Only a couple of times this week did I get the chance to go out into the woods searching for treasures. Its been too much to do at work and too nice weather. The first trip went back to the camp where I found the two helmets last week. I hoped there would be more lids waiting for me but if they are there they evaded my detector and shovel this time. Not many other finds made their way into my backpack either. I found one dumping ditch that I dug through, but it was mainly rubbish in it. A big bunch of small brushes used for cleaning the barrels of K98 rifles lay on the bottom of the ditch together with a few MG34 bolts and firing pins. A shovel with its edges folded up and the filter from a Soviet ShM-41 gasmask, a packet of large fishing hooks and some bottles were the only other intact items. The rest were bits of a crushed radio and some unrecognizable junk. Towards the afternoon I wandered around checking the signals my Fisher detector gave off. Some brass rifle casings gave a nice tone from time to time and in another rubbish pit I collected a few more intact bottles. Although bottles are heavy to drag around I put them into my backpack because Jimmy needs them. He said he needed a whole lot of them to collect "freshwater" for the winter, but he is too lazy to drag them out of the forests himself, so now he`ll get a crate full of them for his "water" :D
At one point the relatively quiet forest was filled with a growing roar that ripped through the air. The ground even trembled. Just above the treetops came two of the new American warplanes, the V-22 Osprey, which recently was stationed on a base nearby to do training missions here in the arctic.
Between all the glass and garbage I dug up during what was left of the day I got one nice find, a hook belonging to the `Einheitslanterne`, the german karbid lamp. But on the way back to my car I had a nice nature experience when I met a squirrell carrying one of her babies to a new nest. I love meeting these creatures coz such moments are better than any relics :)
Yesterday I took one of the Girlfriends cars, coz mine is still on the workshop, and I drove to the Luftwaffe field hospital to continue the dumping pit there. The day started out pretty warm, but it soon became cloudy making the conditions for digging much better. I opened it up where I had left it last time but soon got stuck fighting with barrell bands and large pieces of concrete pipe sections that had been thrown into the pit. It took an hour to get those out of the way and then I found three crates. The two large crates were really only bottom and tops as the side walls had corroded away, and it was nothing inside them. The third was a smaller medical supply box which was intact, but also empty, and too rusted to be worth saving. Under the crates were most of the contents that must have been poured out before the pit had been set on fire, coz it were piles of cream tubes, ampoules, jars, bottles and tools, ranging from intact to fully melted. Some ampoules were full, and some empty. On one of them I could read the text and it had contained Atropin, which were used for several ailments and as a muscle relaxant and were also given before narcosis.
I had to dig very carefully because of all the sharp and jagged bits but at one point I did manage to stab my hand rather deep. Luckily I could choose from freshly dug old german antiseptic or new from my little medic kit I always bring with me, so hopefully I wont loose my hand. I cleared the corner and had then dug the whole short side of the pit, so I began moving towards the middle. As I tunnelled near the bottom it became very difficult as several stretchers was laying filtered together underneath sections of the concrete pipe. Then I began digging from the top to easier free the larger bits below, and under the grass was a thick layer of broken glass. It was obvious that the guys filling the pit had enjoyed smashing bottles and porcelain.
I didn`t reach the bottom to get the stretchers loose as it had became late and I wanted to go home, but it wont be too long before my next attempt to free the parts on the bottom.
On my way home I was passing an intersection leading into a valley and almost drove into the ditch when an Osprey came roaring in across the road just meters above the treetops and disappeared behind the bend in the valley, those pilots really like to play with their new "toys". It was an amazing, but spooky sight :)
Thanks for reading and enjoy your day :)
At one point the relatively quiet forest was filled with a growing roar that ripped through the air. The ground even trembled. Just above the treetops came two of the new American warplanes, the V-22 Osprey, which recently was stationed on a base nearby to do training missions here in the arctic.
Between all the glass and garbage I dug up during what was left of the day I got one nice find, a hook belonging to the `Einheitslanterne`, the german karbid lamp. But on the way back to my car I had a nice nature experience when I met a squirrell carrying one of her babies to a new nest. I love meeting these creatures coz such moments are better than any relics :)
Yesterday I took one of the Girlfriends cars, coz mine is still on the workshop, and I drove to the Luftwaffe field hospital to continue the dumping pit there. The day started out pretty warm, but it soon became cloudy making the conditions for digging much better. I opened it up where I had left it last time but soon got stuck fighting with barrell bands and large pieces of concrete pipe sections that had been thrown into the pit. It took an hour to get those out of the way and then I found three crates. The two large crates were really only bottom and tops as the side walls had corroded away, and it was nothing inside them. The third was a smaller medical supply box which was intact, but also empty, and too rusted to be worth saving. Under the crates were most of the contents that must have been poured out before the pit had been set on fire, coz it were piles of cream tubes, ampoules, jars, bottles and tools, ranging from intact to fully melted. Some ampoules were full, and some empty. On one of them I could read the text and it had contained Atropin, which were used for several ailments and as a muscle relaxant and were also given before narcosis.
I had to dig very carefully because of all the sharp and jagged bits but at one point I did manage to stab my hand rather deep. Luckily I could choose from freshly dug old german antiseptic or new from my little medic kit I always bring with me, so hopefully I wont loose my hand. I cleared the corner and had then dug the whole short side of the pit, so I began moving towards the middle. As I tunnelled near the bottom it became very difficult as several stretchers was laying filtered together underneath sections of the concrete pipe. Then I began digging from the top to easier free the larger bits below, and under the grass was a thick layer of broken glass. It was obvious that the guys filling the pit had enjoyed smashing bottles and porcelain.
I didn`t reach the bottom to get the stretchers loose as it had became late and I wanted to go home, but it wont be too long before my next attempt to free the parts on the bottom.
On my way home I was passing an intersection leading into a valley and almost drove into the ditch when an Osprey came roaring in across the road just meters above the treetops and disappeared behind the bend in the valley, those pilots really like to play with their new "toys". It was an amazing, but spooky sight :)
Thanks for reading and enjoy your day :)
Brushes.
MG34 bolt and K98 firing pin.
Folded shovel.
Glass from a crushed radio.
Fishing hooks.
Gas mask filter.
A shovel hid several bottles under it.
The clay bottle probably contained Gebirgs Enzian.
This bottle travelled from a Ukrainian mineralwater factory in Morshyn to the far north.
Very nice marking. No Jimmy, you cant have this one, it is mine! :)
A small primus.
Hook for the Einheitslanterne.
Mrs.Squirrell.
Large crate.
Smaller crate.
Finding unopened boxes is incredibly exciting.
It was filled with rusty water.
Bits coming out from under the boxes.
I think these were used for bracing broken legs and arms.
Bakelite parts for doors.
The enamelled tray filled up quickly with smaller bits.
Bottles and jars.
Broken porcelain bowl.
A thick layer of broken bottles.
V-22 Osprey.
Some of the stuff worth saving.
Full and empty ampoules, tweezer, tubes and microscope glass slides.
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