Just as last week, this one brought some beautiful spring weather and a few trips into the nature. The Girlfriend joined me for some hours trying to locate the site where a tent camp had been set up to accommodate German troops retreating from the North in 1944. Arriving at the starting point the Girlfriend waved me a goodbye as she strolled off to have a closer look at a waterfall that was growing large by the thawing mountain snow. I searched across the field and into the surrounding forest, up- and down the hills but the detector picked up very few signals. A while later all I had found was a few red plastic rifle casings from a modern military excersise. Maybe I`ll have better luck next time a little bit farther into the woods.
Later in the week I went to spend the day in the Gebirgsjäger camp. It was not a cloud in sight and already in the morning it was pretty warm. Right away the detector hinted about some iron deposits directly under the moss. Hoping for a bayonet or a Luger I uncovered horseshoes, chains, horseshoe tools, wrenches and all sorts of rings and clasps from horse equipment. Only a couple of things I dug up was made for humans, like a key, a spoon and fittingly enough a horse from a chess game.
I moved out of the stables area and picked up some interesting signals near the corner of a barrack. Here I found a coin from the third reich. Using the pinpointer I had another coin, a 10 pfennig from 1941. It kept going like this for nearly an hour, or more maybe. The pile of coins grew and in between was a few buttons and a rusted lump that looked like a lighter. Tearing away a few roots I saw the bottom of a signal flare casing. I pulled it out from the soil and it happened to be two casings where one of them had been cut down and used as a lid on the other one. What had this container held? Cigarettes? Tobacco? Or the coins that lay strewn around it prehaps? It had a name engraved with cyrillic letters: " Micha". Did all these items once belong to Micha?, I wondered. Did he empty his pockets by the corner of this barrack sometime in the spring of 1945? Who was he? Would a released Red Army POW have thrown away all these things, or could he have been a HiWi ("Hilfswillige" Red Army soldiers that volunteered to help the Germans)? I was thinking about this as I continued to pile up some more items. The rest of it was another lighter and a pipe, both made from bakelite, a K98 muzzle cover, two chess pieces , a tent peg and more coins. In total I had found 38 coins, mostly Germans, but a few Finnish- and three Norwegian coins.
After a rest and some food I searched the rest of the barrack. Other than nails, some material from the building, I found some 7.92 ammo, two or three 9mm casings, an ashtray and a tool to clear a machinegun barrel from a stuck casing.
Most of the day had passed by now and I moved slowly towards the car, but without any more luck with signals from the detector. Back at home I cleaned Micha`s flare casings and found a few more engravings, a face, a checkered pattern and what looks like a bottle. Too bad we`ll never know anything about him.
Tomorrow is a new week and I plan on picking up the search again, starting around the barrack I think. The weather is looking promising so I will bring an extra bottle of water and something good to eat :)
Later in the week I went to spend the day in the Gebirgsjäger camp. It was not a cloud in sight and already in the morning it was pretty warm. Right away the detector hinted about some iron deposits directly under the moss. Hoping for a bayonet or a Luger I uncovered horseshoes, chains, horseshoe tools, wrenches and all sorts of rings and clasps from horse equipment. Only a couple of things I dug up was made for humans, like a key, a spoon and fittingly enough a horse from a chess game.
I moved out of the stables area and picked up some interesting signals near the corner of a barrack. Here I found a coin from the third reich. Using the pinpointer I had another coin, a 10 pfennig from 1941. It kept going like this for nearly an hour, or more maybe. The pile of coins grew and in between was a few buttons and a rusted lump that looked like a lighter. Tearing away a few roots I saw the bottom of a signal flare casing. I pulled it out from the soil and it happened to be two casings where one of them had been cut down and used as a lid on the other one. What had this container held? Cigarettes? Tobacco? Or the coins that lay strewn around it prehaps? It had a name engraved with cyrillic letters: " Micha". Did all these items once belong to Micha?, I wondered. Did he empty his pockets by the corner of this barrack sometime in the spring of 1945? Who was he? Would a released Red Army POW have thrown away all these things, or could he have been a HiWi ("Hilfswillige" Red Army soldiers that volunteered to help the Germans)? I was thinking about this as I continued to pile up some more items. The rest of it was another lighter and a pipe, both made from bakelite, a K98 muzzle cover, two chess pieces , a tent peg and more coins. In total I had found 38 coins, mostly Germans, but a few Finnish- and three Norwegian coins.
After a rest and some food I searched the rest of the barrack. Other than nails, some material from the building, I found some 7.92 ammo, two or three 9mm casings, an ashtray and a tool to clear a machinegun barrel from a stuck casing.
Most of the day had passed by now and I moved slowly towards the car, but without any more luck with signals from the detector. Back at home I cleaned Micha`s flare casings and found a few more engravings, a face, a checkered pattern and what looks like a bottle. Too bad we`ll never know anything about him.
Tomorrow is a new week and I plan on picking up the search again, starting around the barrack I think. The weather is looking promising so I will bring an extra bottle of water and something good to eat :)
A harness clasp.
Horse equipment and crate parts.
A spurr.
Horse brushes.
Horseshoe tools.
Barbed wire.
Horse :)
The Key.
Squirrell snack.
German 10 pfennig.
It is so fun to find a coinspill.
Signal flare.
Micha`s cigarette box?
Bakelite lighter.
Bakelite pipe.
Tent peg. Im looking forward to clean it to see if it is a makers mark I have or not.
Chess piece.
German coin from 1941.
Ashtray.
Mg ruptured casing tool.
Spring is such a lovely time to be in the forests. It is the time just before the mosquitos and gnats gets their taste for human :D
"Micha"
Checkered pattern.
Here you can see the face.
A decent pile of coins after a few hours work.
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