Last week it looked like the season was about to close due to winter, but now we are getting some milder days again. It could come a lot of rain, but that is way better than frost and snow, so I have greased up my boots to have them ready for another week of searching and digging.
Snow and rain dominated the weather this week and the first morning I went out swinging my detector everything was white. It was -3 degrees Celsius and from the start it felt like needles were pushed into my toes and fingers. The top of the ground had hardened, but not enough to stop the blade of the shovel from sinking into it. I was in the camp that had housed a gebirgsjäger headquarter, and began searching around the ruins of a barrack where it had been a workshop.
Lots of tools, bolts and screws litter the grounds there but this morning the first flap of soil I turned over contained half an Erkennungsmärke.
Unfortunately it was a blank tag, but it was exciting moments. A few meters away I found the other half of the ID tag, and using the pin pointer I found one more broken in half blank tag.
I kept going after the zink signal in hopes of more tags, but instead I found an ashtray with the typical vikingship design on it.
For the longest time I dug up crate parts and rubbish, and loads of Nato food foil and the red plastic training ammo, before a large signal woke me up again. The ground looked a bit sunken in, so here was a dumping pit below the tufts of frozen grass.
This kept me busy the next hours, and at one point one of my trouser legs froze to the ground, thats how fresh it was. In the ditch were several karbid lamps and -parts, plus lots of food tins and bottles. Nothing interesting at all really.
Kneeling on the cold ground for so long was probably not doing anything good for my knees, but picking up the detector again and hunting signals up and down a slope quickly brought the warmth back. While I was digging up uniform buttons and a bunch of k98 rounds it began snowing and it became very cozy and christmassy, but my luck had ran out and so was the daylight, and I was soon heading back to the car.
The following days were cold and snowy, before it suddenly shifted back to almost pleasant weather again with a few plus degrees. This of course meant another round in the gebirgsjäger headquarter.
This time I began swinging the detector on the oposite side of the workshop and my first find was a nice lighter. I hunted EKM signals for a while but found only scrap metal. Under a large old tree I discovered another dumping pit.
A square, ca 1x1 meter, in the ground, looked sunken in and had a mass of signals. I removed the top layer and bits of crates began showing. Locks, clasps, hinges, corner pieces and nails. And tons of them. Between 50 and 100 crates, at least, had been crushed and dumped here. In between all this was also a few cream tubes, a couple of Kriegsmarine buttons, a bakelite powder charge box and a small piece of silver, a part of a pocket watch.
To find Kriegsmarine buttons inland, and in a Gebirgsjäger camp might sound strange, but after the sinking of the battleship Tirpitz not so far away, many of its surviving soldiers were spread around to nearby laying camps, and also during the withdrawal from the North and later the capitulation, lots of the camps housed a mix of units.
After having backfilled the crate ditch I crossed the workshop area in a hurry, ignoring all but the most interesting signals (which I did check but were all rubbish) and went to search in a small patch of forest where a few soldiers barracks had stood. Some modern trash laid on the surface and a few of the first signals were Nato rubbish, but I also spotted a flattened triangular barrack stove that clearly was from the war time.
Next to the stove the Fisher F5 picked up a strong zink signal and I dug up a folded piece of metal. It looked very much like a semi modern Nato cargo tag, so I unfolded it just to be sure before tossing it away. Oh, am I glad I did! It was a field made luggage tag from a German soldier ! On it was written " Obgefr. A. Rückbeil FPN 33380 ". That Fieldpostnumber indicates that the soldier belonged to 6. Fahrkolonne Gebirgs-Divisions-Kolonne 91. A really super find!
A few minutes later another very good signal rang out. From under the moss came another amazing find! I saw a small brass square in the soil, picked it up and turned it over. It was another name tag! This one looked like it had been nailed to a crate, and it was very nicely made and engraved. This one read " Hfw Rauter 06400 ". "Hfw" is an abbreviation for " Hilfwilliger / HIWI " which basically means an auxiliary volunteer. The number indicates a butcher unit - " Schlachterei-Zug 91 ".
I kept combing the copse of trees, and for a few moments I was oblivious to the fact that one more treasure was awaiting me this day. After digging up a few bits of Nato garbage I was again picking up a more interesting signal. I emptied the shovel of soil on top of the grass and spotted a pointy cross.
It was a medal ! A KVK with swords ! It had the ring intact and looked to be in quite decent condition, but the swastika had been carved away.
I went over the area twice more before I started the stroll back to where I had left the car. The dusk had began creeping in ,and the rain seemed to gear up its intensity too so it was a good time to call it quits.
Later that evening the sky cleared up and we could witness the most spectacular Aurora Borealis imaginable. The entire sky was covered with green, pink and red waves, and this could be observed in large parts of Europe apparently, it was quite the show.
Thanks for reading, and I wish you a great week :)
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