is safe to say that winter is over and spring is here. Winter was kinda mild this time and we didn`t get much snow either.

When my passion for metal detecting and relics merges with my other passion, miniature modelling, the result can be things like these helmet dioramas. I think it is very fun to create small scenes from the particular battlefield the helmet was found, trying to catch a glimpse of the past.

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