
Warm weather is upon us again so I am spending the day relaxing in the hammock, reading books and studying bugs who lands on me. If only the GirlfriendWife would run out of gas on her lawnmover things would be total bliss.
The week was busy with work and digging, three days of each. I was going out for digging after work one of the days but the moment I got off it began pouring down with an intensity rarely seen here north so I chickened out and went home to clean relics instead.
On my first trip I spent much of the day in and around the medical barrack in one of the Gebirgsjäger camps. I was checking signals until I found a small dump of medical supplies where many hours went by trying to not injure myself on broken glass or syringe needles. It was a mix of bottles, medical tools, syringes, ampoules and thermometers.
The latter were a bit spooky as several were broken and could still contain mercury but luckily the only mercury I saw was inside some of the intact thermometers. Most of the ampoules had labels and contained tetanus serum.
I found two small tins, one was empty and quite corroded, but the other one in better shape and it was full. I later opened it and it was a syringe, very well padded but still the glass had broken.
Walking back to the car I opened a couple of signals around the vehicle workshop and found something I think is for a small hand drawn carriage and also parts from a Bosch- and a Notek lamp.




The next time I headed to the forest I wanted to check a dumping pit but I quickly realized that it would not happen. The sun was beating down and with no tree cover digging the pit would be terrible, so I sought shelter under the trees. I walked around checking signals, which all seemed to be from boring things like bolts, wires, nails etc.
Not a coin in sight. The first good find was a very nice medical tin with a logo, "Injecta", so I bet a syringe box. Next to a treeroot the Fisher picked up on something potentially interesting, and of course the item was under the root. I got out the saw and made way. I had no idea what the strange looking part was, but I thought prehaps something from a doctors- or dentists instrument. It was like a small bakelite plate with a matal frame sticking out from under it. A day later I showed it to the GirlfriendWife and she instantly identified it as a chin rest for a fiddle.
The next find made my day though. I dug up a medal! "Only" a KVK (War merit cross w swords) but awesome! Other than the tips of its swords had broken off it was in exellent condition.
The frame of a backpack took some time to liberate from the ground and along with it came a couple of toothcream tubes and bits of broken porcelain. An intact coffee cup would be fun to find now for a change.
I had pocketed some empty rifle casings and food tins when the detector rang out one of its good tunes again. Another nail. I was sure of it, as I opened up the ground. Big eyed I carefully picked up the piece of metal I had uncovered.
It was a badge I had never found before. A Kriegsmarines one! Kriegsabzeichen für die Marineartillerie, or Coastal Artillery War Badge in english. These badges were awarded for `merits in action`. What a great find!!
I started to run out of steam as it was so warm but I wanted to check a small ditch I had spotted up ahead. It had some decent signals but it was large nails. I removed them and checked again with the detector. It was still a good signal, but a bit different. I tore away a web of roots and with them came another german badge!!
An Allgemeine Sturmabzeichen! It was in pretty good condition. It had the needle and catch and I could see some silvering. I thouroughly checked for more but I only got more nails and a few crate fittings.
Maybe there are more goodies waiting in that little hotspot, but it ll be for another day.










Yesterday Baard and I had planned a dig. We had earlier found what could be a large dumping pit. When we found it we dug out a Luftwaffe lamp and some other interesting bits. It was all covered with stinging nettles but this time we had brought a machete to get rid of those.
When I arrived at the meeting place I saw half of Baard sticking out from a metal waste container. On the ground around it were a whole bunch of military looking directional signs. Pointing the way to Stab, Troop commander, parking place,kitchen etc, A very inspiring start of the day!
We chopped down the nettles and went to work. We had been dreaming about all the great relics we would find here, but slowly began to realize that the best finds from it were some food tins and a half rotted gebirgsjäger boot.
Without despair we picked up the detectors and began sweeping the forest around. A little to the side of the pit I found a horn from an old Ford and a large german electrical connector.
After a while there were no doubts that we were in some kind of stable area since much of the finds were harness parts, brushes horseshoes und so weiter.
The sun was killing us but we moved across the road and was in another part of the camp. Here Baard found a large slope covered with signals where we spent the remainder of the day.
Some old Wehrmacht stuff and some early Nato stuff mixed together. We dug out lots of mystery bits, lids from different ammo containers, dishes and mugs from field kitchen and some vehicle related bits. One of which was a license plate, prehaps for a motorcycle or kettenkrad. It has a little bit different construction than the typical Wehrmacht ones and I have never seen one like it, so it ll be extra interesting to clean it up and try figure out what it belongs to. If someone recognize the mystery parts below please let me know.
Thanks for reading. Enjoy your week :)












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