During the last week I have been checking up on some leads, legends and rumours about Wehrmacht camps and installations in the region. Before the weekend I walked several kilometers over two days on sites where it supposedly should have been a Heer camp and a kitchen. All I found were a few Norwegian 6.5 mm rifle casings and a few bits of shrapnel that probably had been thrown out from a nearby ammo storage where things had become a little bit "explody" shortly after the liberation in 1945. So that was two days gone with no finds, but at least the places can be crossed off my list.
Weekend came with frost and temps down to -5 Celsius, so the Girlfriend and I set up the tent, made a fire and enjoyed the evening grilling some food on the flames and watching the northern lights before we spent the night in the tent. Very cozy.
Around lunchtime on Sunday I had a call from Jimmy. Our weekly Adventure Afternoon was on, and another digger was joining in as well. I drove to the Gebirgsjäger forest, parked my car and strolled along the tractor road until I heard a shovel blade hit rocks. I found Jimmy digging while laying in the recovery position. Apparently he had been at a concert the night before and he claimed that unbeknownst to him someone must have poured alcohol in his glass. None the less, Im impressed. I mean the guy is pushing fifty and is out digging a dumping ditch a few hours after a party and with a hangover that could down a gorilla. And as if that wasn`t enough, five minutes after I begin digging up food tins he called me over. He had removed some trash and rocks and could feel the shape of a German helmet ca 40 cm under the surface. A moment later the helmet surfaced and it was awesome! Really nice condition. Green with wither camo still showing, and very little rust! All Hail Jimothy!
I continued digging my signal and piled up food tin after food tin. A broken winker from a car was in the hole and also a dust pan. I had soon depleted the small trash pit and the next signal I got gave a bit better result. It was a small silver ring. Probably from a necklace or maybe an earring. Then I found another ditch that had some good strong signals and spent the next hours digging that. The result was sad though. Two large corrugated plates, a few bottles, a pickaxe and a few creamtubes. As I closed up the ditch Jimmy returned from a wandering-around and he brought me a nice rear Notek light. Highly appreciated. Then the other digger, Tom, returned from his walkabout. He had pockets full of freshly dug coins, a compass and a small piece of metal that was the "Gott mit uns" part from a German beltbuckle that had been denazified.
Yesterday me and the Girlfriend went to check out another site where it had been a German camp or storage. We found the place easily, and could see remains of earthen cellars spread out in the woods. A round with the detector showed that it was very little metal in the ground. The few signals I had, and dug, was bits from an iron cast oven and a few food tins, but nothing interesting and the place felt kind of empty, but come spring and we`ll do some better checking.
This morning I was on my legs early, pouring coffee into my head and preparing for a cold day in the woods. The weather guys had promised us plus degrees but everything outside had a white frosting, and the car windows had to be scraped. I drove to the Luftwaffe camp to do another attempt on locating the area where the living quarters had been. Here it was even colder than at home, and the sound of frozen vegatation getting crushed under my shoes felt deafening. Soon the detector picked up something. Lots of signals were spread out in front of me. I opened up a square of the frozen ground and cut away the network of roots protecting the relics. Food tins and some bottles. Proof of Germaqn activity. I scraped soil away with the bayonet and spotted a shotglass made from a 2 cm flak casing! That was the find I wanted! What a great surprise! I found several buttons from civillian clothes. All made of glass and with flowers as decorations. Some rusted cutlery and bottles was next to be dug up, and then I found another shotglass! Also from a 2 cm casing. I spent two-three hours sifting through the 80 year old fireplace and got another little handfull of finds out of it. In the end I stuck into the backpack a Luftwaffe porcelain plate, a bit broken but I grabbed all the litte bits from it I could find, a small ashtray, a toothbrush and a few cream tubes.
My toes and knees were cold by now so I needed to get up and move around. And I had a lot more area to check. Only a few steps away and the Fisher gave off a strong clear signal. Just below a thick layer of moss was a compass. In amazing condition. The first really well preserved compass I have dug up so I was all smiles. I made a big loop through the forest. I found a slope with a lot of signals, where barrells and other bits of metals were poking out of the ground. One of the signals I dug was yet another food tin, but next to it was a small red plastic thing, with a cat on it. Almost like the end of a childs toothbrush maybe. A strange but fun find.
Another place was the foundation of a building. I checked signals now and again and it was a mix of things that could be from the war and some more modern garbage.
I was almost back to the car when a good signal made me stop. The signal was quite long,, ca 1 meter or more, and narrow. Could it be a weapon? An MG prehaps. Oh how I wished as I removed vegetation and soil. I didn`t pull up a weapon from the ground this time either. But it was still a good find. A vehicle license plate attached to some kind of rod. The plate is not nearly as good as the one I found last time, but it will be fun cleaning it up trying to figure out what branch it might have belonged to.
It looks like the next few days might become a bit wet and stormy, so I might finally get some housework done, but very soon we`ll head out for some more rust hunting :D
Thanks for reading. Stay happy and live life the best way you can :)
Weekend came with frost and temps down to -5 Celsius, so the Girlfriend and I set up the tent, made a fire and enjoyed the evening grilling some food on the flames and watching the northern lights before we spent the night in the tent. Very cozy.
Around lunchtime on Sunday I had a call from Jimmy. Our weekly Adventure Afternoon was on, and another digger was joining in as well. I drove to the Gebirgsjäger forest, parked my car and strolled along the tractor road until I heard a shovel blade hit rocks. I found Jimmy digging while laying in the recovery position. Apparently he had been at a concert the night before and he claimed that unbeknownst to him someone must have poured alcohol in his glass. None the less, Im impressed. I mean the guy is pushing fifty and is out digging a dumping ditch a few hours after a party and with a hangover that could down a gorilla. And as if that wasn`t enough, five minutes after I begin digging up food tins he called me over. He had removed some trash and rocks and could feel the shape of a German helmet ca 40 cm under the surface. A moment later the helmet surfaced and it was awesome! Really nice condition. Green with wither camo still showing, and very little rust! All Hail Jimothy!
I continued digging my signal and piled up food tin after food tin. A broken winker from a car was in the hole and also a dust pan. I had soon depleted the small trash pit and the next signal I got gave a bit better result. It was a small silver ring. Probably from a necklace or maybe an earring. Then I found another ditch that had some good strong signals and spent the next hours digging that. The result was sad though. Two large corrugated plates, a few bottles, a pickaxe and a few creamtubes. As I closed up the ditch Jimmy returned from a wandering-around and he brought me a nice rear Notek light. Highly appreciated. Then the other digger, Tom, returned from his walkabout. He had pockets full of freshly dug coins, a compass and a small piece of metal that was the "Gott mit uns" part from a German beltbuckle that had been denazified.
Yesterday me and the Girlfriend went to check out another site where it had been a German camp or storage. We found the place easily, and could see remains of earthen cellars spread out in the woods. A round with the detector showed that it was very little metal in the ground. The few signals I had, and dug, was bits from an iron cast oven and a few food tins, but nothing interesting and the place felt kind of empty, but come spring and we`ll do some better checking.
This morning I was on my legs early, pouring coffee into my head and preparing for a cold day in the woods. The weather guys had promised us plus degrees but everything outside had a white frosting, and the car windows had to be scraped. I drove to the Luftwaffe camp to do another attempt on locating the area where the living quarters had been. Here it was even colder than at home, and the sound of frozen vegatation getting crushed under my shoes felt deafening. Soon the detector picked up something. Lots of signals were spread out in front of me. I opened up a square of the frozen ground and cut away the network of roots protecting the relics. Food tins and some bottles. Proof of Germaqn activity. I scraped soil away with the bayonet and spotted a shotglass made from a 2 cm flak casing! That was the find I wanted! What a great surprise! I found several buttons from civillian clothes. All made of glass and with flowers as decorations. Some rusted cutlery and bottles was next to be dug up, and then I found another shotglass! Also from a 2 cm casing. I spent two-three hours sifting through the 80 year old fireplace and got another little handfull of finds out of it. In the end I stuck into the backpack a Luftwaffe porcelain plate, a bit broken but I grabbed all the litte bits from it I could find, a small ashtray, a toothbrush and a few cream tubes.
My toes and knees were cold by now so I needed to get up and move around. And I had a lot more area to check. Only a few steps away and the Fisher gave off a strong clear signal. Just below a thick layer of moss was a compass. In amazing condition. The first really well preserved compass I have dug up so I was all smiles. I made a big loop through the forest. I found a slope with a lot of signals, where barrells and other bits of metals were poking out of the ground. One of the signals I dug was yet another food tin, but next to it was a small red plastic thing, with a cat on it. Almost like the end of a childs toothbrush maybe. A strange but fun find.
Another place was the foundation of a building. I checked signals now and again and it was a mix of things that could be from the war and some more modern garbage.
I was almost back to the car when a good signal made me stop. The signal was quite long,, ca 1 meter or more, and narrow. Could it be a weapon? An MG prehaps. Oh how I wished as I removed vegetation and soil. I didn`t pull up a weapon from the ground this time either. But it was still a good find. A vehicle license plate attached to some kind of rod. The plate is not nearly as good as the one I found last time, but it will be fun cleaning it up trying to figure out what branch it might have belonged to.
It looks like the next few days might become a bit wet and stormy, so I might finally get some housework done, but very soon we`ll head out for some more rust hunting :D
Thanks for reading. Stay happy and live life the best way you can :)
Jimmy hunting for helmets.
Dr. Dralle skin cream.
Silver.
Rust, bakelite and bottles.
Foot cream.
Notek.
"Fahrradwerke Bismarck". Logo for a bike. One of Jimmys finds.
Compass.
Gott Mit Uns.
Jimothy with his helmet :)
Forest with little rust, but lots of berries.
2cm flak casing shotglass!
Buttons.
Nivea, D-vitamin pill box, comb and toothbrush.
Another shotglass.
Porcelain.
Ashtray.
Compass.
Plasticat.
License plate.
I hope a wash will reveal what it says, but it might be too far gone.
Looks like vehicle floor plate.
Plastic- and glass items.Anyone familiar with the square pebbled piece?
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