As May came to a close it was time to pack the digger gear and prepare for a week long expedition to the Latvian forests. The winter here in Nordland had been long and I was eager to dig something else than snow. Only a year had passed since my first trip to Latvia and since then I had gotten a few expeditions worth of experience , but still , I felt like a kid on the doorsteps of the world`s biggest toy shop. Early the morning of departure I recieved a text from Matt. He was gutted to report that he had to cancel the trip just before boarding his flight because of illness. He wished me good Luck and gave me
phone numbers to his friends that was making their first trip over from England. They probably felt the butterflies in their stomachs more than me.
As the taxi pulled up by the hotel I looked over at the cafè next door. There I spotted a couple of faces I knew , Natalia and Victoria from Legenda and with them was some more diggers. Shortly after we met with another guy from England , Steve and then Andris showed up as well. We brought the Brits around for a stroll to an interesting fleamarket and the Latvian War Museum before we to Andris` big frustration enjoyed a culinary experience at a well known fast-food chain. A little later when the burgers had taken its toll on us and we had met Anton from Sweden , we went to our evening headquarter in Riga for some beer and real food , the Ala Folkbar.
Next morning we had an early breakfast before we tumbled off towards the Riflemen Monument where we was going to be picked up. After a short wait we got restless and called the diggers. They were just minutes away , but we should look for a champagne colored van. It turned out we had been standing next to it all the time. I knocked on the window and out came a
friendly guy. Peteris had been waiting there for us half asleep and as we threw our bags into the van a few more cars with diggers parked by us. It had begun.
First stop was the airport to pick up the Swedes , Anders and KJ. Andris and I was sent in to meet them and as we entered the airport Andris commented on the weird looks people gave us. We looked at eachother and burst out laughing , in these times camo clad men with big knifes sticking out of their pockets get some attention on international airports , who would have thought. We had an interesting chat with a British military officer who wondered what militia we belonged to when our swedish friends arrived and we hurried back to the car.
phone numbers to his friends that was making their first trip over from England. They probably felt the butterflies in their stomachs more than me.
As the taxi pulled up by the hotel I looked over at the cafè next door. There I spotted a couple of faces I knew , Natalia and Victoria from Legenda and with them was some more diggers. Shortly after we met with another guy from England , Steve and then Andris showed up as well. We brought the Brits around for a stroll to an interesting fleamarket and the Latvian War Museum before we to Andris` big frustration enjoyed a culinary experience at a well known fast-food chain. A little later when the burgers had taken its toll on us and we had met Anton from Sweden , we went to our evening headquarter in Riga for some beer and real food , the Ala Folkbar.
Next morning we had an early breakfast before we tumbled off towards the Riflemen Monument where we was going to be picked up. After a short wait we got restless and called the diggers. They were just minutes away , but we should look for a champagne colored van. It turned out we had been standing next to it all the time. I knocked on the window and out came a
friendly guy. Peteris had been waiting there for us half asleep and as we threw our bags into the van a few more cars with diggers parked by us. It had begun.
First stop was the airport to pick up the Swedes , Anders and KJ. Andris and I was sent in to meet them and as we entered the airport Andris commented on the weird looks people gave us. We looked at eachother and burst out laughing , in these times camo clad men with big knifes sticking out of their pockets get some attention on international airports , who would have thought. We had an interesting chat with a British military officer who wondered what militia we belonged to when our swedish friends arrived and we hurried back to the car.
We made the first stop 30 minutes drive outside Riga , well , thruth be told , I had made the car stop by the road a little earlier because there might have been some alcohol too much the evening before , while others meant it was caused by the delicious burger meal I had so craved before the beer. But I was fine again when we stopped at the farmers road and headed into the woods. Here we met with Talis , the boss , and he informed the group about a fallen soldier supposedly laying in a shell crater.
An old lady had remembered him being thrown down there after the battles around the farm she had grew up on. In the crater a young tree was growing dead center almost acting like a gravemarker. We carefully dug around the roots and bended the tree out of the way without destroying it. The whole area was forested but we quickly saw that the soil was of the marshy type and easy to dig. Not more than half meter down the diggers stopped and a discussion in Latvian broke out , heads was shaken and the faces was serious. Some more of the bog was removed and we could all see what it was about. There was no bones in the crater , but still , there was a soldier there. The conditions of the ground seemed to have preserved and mummified the fallen soldier. Nobody had been prepared for this. Some of the diggers asked to not to
have to dig this one as it was all quite graphic , and we were all a bit shocked to have found something like this. Maris and Karl Johan stepped up to the challenge and started to prepare themself. The tension was thick in the air. It was dry and tasted metal. Someone spotted that my digger gloves was of the waterproof type and asked me to hand them over and I was just happy to not be asked to jump into the crater. Laughter broke the tension as I handed over the two lefthand gloves I had brought from Norway , man , do I need to pay attention while shopping.
It was amazing to see how well preserved everything was , but very strange and emotional as well. KJ and Maris did an exellent and respectfull job and all the diggers looked at them with new eyes. They rolled the soldier carefully into a canvas and lifted him out of the crater. He was securely wrapped and brought to the car. We closed the pit and put the small tree back in its place.
An old lady had remembered him being thrown down there after the battles around the farm she had grew up on. In the crater a young tree was growing dead center almost acting like a gravemarker. We carefully dug around the roots and bended the tree out of the way without destroying it. The whole area was forested but we quickly saw that the soil was of the marshy type and easy to dig. Not more than half meter down the diggers stopped and a discussion in Latvian broke out , heads was shaken and the faces was serious. Some more of the bog was removed and we could all see what it was about. There was no bones in the crater , but still , there was a soldier there. The conditions of the ground seemed to have preserved and mummified the fallen soldier. Nobody had been prepared for this. Some of the diggers asked to not to
have to dig this one as it was all quite graphic , and we were all a bit shocked to have found something like this. Maris and Karl Johan stepped up to the challenge and started to prepare themself. The tension was thick in the air. It was dry and tasted metal. Someone spotted that my digger gloves was of the waterproof type and asked me to hand them over and I was just happy to not be asked to jump into the crater. Laughter broke the tension as I handed over the two lefthand gloves I had brought from Norway , man , do I need to pay attention while shopping.
It was amazing to see how well preserved everything was , but very strange and emotional as well. KJ and Maris did an exellent and respectfull job and all the diggers looked at them with new eyes. They rolled the soldier carefully into a canvas and lifted him out of the crater. He was securely wrapped and brought to the car. We closed the pit and put the small tree back in its place.
Wrapped in plastic before removing the body as it can be harmfull to get it on the skin.
After this incredible start to the expedition we drove off to a field where there should be a large crater with several fallen Red Army soldiers. We searched around for a while but found nothing , but nearby there was another field for us to search.
A landowner had contacted Legenda and shared the story his grandpa had told about a corner of his land. Near a field hospital there had been an area with several wooden crosses. The metal detectors picked up a lot of signals and a few test holes was opened and in one of them a bone was found. Now we knew there was at least one soldier here so we opened up the soil around him so we could see what direction he lay , and then we checked each side of him to see if there was others. Now most of the diggers became active and more and more fallen was found. Everybody knew their job. Some was opening up the top soil uncovering the forgotten fieldgraves , some was searching the heaps of soil for items or small bones belonging to each grave , some was taking photos documenting it all and others brought up equipment , bonetrays and Volksbund bags. It was like watching ants build their nest , and when one digger needed a rest another stepped in and took his place. Hours later when evening came , we had found and exhumed 13 German soldiers and we had the ID discs from several of them. Driving back to the resort I looked back in the van and could see the effect of a long day work filled with exitement , most of the guys had fallen asleep.
A landowner had contacted Legenda and shared the story his grandpa had told about a corner of his land. Near a field hospital there had been an area with several wooden crosses. The metal detectors picked up a lot of signals and a few test holes was opened and in one of them a bone was found. Now we knew there was at least one soldier here so we opened up the soil around him so we could see what direction he lay , and then we checked each side of him to see if there was others. Now most of the diggers became active and more and more fallen was found. Everybody knew their job. Some was opening up the top soil uncovering the forgotten fieldgraves , some was searching the heaps of soil for items or small bones belonging to each grave , some was taking photos documenting it all and others brought up equipment , bonetrays and Volksbund bags. It was like watching ants build their nest , and when one digger needed a rest another stepped in and took his place. Hours later when evening came , we had found and exhumed 13 German soldiers and we had the ID discs from several of them. Driving back to the resort I looked back in the van and could see the effect of a long day work filled with exitement , most of the guys had fallen asleep.
Strange dreams tore me out of the sleep , and I could hear it was raining outside. It was 6 o`clock so I just got up and had a shower and went to the main building where the staff was preparing breakfast. As the well rested diggers came to join me the rain had stopped and with +14 degree celsius and low clouds the weather was perfect for digging. Today the trip went to both some Soviet and German second line positions. There we searched without finding anything but battlediscards and dumping pits , although a couple of nice finds was made. Jay for example found a Mosin Nagant rifle next to a dug out , while Steve made maybe the most interesting find in Latvia for a long time , a French dog-tag bracelet with a German sounding name. He is doing research on it to see if we can get an idea how it ended up deep in a Kurland forest. My only find this day , except lots of different ordnance was a part of a German belt buckle. I spent most of the day getting to know the new faces , digging ordnance with Martin and helping carrying the other guys finds. At one point a couple of the new guys came out of the forest having found nice shiny things. I quickly snagged it out of their hands and threw it in a ditch since I saw it was live detonators , Dangerous stuff. Later when all the diggers gathered by the cars heading towards a warm dinner and a soft bed we could all agree it had been a nice day even if we didnt find any fallen.
Panzerjäger Kurzemes.
The French dog-tag bracelet.
Kristine , the boss at our resort , Radi , always looks after us and sees to that we are well fed. She makes large varied breakfast buffets and her coffee kickstarts cold muscles and tired faces and this third morning was no different. We was returning to the fieldgraves early to continue the work , and I knew it would be a long day so I had a bigger meal than usual and some guys were filling warm drinks to their thermoses and we jumped in the cars and sped off along the dusty gravel roads ,making us exellent targets for incoming fighter planes , if we had lived in another time.
Soldier after soldier was unearthed in the row of fieldgraves and sometimes a happy voice shouted that a dog tag was found. It was collected by Toms who was in charge of registrating each fallen. Any personal effects was also collected in bags , numbered and attached to the Volksbund bag it belonged together with. The diggers put their pride on never removing any such object from a fallen , and who would want to bring grave items into their pockets or homes anyway? For each of the soldier we exhumed a stick was placed where he had been found , and as the trench grew longer we noticed the sticks was grouped. Some places in 3 , then 4, then 3 and 2... We wondered a bit about this and came to the conclusion that the wounded and fallen had been brought here with a horse carriage which normally only had room for four soldiers.
There was some equipment with the fallen , but not much. Some belts and uniform gear , a few wallets and personal effects and a few had been buried wearing their helmets. We could also see on the bodies that they had been killed in combat , by observing big damages to bones and skulls. Some bullets and shrapnel was also found on the bones. One soldier had a soviet rifle bound to his leg and we could see a sharp clean break in his knee. Another one had a lot of buttons from a zeltbahn he had been brought in on scattered around him. At one point the work stopped for a moment when a car stopped and a woman came to see what was going on. She came from the local Council and wanted to see that we had all papers and was not graverobbers. Also the landowner came to speak with us and other passers bys also showed interest.
When we had dug the full row of graves , which counted 27 with the ones we dug the first day, there was not much room for more soldiers in the cars so we decided to just investigate the area further for digging the rest another day. The more experienced diggers took this task while others spread out across the field and forest around. There was rumors about a downed plane on the field as well. In the edge of the forest we had lots of alloy signals from the detectors and could find parts and shrapnel from a plane all over the place. 23 mm rounds with the bullets pressed into the casings told a story of impact and so did melted blobs of aluminum. In the middle of the field we had a deep signal and the soil was different o that spot. Oil came bubbling up when we stepped on it and we made a guess that this was where the engine was. Parts of the exhaust system and the cockpit clock made us believe it was a IL-2 "Sturmovik" that had crashed here.
Soldier after soldier was unearthed in the row of fieldgraves and sometimes a happy voice shouted that a dog tag was found. It was collected by Toms who was in charge of registrating each fallen. Any personal effects was also collected in bags , numbered and attached to the Volksbund bag it belonged together with. The diggers put their pride on never removing any such object from a fallen , and who would want to bring grave items into their pockets or homes anyway? For each of the soldier we exhumed a stick was placed where he had been found , and as the trench grew longer we noticed the sticks was grouped. Some places in 3 , then 4, then 3 and 2... We wondered a bit about this and came to the conclusion that the wounded and fallen had been brought here with a horse carriage which normally only had room for four soldiers.
There was some equipment with the fallen , but not much. Some belts and uniform gear , a few wallets and personal effects and a few had been buried wearing their helmets. We could also see on the bodies that they had been killed in combat , by observing big damages to bones and skulls. Some bullets and shrapnel was also found on the bones. One soldier had a soviet rifle bound to his leg and we could see a sharp clean break in his knee. Another one had a lot of buttons from a zeltbahn he had been brought in on scattered around him. At one point the work stopped for a moment when a car stopped and a woman came to see what was going on. She came from the local Council and wanted to see that we had all papers and was not graverobbers. Also the landowner came to speak with us and other passers bys also showed interest.
When we had dug the full row of graves , which counted 27 with the ones we dug the first day, there was not much room for more soldiers in the cars so we decided to just investigate the area further for digging the rest another day. The more experienced diggers took this task while others spread out across the field and forest around. There was rumors about a downed plane on the field as well. In the edge of the forest we had lots of alloy signals from the detectors and could find parts and shrapnel from a plane all over the place. 23 mm rounds with the bullets pressed into the casings told a story of impact and so did melted blobs of aluminum. In the middle of the field we had a deep signal and the soil was different o that spot. Oil came bubbling up when we stepped on it and we made a guess that this was where the engine was. Parts of the exhaust system and the cockpit clock made us believe it was a IL-2 "Sturmovik" that had crashed here.
Anton.
Days of digging pass quickly but it already felt like we belonged to the fields and forests , like we knew nothing else , but it was the last day and we eagerly climbed into the vans. First stop was as always the local food shop , and contrary to the international airport here was not a single eyebrow raised when a bunch of guys dressed in camo , smelling like an animal shelter , with digger tools such as machetes and bayonets hanging from the belts filled up the shop.
At 0930 we visited the Saldus War Cemetery and we walked around in our own thoughts for some silent moments before a "Davai!" was called out and we went to the old frontline where a JCB awaited us. Just a week earlier nearly 50 Red Army soldiers had been discovered here and we was opening up deep trenches and even deeper bunkers in search for others and hopefully give closure to more soldiers fates. This area was a mix of fields , cut down forest and thick almost unpenetrable forest. On a field was ruins of a farm and behind it a few deep positions for tanks or motorized artillery guns. I made a stroll through the forest searching some trenches , got lost for a moment and then found Jay and Dan who was clearing a minefield. They had found two rows of S-Mines , the German bouncing mine , which had been there untouched since the fighting. I found Sofia who was digging a very good signal which was an old silver button. A few meters away the JCB was opening up a trenchline and here rifles , panzerfausts , helmets and a cache of riflegrenades was found between shrapnel
and other junk , but no soldiers. 3 or 4 bunkers was also found and opened , containing nothing but equipment and explosives.
Around mid-day we gathered in a clearing , a table was set up and cake brought to us. Viktors had birthday and that ofcourse meant a little celebration , which i think was very nice , and the cake was very tasty. In the afternoon the sky
cleared , it became very hot and mosqitoes filled the air. We decided to open one more bunker before calling it a day , but also in this one there was no soldiers , just some bayonets and helmets and it was a tired , dirty and mossie bitten bunch heading back to the resort.
At 0930 we visited the Saldus War Cemetery and we walked around in our own thoughts for some silent moments before a "Davai!" was called out and we went to the old frontline where a JCB awaited us. Just a week earlier nearly 50 Red Army soldiers had been discovered here and we was opening up deep trenches and even deeper bunkers in search for others and hopefully give closure to more soldiers fates. This area was a mix of fields , cut down forest and thick almost unpenetrable forest. On a field was ruins of a farm and behind it a few deep positions for tanks or motorized artillery guns. I made a stroll through the forest searching some trenches , got lost for a moment and then found Jay and Dan who was clearing a minefield. They had found two rows of S-Mines , the German bouncing mine , which had been there untouched since the fighting. I found Sofia who was digging a very good signal which was an old silver button. A few meters away the JCB was opening up a trenchline and here rifles , panzerfausts , helmets and a cache of riflegrenades was found between shrapnel
and other junk , but no soldiers. 3 or 4 bunkers was also found and opened , containing nothing but equipment and explosives.
Around mid-day we gathered in a clearing , a table was set up and cake brought to us. Viktors had birthday and that ofcourse meant a little celebration , which i think was very nice , and the cake was very tasty. In the afternoon the sky
cleared , it became very hot and mosqitoes filled the air. We decided to open one more bunker before calling it a day , but also in this one there was no soldiers , just some bayonets and helmets and it was a tired , dirty and mossie bitten bunch heading back to the resort.
Two Legendas from Lithuania.
As a pack of hungry , but well mannered wolves the diggers cleaned up a very nice dinner before Kristine called for our attention. She brought in a delicious looking cake with lit candles. Duksi had birthday songs in both English and Latvian as we enjoyed coffee and cake. I had made him a birthday gift I was nervous about giving him. I had made a T-shirt with a funny photo of Talis , and I couldn`t have chosen a more risky moment to present him the gift as there was an axe next to Talis , but after a short chase he decided not to axe me after all.
The rest of the evening was spent together enjoying coffee , some drinks and a good time sharing stories and making plans for new expeditions. Early next morning we shook hands , gave out hugs and email adresses before driving back to Riga for some rest , shopping and interesting discussions over a few beers.
Until next time : Keep Smiling.
The rest of the evening was spent together enjoying coffee , some drinks and a good time sharing stories and making plans for new expeditions. Early next morning we shook hands , gave out hugs and email adresses before driving back to Riga for some rest , shopping and interesting discussions over a few beers.
Until next time : Keep Smiling.
Video about the exhumation:
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