On Saturday Jimmy and I made plans for an Adventure Afternoon in the Gebirgsjäger camp, so yesterday I found myself in a very warm forest waiting for Jimmys arrival. For a few days now its been real nice and sunny so these valleys becomes like ovens. I walked half kilometer on the outside of the camp area to check if there could be some undiscovered spots full of signals for us to hunt, but the only thing I found was the top of a 200l fuel barrell. No Jimmy still so I went down to the river to have lunch and drink coffee while waiting. Soon I got a message from him and I walked to the parking place to meet. He was quite the sight. The evening before he had been on a party, and fallen asleep outside. Now, in most of the world there is no hassle just taking a nap on a lawn, but here in the North we have this thing called the Midnight Sun a few weeks during summer, which apparently must have slipped his mind. Half the guy was so amazingly sunburnt, coca-cola red skin. The other half of his face was sweaty and pale, and looking at me with a mad feverish stare :D
We quickly found our way to the ditch we had started digging in October. Back then we closed the season finding a whole bunch of helmets. The ditch was deep and filled with rocks and we spent nearly an hour just reaching the level where the relics live, but when we saw the soil shift color and there were little or no rocks left we knew the fun was about to begin. And a few minutes later I had found the days first Heer belt buckle, of course a steel version. We threw rocks and soil to one side and piled all the items we found on a tarpaulin so not to loose anything in the deep moss. Jimmy found a semi crushed bucket filled with things. Between the rubbish there he picked out a pair of full k98 ammo pouches, produced in Wien in 1939. Then he dragged up a gasmask canister in rather good condition, it was missing the mask but the filter was still stuck in the canister. We dug up a lot of bike parts, two bike seats, pedals and parts of the frame. Next to be dragged out from the cool soil were a large bolt cutter, several leather frogs for bayonets, and as I dug around the corner of the zig-zagged ditch I could feel the shape of the item that most diggers love to find. A helmet!! It didn`t have the leather bits inside, but it looked like it could be cleaned up nicely.
The heat robbed us for some energy, but we kept pouring water in our heads so we could keep going a few hours more. Jimmy was tunneling under a large rock, which we found out was a large bag of concrete. We could still see imprint of the cloth bag which had surrounded it. It was really heavy, but with combined effort we flipped it out of the way and rolled it to the section of the ditch we had already cleared. Now it was Jimotheis turn to find the good stuff. He dug out a belt buckle, swearing and complaining a bit that it was steel and not the sought after alu buckles, and then shortly after he took out a helmet!! This lid was a bit more crusty, prehaps it had been in the middle of the fire when they burnt the ditch. But still,awesome finds!
We were on the doorsteps of evening, but we had to complete the "zag" we were digging before we could call it quits. In the last meter or so we searched through, the items found worth mentioning were a nice pistol holster made of some late war ersatz material, the scabbard for a close combat knife and a metal Einheitslanterne (Karbid lamp). When filling back the ditch we checked the spoils thoroughly and the last item to be rescued was a super neat little find. A simple razor sharpener, but made from the very cool "uranium glass" which glows under UV light.
It had been a long day, and we were both dirty, tired and happy. We have heard some rumours about a capitulation site nearby, and we are considering going there for our next Adventure when that time comes :)
Now it is time for some hammock and sun.
Thanks for reading, and Enjoy your day, folks :)
We quickly found our way to the ditch we had started digging in October. Back then we closed the season finding a whole bunch of helmets. The ditch was deep and filled with rocks and we spent nearly an hour just reaching the level where the relics live, but when we saw the soil shift color and there were little or no rocks left we knew the fun was about to begin. And a few minutes later I had found the days first Heer belt buckle, of course a steel version. We threw rocks and soil to one side and piled all the items we found on a tarpaulin so not to loose anything in the deep moss. Jimmy found a semi crushed bucket filled with things. Between the rubbish there he picked out a pair of full k98 ammo pouches, produced in Wien in 1939. Then he dragged up a gasmask canister in rather good condition, it was missing the mask but the filter was still stuck in the canister. We dug up a lot of bike parts, two bike seats, pedals and parts of the frame. Next to be dragged out from the cool soil were a large bolt cutter, several leather frogs for bayonets, and as I dug around the corner of the zig-zagged ditch I could feel the shape of the item that most diggers love to find. A helmet!! It didn`t have the leather bits inside, but it looked like it could be cleaned up nicely.
The heat robbed us for some energy, but we kept pouring water in our heads so we could keep going a few hours more. Jimmy was tunneling under a large rock, which we found out was a large bag of concrete. We could still see imprint of the cloth bag which had surrounded it. It was really heavy, but with combined effort we flipped it out of the way and rolled it to the section of the ditch we had already cleared. Now it was Jimotheis turn to find the good stuff. He dug out a belt buckle, swearing and complaining a bit that it was steel and not the sought after alu buckles, and then shortly after he took out a helmet!! This lid was a bit more crusty, prehaps it had been in the middle of the fire when they burnt the ditch. But still,awesome finds!
We were on the doorsteps of evening, but we had to complete the "zag" we were digging before we could call it quits. In the last meter or so we searched through, the items found worth mentioning were a nice pistol holster made of some late war ersatz material, the scabbard for a close combat knife and a metal Einheitslanterne (Karbid lamp). When filling back the ditch we checked the spoils thoroughly and the last item to be rescued was a super neat little find. A simple razor sharpener, but made from the very cool "uranium glass" which glows under UV light.
It had been a long day, and we were both dirty, tired and happy. We have heard some rumours about a capitulation site nearby, and we are considering going there for our next Adventure when that time comes :)
Now it is time for some hammock and sun.
Thanks for reading, and Enjoy your day, folks :)
Fuel barrell top.
Heer buckle.
Crushed bucket full of stuff.
Jimmy found ammo pouches.
Pile of Rust.
Cup for the fieldflask.
Bike seats.
Rear Notek light.
Bolt cutter.
Leather frog.
Overjoyed to find the seasons first lid :)
German concrete.
Bike pedals.
Jimmy also overjoyed to find a helmet...
..and belt buckle :)
Scabbard for knife.
Holster in Ersatz material.
Karbid lamp.
Razor sharpener in uranium glass..
..which glows under UV-light.
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