
For two days now I have been searching a small spot in the forest which were part of a large Wehrmacht camp stretching across a rather huge area in a valley between some beautiful mountains.
On tuesday it was quite wet after several days of rain, conditions the mosquitos and the biting midges seemed to enjoy. After soaking myself with bug repellant I turned on the Fisher F5 and went to work. In front of the foundations of a building there was a square on about 2 x 2 meters that was a bit sunken in the terrain and the detector gave off some good signals when swept across it.
I removed the top layer and saw the lid of a box!! My imagination went a bit wild for a second but when I tried to lift it, it came loose so it was not a box filled with iron crosses, just the lid. Under it was a knife, some toothpaste tubes, leather straps and a tent peg.
I searched through the pit slowly and carefully not to miss anything. When removing some of the soil I saw a familiar shape. An Eastern Front medal! It was not in a very good condition though.
I also found a helmet liner, bottles, a coat hanger, toothbrush, Esbit stoves, some buttons and a pair of stirrups. One of the stirrups had a rubber padding which I have never seen before so that was a bit fun.
Several hours later I had went through the pit and filled it back before I took the detector around for a stroll. Now I found the rests of a Y-strap and the rear seat from a motorcycle. On a small grassy patch I had a strong clear signal and began digging. It took a while because of all the rocks, and the hole got deeper and deeper with no sign of the metal but the signal was still strong. I became more and more sure it had to be the rest of the motorcycle, or a whole bunch of helmets or something else very treasury.
When I finally reached the source of the signal the bubble burst, it was a large washing pan and a few iron rods only. Why on earth did they bury it so deep and throw a whole bunch of rocks on top of it?? Silly. The day had went and the rain started up again so I went back home to rest.
This morning I was woken by the Cat attacking my toes, I guess he was hungry and wanted to go outside, very similar to me that cat, pure hedonist. After feeding us both I loaded up the car and went back to yesterdays site. I wanted to get a little overview of the area so I spent the first few hours wandering around looking for barrack foundations and rust poking out of the ground.
Hours went by with little finds. Some ammo, food tins, fuel barrles and scrap was all I could find, but then I came across two small ditches that had been dug by someone else. That could mean there would be more dumping pits around, and soon I found an undug little ditch.
Soil and rocks were removed and roots cutted away before old junk from the Germans began to pour out from it. Lots and lots of leather bits from horse harness, buckles and horseshoes. An ore of spoons got dug out from the corner and then a nice looking matchbox holder fell from the side of the pit. This one had the head of a German soldier as decoration stamped on it, so it goes straight into the collection :D
Some paper bits had survived on the bottom of the pit, parts of a package with "Istanbul" cigarettes and a deck of cards. I found several porcelain skin cream jars and a cool little medical bottle together with an inkwell. Then some more horse related stuff, several different horse bits and a big wooden mallet.
Now I had dug through almost the entire ditch but the last corner of it held something large that was very difficult to get loose thanks to a few massive roots going on top of it. Armed with a saw and a cutter, and the bayonet to pry loose some rocks I finally managed to lift a hot food container in rather good condition out of the ditch.
Sifting through the soil and stones while filling back the ditch I found a single gaming piece, a small bakelite container and a nice mine fuze.
When one is having fun the time really flies and the time had come to end it for today. I was out of food and water and I had dug on me a craving for icecream so on the way home I made a pit stop at the gas station :)
Tomorrow is a new day and if I am still around then I think I might do some more searching, although the housework is really piling up so we ll see :)
Until next time enjoy life the best you can :)
















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