Stepping out of the plane at Riga Airport I realized my mistake. I had brought about 5 kg too much clothes. Having moved further North in Norway, up to Tromsø where it is reindeers in the streets, had made me forget that it is not cold, piercing winds and snow everywhere else.
Early next morning we carried our stuff a few hundred meters to the pick-up point and met up with our Latvian friends. On our way to the first dig site we met up with the rest of the Latvian crew and our Lithuanian friends.
Vlad had been busy searching WW1 positions south of Riga and he had located several massgraves on a sandy ridge where the old frontline once stood. Vlad has found hundreds of missing soldiers and I had made him a small piece of relic-art to honor his work. On a piece of shrapnel I had made a miniature of a WW1 memorial which once stood on a WW1 cemetery where missing soldiers Vlad has found have been reburied recently.
As soon as we had parked the cars and covered ourselves with mosquito spray the digging began.
Everyone were busy. In one end of the ridge a trenchline with a single fallen soldier was being dug, next a crater that seemed to be filled with soldiers and a bit further away a third pit with many soldiers laying.
Some guys went around checking the ground with probes and detectors to try find more lost soldiers. The gnats and mosquitos were prehaps the busiest though, having a feast on us.
Having most of the top soil removed and the size of each massgrave established the work slowed down abit as we carefully uncovered the soldiers remains showing how they lay and what equipment and such they had been wearing the day they were buried.
Several of them had crosses and small icons, some ammo pouches and handgrenades as well as boots and greatcoats. On some soldiers we found shrapnel embedded in their bones, one of them had pieces of a wooden sole from a boot stuck in his hip and on some we could see where bullets and shrapnels had went through the bones.
On one soldier it was found an award that identified the soldier even before he was completely exhumed and also a small gold cross was found on him.
Evening approached but one of the massgraves was still full of soldiers so we decided to cover it up and go back to complete the job on the last day of the expedition.
Almost exactly a year ago the Norwegian author and researcher Geir Brenden contacted me with some maps and sketches of field cemeteries, Missing in Action reports and field grave maps he had found. This was handed over to Talis, the Boss of Legenda, and during winter and spring he began checking out the information.
A few of the sites had been exhumed by Volksbund in the early 90s it appeared, but several of the sites had still not been found. We followed some dusty farmers roads between fields outside Priekule following a map showing where a Waffen SS Divison Nordland field cemetery should be.
This was going to be though work as the ground was hard clay and the site supposedly should be in the field so it would be no cover from the blistering sun.
It was early morning but already the temperature crept up towards 30+ Celsius. The Digger machine started up opening trenches as we tried to locate the grave site. Many diggers spread out in the surrounding forest seeking shade while trying their luck with the metal detectors and probes. Hours went by and no cemetery found. Luckily two soldiers were found laying where they had fell during the fighting, a few meters inside the forest.
The frontline had rolled over the area a few times and battle discards and unexploded ordnance laid everywhere. We collected the unexploded stuff in a pile for the Police and EOD. I had given up hope on us ever finding the cemetery and it seemed that was the case all around when one of the Diggers, Roberts S. insisted on trying to search close by the place we had parked.
On one of the first shovel scoops we could hear the shouts : "Soldier! Bones!" This could be it. The trench was expanded and side by side we could see grave after grave! Success! On the map we had it showed it should be two lines of graves, but of course it could be more, and we didn`t know how many soldiers were in each row.
We found ID tags on several of the soldiers and on two of them we found helmets, both heavily battle damaged.
One of the helmets had a clear SS decal still intact. The bones of the soldiers were in a poor condition as the soil here was agressive and the farmers had been using chemical fertilizer, but we managed to exhume what was left of them.
The heat was intense but a small breeze kept us going until we had completed the first line of the cemetery. It was late afternoon so the second line would be dug a few days later.
The guys having roamed around the forest came back with some interesting bits. A Sherman lendlease tank had been blown up in the battles here and track links, parts and huge chuncks of it was dragged out by the diggers. The engine radiator hatch found by someone found was incredibly heavy but none the less loaded into the van.
On the way back to the resort we stopped by a farmer that had contacted us suspecting it could be some soldiers buried next to his house. We opened up a big ditch but found only some rusted boot heel irons and pioneer wires.
Around 08 next morning we were heading to another field which held a Division Nordland field cemetery. This one had also been found through the material we recieved from the Norwegian researcher.
On this site it should be at least 7 soldiers and on the map one of their names was written.
We removed the farmers electrical fence, which luckily had been turned off, and opened up the ground so we could see in what direction the line of graves would be. Now it became clear it would be more than seven soldiers as we could see it was more than two lines of graves. The place became busy and attracted attention from the neighbours who weren`t used to this kind of activity on a regular Friday. A bunch of kids came up showing off relics they had found around their houses.
As the exhumation went on we could see how the agressivness of the soil and the use of chemical fertilizer eroded on the bones and metal found on the soldiers. We found many ID tags and even if the corrosion had come far we could read them after some cleaning.
These were soldiers from several Divison Nordland regiments made up of boys and men volunteering from around Europe, and one soldier had an ID tag from KL Ravensbrück.
Line after line of graves were uncovered on the field as the day went on, and in one of the graves a soldier had been buried in a coffin, probably an officer, and maybe the name marked on the map. Next to him was a bottle containing a paper note. Usually bottles like this were corked and placed cork down in the grave so moisture wouldn`t get into them, this way they would easily help to identify the buried soldiers when recovering them after their planned victory. Sadly the cork in this bottle had rotted and water getting into it had destroyed the paper.
On some of the soldiers we found rests of shoulderboards and uniform effects, and two-three surviving bits of cloth were the Arm Shield with the Norwegian flag from two soldiers belonging to Regiment Norge. This regiment was mostly made up by Norwegians and other Scandinavians having volunteered and many of them are still listed as missing in action. A spectacular find.
Another fantastic moment was when an old man came by and shared his story. He had been a kid when his safe little childhood world became a frontline. He remembered a soldier marching by had given him a candy, and some days later he saw the same soldier being carried back dead, and buried on this site. It was amazing being part of that little moment in history!
We saw that the last line of graves stretched under the road which hadn`t been there during the war and we needed to open it up. It took a quick call to the Mayor who instantly gave us the green light, as we promised to repair it once done.
The weather had gone from boiling sun to a storm growing and we had a race with the rain. The weather-gods seemed pleased with us because as we had closed up the field and rolled out with the last car over the filled in and repaired road, the river of rain broke loose on us.
It had been an amazing recovery and we headed towared Radi for dinner and the Legenda Military Archaeology 20 Year Birthday party with cake, gifts and a firework only Legenda can display.
The next morning we were given a generous 30 minutes more to sleep, the party had went on to the early hours for many of the diggers but as soon as breakfast was done we crammed ourselves into the vans and drove towards the Division Nordland cemetery we had started on wednesday.
We knew where second line of the graves was so the machine removed the top layers for us before he went on to check for more lines. After a little while of digging it became clear that at least two of the soldiers were most probably Danish. One had several Danish coins on him and a typical scandinavian pattern ring with red amber, and the other had a Danish shooters badge. Both of them might have been fighting in Regiment Danmark. Yesterday`s storm was forgotten and the sun was back hard. Only a slight breeze helped us out a bit, and of course our Digger operator had a secret stash of ice cold water which he shared with us.
The line of graves was filled up with people working and others searched the forests. More parts from the blown up Sherman were picked up, among it a nice American made scope.
When we had made sure there were not any more soldiers buried here, we loaded up the cars and drove to another site from our maps.
Oposite of an old civillian cemetery there should be a Regiment Danmark field cemetery. The machine opened up ditch after ditch but the cemetery couldn`t be found. While the search went on some of the guys searched the riverbed, while some of Legenda`s more childish elements bombarded them with small rocks and lumps of soil from the bridge above them, and shouted fake alligator warnings. They found half German helmet and a rifle buttstock, and a large bomb or katyusha which was left alone.
At Kristine`s resort we got our things ready for tomorrow`s last expedition day and had a great dinner and a nice party.
Sunday morning we were up early and it felt like the week had passed so fast but yet it felt like it had lasted forever. Still, last day and we had to complete our work. We said goodbye to Kristine and drove towards the WW1 positions outside Riga. The massgrave still held several soldiers.
We removed the layer of sand we had covered them with and continued the exhumation. They lay on top of each other and looked like they had been thrown into the shellhole. One of them had a enamel drinking cup and the soldier underneath him had shrapnel balls stuck in his bones. After a few hours carefull work the soldiers were out of the ground and the very last find was an award with a number which might give the identity back to one of the soldiers.
We had recovered 83 soldiers in total this expedition, and found ID tags on about 1/3 of them and they will all be buried on official War Cemeteries in Latvia, and hopefully some families will get to know what happened with their family members.
Time had come to say goodbye as some drove straight to the airport and some of us went to Riga to wait for our flights out and back home and the Latvian and Lithuanian teams had shorter ways home. Over a few beers in Riga the last of us decided it had been an exellent expedition although prehaps the warmest one in mans memory...
Hope to see you again soon my friends:)
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