Despite the amount of metal dug out today,must be some 2-250kg in total I bet, I didn`t have much interesting finds yet. A bunch of bottles and some food tins,lamp parts,wires and who-know-whats was between the heavy oven bits. Three little finds was very interesting though. Two small alu discs that probably liberated Red Army soldiers had cut stars from and a small ring made from a german coin, pretty happy with those, and it will be very interesting to see if there is some other treasures down there:)
A long day digging is over and I didn`t get half way through the dumping pit. Before lunch I had moved from the workbench and into the mossie filled forest armed with shovel,food,pinpointer and bug spray. In late November I had located a large dumping pit in a Heer camp so I didn`t bother bringing the metal detector this time. It took me a few minutes to find back to the pit as everything is unrecognisable now since the vegetation is in full bloom, but when I found it I just dove in and began working. I chose one of the corners and opened it up. The first 30-40 cm was nothing but rocks and soil but when I had removed that metal started showing, and no small bits of metal. I fought two rather large iron cast ovens and a huge iron boiler of some sort. These bits was heavy and difficult to get out and under them was more large bits and also lots of parts from a concrete oven. I dug maybe a bit less than half the pit in 6 hours and there is lots left. I still have not found the bottom of it so by the looks of it I have some days of work ahead. Despite the amount of metal dug out today,must be some 2-250kg in total I bet, I didn`t have much interesting finds yet. A bunch of bottles and some food tins,lamp parts,wires and who-know-whats was between the heavy oven bits. Three little finds was very interesting though. Two small alu discs that probably liberated Red Army soldiers had cut stars from and a small ring made from a german coin, pretty happy with those, and it will be very interesting to see if there is some other treasures down there:) The only piece of metal visible on the surface of the dumping pit.Part of cast iron oven. Bottles and food tins. Lots of metal deep in the ground. Part of a large boiler or oven.It took a bit of struggle to get it out. A huge lid from a boiler.It measures a bit more than a metre across. Part of a wooden sign. The letters "Sy" painted in red makes me believe it is the sign from the medic barrack, "Sykehus"/"Sykebrakke". Ring made from a german coin. The back part of a german lamp. The glass from a german karbid lamp. Stars cut from alu discs. Tomorrow I ll get out the crate or box you see the corner of there, should be fun as it is filled with water and have some large iron pieces laying across it. Mess kit. Handle for a mess kit. Some of the metal dug out from the pit. Still lots more down there.
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Today I had to check the area where I spotted the two fieldkitchens earlier this spring. Supposedly it had been a small Red Army POW camp here for a short periode of time during the war. To begin with I had no signals from the detector anywhere but when I moved down the forest to a small dried up riverbed the Fisher started making noise and I saw rust and zink buckets peeking out from the grass all over the place. Zink bucket. Other than the usual rusted away food tins and a few shovels there was no good quality metal to find, and no sign of any dumping pits so I moved along the river searching both sides. After a little while there was interesting signals from the detector, and I began removing some grass and moss. When I struck metal I was once again fooled. I was sure I was digging out the barrel of a rifle or mg when I discovered it was just a part of a bike. Under the bike though was a dumping pit and I spent a while searching through it. Found a few nice medical bottles which was worth saving. I took some pics of the field kitchens and continued searching around the river before I headed into the forest and back to the car. Tomorrow if the weather allows it I will check on the other side of the road if there is any more proof of a campsite. The bike part I thought was a weapon. "Pyrex" The fieldkitchen is in a sad condition. Someone used it for target practise.
Today it was about time to drag myself away from the workbench and make a small trip to the forest. The choice fell on the WH camp me and my gold digging friend visited a few weeks back. The weather was good and fresh batteries put in the detector so off I went. The area is full of signals,almost like a Kurland frontline. Small iron signals all over the place and loads of wires and bits of string. Here and there was some nicer signals worthy of a dig, and sometimes those signals proved to be dumping pits. I dug out 2 or 3 of those pits but found nothing of interest. Lots of food tins and bottles only, nomilitary gear at all. Food tins,horseshoe and lid for some grenade canister. Boot heel irons. I detected my way to the oposite side of the forested camp area and located a few dumpig pits for another day, but one of the pits had a strong brass or copper signal so I decided to open it up. It was a difficult pit to dig as it was full of rocks and broken glass,and in the end the signal turned out to be a bit of wire. A few nice things came out of there, a german toothbrush, some intact bottles and a bakelite/early plastic thermos. On my way back to the car I found a few heavy pieces of bomb shrapnel from the fighting in 1940 and two shell casings, one norwegian one produced in 1917 and a larger one,possibly a Mg 131 casing. One of the last signals I dug was todays best finds, a magazine from a MP38/40. I searched the area around it with the hopes the machinpistol itself would also be there but no such luck,,Maybe sometime later this summer ;) Lovely shrapnel. Exploded Norwegian Krag casing marked 1917. Mg 131 casing I think. It is stamped K 39 W I MP40 mag. The top from a 200l kraftstoff barrel.
For the last two-three years I have observed that the local council who is supposed to take care of the war memorials in my valley have not done their job. This sort of neglect I find distasteful and disrespectful. I decided this morning to not go digging in the forest but instead take time to fix one of the memorials. This one is located not far from where I live and it is for the Yugoslav Partizans who slaved under Nazi command on the so called "Blood Road". These guys suffered beyond belief and many of them died horrible deaths on this very road. It is a big shame that the ones responsible for keeping it nice and tidy havent done so for a long long time. The place was full of garbage and there was weeds growing all around the memorial where it is supposed to be nice flowers. In the spirit of Legenda I spent my last money on some soil, flower pots and some nice flowers and went to work. Missing out on a few days worth of dinner is a very small suffering to go through compared to what the Yugoslavs had to go through. I hope this can inspire others to do the same if you see neglected memorials from the war, it cost so little to make a difference. Rest in Peace. This is how it looked when I got there. And here is the result after 30 minutes work.
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