Belt Buckle & Geb.Jäger EKM
- Inka
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
Most of this week the weather was wet and nasty and I had to work a bit, so the only summery day I spent searching in the gebirgsjäger camp.
I usually dig on most of the beeps given by the metal detector, and have found many treasures checking bad signals, it is an exhausting strategy though. Having found so many erkennungsmarken on my last searches I decided to go exclusively after good ones on this trip.
I ignored signal after signal, and it pained me a little not checking them, but when I finally hit a strong and clear aluminum signal I was rewarded. Next to a rock and just centimeters under ground I found a Heer belt buckle. The center of the buckle, the eagle and swastika, had been cut away leaving a hole with filed down edges in their place.
This is the case with many of the buckles we find in these camps here north because when the German forces went into captivity the British who controlled the POW camps in Norway allowed them to wear effects as long as it were denazified.
I didn`t just check the high scale signals, but also strong iron signals as one do not want to pass right by a helmet or bayonet. Many interesting tools and vehicle parts also have similar "garbage" signal profile, so soon I was carrying around a gas mask canister, a 7.5 cm LiG ( Leichte Infanterie Geschutz ) shell casing and an entrenching tool.
Because of the heat I frequently circeled back to the base camp to unload finds or fill up on cold water, so as the day passed the searched area increased.
The pile of finds didn`t grow very tall though but an impressive amount of food tins, rifle- and PPSh casings and mystery metal fragments had a brief encounter with the surface world.
A little after lunch the Find Of the Day moment arrived. The Fisher F5 quacked out a clear aluminum signal and ten centimeter under the moss, an erkennungsmarken ( German ID tag ) was stuck below a root. The Joy!!
It could have been a blank tag, but when I turned it over the text was visible through the accumulated muck on it. It was a Gebirgsjäger unit and it read: " 2. Gb. Jg. Flders. Kp. 67 " .
Towards the end of my shift in the woods I discovered a small dumping pit. Some scrap bits of brass and aluminum made me find it, but other than rubbish it was only an ashtray with a viking ship worth rescuing.
The flies and the horseflies had followed me around again for the whole day so it was lovely slamming the car door on them and enjoying a moment of silence before going home to the GirlfriendWife and kitty ;p
Despite the wetness this week we have spent some nights tenting, and if you haven`t scheduled doing that this summer I would recommend you do. It is really lovely falling asleep to the sounds of nature, stressing about elgs straying past during night entangling themselves in tent ropes, and waking up to the magic of pale morning light through low hanging fog, you won`t regret it :)
Thanks for reading, Stay muddy and Keep Smiling.
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