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Two Pieces of Trench-Art

Writer: Inka
Inka
46 minutes ago
4 min read
stone bunker in the mountain

The searching this week began with a great find. I only had a couple of hours work in the morning, so I headed directly to the forest when I was done. The plan was to double check the area around last weeks pit which the four helmets came out from.

Only half meter behind the refilled ditch the detector gave a strong aluminum signal. I was kinda half expecting it to be an erkennungsmarke, but when I opened the forest floor I was pleasantly surprised to discover a German helmet instead!

It was lacking the leather bits, but it looked to be in very good condition and later after rinsing it with water I could see that a name was written inside it. Perhaps it`ll be readable after a wash with oxalic acid.

Then I searched the edges around the ditch. I found a few more key rings, and aluminum tweezers of the type used in photo developing.

For another hour or so I hunted the site for more treasures before I had to leave, but came up short.



tweezer from a photo lab
Tweezers used for photo developing.

I went home and cleaned the finds while waiting for the GirlfriendWife to return from her job so that we could go for a berry hunt towards the mountains.

We wanted to eat something before collecting berries, but it was quite windy up in the tree line.

A few low mountain ridges flanking a marsh looked like they could give us cover from the wind so that we could fire up our tiny stove and cook some hot dogs, so we took of from the trail heading towards the rocks.

Suddenly a ruined stone shelter appeared in front of us. It had been large and well made. It was of course collapsed, but the entrance and a sidewall with a window were still sort of intact.


stone bunker made by gebirgsjägers in the Lyngen line.
It was a big surprise to find these bunkers.

We looked around and soon found four or five more bunkers spread out between the ridges. Some stove parts and corrugated metal sheets were scattered around but that was the only metal we could see.

Having explored the site we rigged us up a small kitchen in one of the bunkers and had dinner. Could be that this was the first dinner there since the gebirgsjägers last meal a long time ago.

I was too excited to pick any berries having discovered such an interesting site, so when the Fraulein was looking for the tiny fruits I ran around checking for more hidden stone constructions.

At some point I noticed something in the top of a tree. I tried to quietly sneak towards the creature and came close enough to get eyecontact with a beautiful Northern hawk-owl. I ran back to alert the GirlfriendWife so that she also could meet the bird. A wonderful experience in the afternoon dusk. We managed to get back to the car just before darkness fell.




Northern hawk-owl
An incredible moment meeting the Hawk-owl.

Two days ago I ventured back into the gebirgsjäger forest to look for more helmets and such. As I parked the car I noticed that the ground was white of ice. The frost had arrived. But as the sun rose, ( yes, maybe the fifth day with sun since june ) the ice crystals melted. The ground stayed quite cold troughout the day though.

The finds during the first few hours were crappy. Food tins, large bolts, bits of sheet metal and other boring stuff.

Then I came across a small ravine which was full of signals. I worked my way through it and collected two empty PPSh magazines, a pionier axe, cream tubes, signal flares, ski goggles and a pile of partly melted Losantine bottles.

Small finds worth saving kept coming, but all of the sudden a clear aluminum signal stood out. It was a square plate, clearly shaped by human hands, and when I turned the piece over it revealed interesting trench-art. It was a broken lid from a cigarette case, engraved with patterns, "1943", the Red Star and "CCCP". Great stuff!!



Red Army Trench-Art
Very nice Red Army trench-art.

When I reached the end of the ravine it was treasure-time again. Under a small shrubbery was charcoal, sooted soil, melted glass, an ashtray and a couple of coins. In the very edge of the fireplace a corner of a small aluminum box stuck out. I lured it free, and it was another trench-art cigarette case. Slightly bent, and a little damaged by the fire, but with nice and interesting engravings. "1945" and a ship on the lid. The backside had a flower with patterns around. Inside the box was cyrillic initials engraved, translated to IMI. It also had a Soviet producers mark. Maybe someone recognizes it and knows from what factory it belongs.

I would love to know the history of these two bits of trench-art. I bet they could tell a tale.

As I scraped the edges around the sooted hole I found a porcelain salt shaker and the sad remains of a ULLR badge destroyed by flames and time.


trench art from 1945


Winter can`t be too far away now. One can feel the ice needles in the wind. The tops are having fresh snow every morning, and the weekend began with -3 Celsius and frost everywhere. I guess this summers big irony is that now I am hoping for grey and wet weather so that I can extend the searching season a bit.


Thanks for reading.

Keep Smiling.



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