As the title of this post suggests I have not had too much luck on the last few trips. Before the weekend I went to one of the camps I have been searching a lot of times. There were a couple of dumping ditches I was wondering about. I spent half a day on them but there was not much to find. The first ditch was mostly full of leather bits and the standard food tins and a few k98 casings The other two full of glass and yes you guessed it, food tins. Actually there were a few spoons and forks in it as well but they were far too gone.
On Saturday a friend of me drove up here for some searching. He had this interesting photo from the end of the war and we had to try to find the exact place because there it will be treasures for sure. We managed to locate the background in the pic so we had found the correct area. The forests where the photo could have been taken from is quite large though and we walked for hours. We zig-zagged through the forests, up slopes, through plateaus and down slopes again, but we did not manage to find the site this time. We didn`t get too many finds either but we picked a few helmet liners, a MP40 mag full of post-war excersise ammo, the rests of two M39 egg grenades and lots of food tins. We have not given up this project and will continue searching for the spot when time allows.
Today I managed to get up early and I went straight out to the forest, to another camp I have visited several times. It is a bit of a stroll to reach it but the weather was pleasant and the detector gave off signals frequently along the way. A lot of them were post-war training ammunition as the Army and Nato have been playing war here for 70 years or so. When I finally reached the place I got a good signal from a marshy pit. Well, I was dry and had good gloves so I began digging the wet and smelly soil. Now that woke up all the mosquitoes in the area. I became like a magnet to them, luckily I had some left in the repellant bottle so I sprayed myself and took a good swig of it before continuing, it taste like poison,should be some kind of warning lable on it ;p .The metal that had given the good signal was several canned fish tins made from aluminum and a 7.5 cm LiG casing, and a lot of cloth came out from the mud. It looked like the remains of a tunic, a knitted sweater, mittens and socks. Too bad the jacket was no longer in one piece, it looked like it had been torn up before thrown away. I might go back to that hole later this summer when it has dried up a bit more.
A few meters away I discovered a dump that had been set fire to by the ones that cleaned up the camp after the German capitulation. Signals everywhere so it was little else to do than to remove the top soil and get to work. I spent hours going through it and a few nice relics came out from it. A Norwegian coin, two unmarked porcelain cups, a British medical tray, bottles, a Göffel made from aluminum, lots of gaming pieces and some kind of "trench-art" bracelet or small belt made from leather and red and blue wires (actually it was a razor strop. Thanks Geoff W. for the info). I also pulled out a powder charge bakelite box for artillery guns and then I found a zink tin that had held powder charge for Nebelwerfer, but it sounded like it was full of coins!! Excited I opened the tin to count my new treasure but I was a little gutted when it was full of Gebirgsjäger boot hobnails. Not a bad find though but I would have preferred coins :D
Just as I picked out the last few gaming pieces from the fire pit it began raining hard so it was a perfect time to end my trip, and when I was back to the car I was completely soaked :D
If the weather clears up just a little bit I will go back there tomorrow I think as there is probably some more goodies hiding around under the moss.
On Saturday a friend of me drove up here for some searching. He had this interesting photo from the end of the war and we had to try to find the exact place because there it will be treasures for sure. We managed to locate the background in the pic so we had found the correct area. The forests where the photo could have been taken from is quite large though and we walked for hours. We zig-zagged through the forests, up slopes, through plateaus and down slopes again, but we did not manage to find the site this time. We didn`t get too many finds either but we picked a few helmet liners, a MP40 mag full of post-war excersise ammo, the rests of two M39 egg grenades and lots of food tins. We have not given up this project and will continue searching for the spot when time allows.
Today I managed to get up early and I went straight out to the forest, to another camp I have visited several times. It is a bit of a stroll to reach it but the weather was pleasant and the detector gave off signals frequently along the way. A lot of them were post-war training ammunition as the Army and Nato have been playing war here for 70 years or so. When I finally reached the place I got a good signal from a marshy pit. Well, I was dry and had good gloves so I began digging the wet and smelly soil. Now that woke up all the mosquitoes in the area. I became like a magnet to them, luckily I had some left in the repellant bottle so I sprayed myself and took a good swig of it before continuing, it taste like poison,should be some kind of warning lable on it ;p .The metal that had given the good signal was several canned fish tins made from aluminum and a 7.5 cm LiG casing, and a lot of cloth came out from the mud. It looked like the remains of a tunic, a knitted sweater, mittens and socks. Too bad the jacket was no longer in one piece, it looked like it had been torn up before thrown away. I might go back to that hole later this summer when it has dried up a bit more.
A few meters away I discovered a dump that had been set fire to by the ones that cleaned up the camp after the German capitulation. Signals everywhere so it was little else to do than to remove the top soil and get to work. I spent hours going through it and a few nice relics came out from it. A Norwegian coin, two unmarked porcelain cups, a British medical tray, bottles, a Göffel made from aluminum, lots of gaming pieces and some kind of "trench-art" bracelet or small belt made from leather and red and blue wires (actually it was a razor strop. Thanks Geoff W. for the info). I also pulled out a powder charge bakelite box for artillery guns and then I found a zink tin that had held powder charge for Nebelwerfer, but it sounded like it was full of coins!! Excited I opened the tin to count my new treasure but I was a little gutted when it was full of Gebirgsjäger boot hobnails. Not a bad find though but I would have preferred coins :D
Just as I picked out the last few gaming pieces from the fire pit it began raining hard so it was a perfect time to end my trip, and when I was back to the car I was completely soaked :D
If the weather clears up just a little bit I will go back there tomorrow I think as there is probably some more goodies hiding around under the moss.
Live and spent ammo.
This one looks like some kind of rocket.
Helmet liner.
Another liner.
MP40 mag full of red plastic 9mm.
M39 eggs.
12.7 plastic.
7.5 cm LiG casing.
Pit full of a destroyed tunic.
Woolen sweater, mitten and sock.
Norwegian coin.
Medical tray marked with the British WD arrow.
Leather "trench-art".
Wooden sole, prehaps a POW clog?
The two first of many gaming pieces.
Some of them melted together in a decorative lump.
Porcelain and Göffel.
Bakelite, I love it!! :)
Zusatzladung tin for Nebelwerfer. Sounded like it was full of coins when I shook it.
Hobnails for Gebirgsjäger boots. The ones that are on the side of the soles on those boots.
Fueltank lid.
Next to the road I found this shoe trying to become one with nature.
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