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The Gebirgsjäger Cooker

Writer's picture: InkaInka

pennant

The evenings here north are rapidly getting darker. For months we have had "white nights" and midnight sun, so it is a bit of a shock when it is getting dark at eight in the evening. It means that winter is approaching, and that the forests are full of delicious berries that needs to be harvested.


Me and the Girlfriend have spent some days and afternoons out in the forests this week where she has done most of the berry collecting while I have snuk off for some digging. One of the days we went to a site we hadn`t been before, where it had been some German activity.

The place was littered with modern Nato rubbish, but in the afternoon when I reached the outskirts of the forest I began finding traces from the Wehrmacht. I didn`t find much worth saving, but next time we go there I know where to begin the search. I picked up a triangular piece of metal with some paint on that could look like a sign, food tins, a Finnish coin and a couple of M39 egg grenades that we left behind. On the way back to the car the detector told me to dig, and there was a whole bunch of bits for horses, from very small ones to large brewery-horse sizes. I think it was around 20 of them, which of course didn`t make my backpack any lighter to carry.

The place wasn`t exellent for berries either, but seems it was a good mushroom place so the Girlfriend might not be difficult to persuade into taking another trip there.


One of my work days this week lasted only a couple of hours, so when they let me go I went straight to the Luftwaffe dumping pit for a 6-7 hour long session.

Soon after opening it up I found the corner and front of a big metal crate. It took some time to free it from the soil and it was a pretty heavy piece that took a bit of effort to wrestle loose and out of the pit. It was empty, but in quite good condition. It had thick walls all around, and from the little text visible inside the lid I understood it was a cooker often used by the gebirgsjägers.

It weighed a ton, but since it was in good shape I needed to save it, and it was no fun at all getting it back to the car.


Digging around where the crate had been I found a really nice Italian coin, a bakelite pen, and two of the porcelain things that I previously had thought were soapdishes. My friend Andris had kindly informed me that it was really razor sharpeners, which I should have known seeing its logo is a pattern of a razorblade.


Bottles and bits of glass came out of the ditch in a steady stream, and so did empty ampoules and glass vials, even a few rubber gloves from the doctors and nurses who had been working in this lazarette. Another nice find was a small square ruler for using together with maps, in very nice condition. I also dug up a dynamo for a bike and a ash shovel for a bunkerstove.


​ On the bottom I found a MG 34/42 ammo drum, and two axe heads. One of the axes was really neat, a fireman axe which I have never found before. It is so cool that I might need to restore it and have a new handle for it made. When I was closing up the ditch for the day I checked around with the pinpointer and got a nice bonus find, a k98 bayonet !! One can never have too many of those in the collection.


Now a new week is starting, with lots of bad weather reported to hit us, but I am hoping for a few trips out there even if it ll make me soaking wet.


​Enjoy your day, and stay dry.


rusted egg handgrenade
M39 egg.

big crate underground

big crate dug out

text on rusted lid

sand inside box
It was a heavy and thick walled box.

big axe
The fireaxe.
coin
Italian coin.
snow on mountain tops

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