metal detector Ardens battle fields...

[junior]

Hi all,
I have a metal detector but i dont know where to search in the ARDENS...
Where can i search, is it legal, can i step by accident on a mine???
Does anyone know?
Thanks a lot.
Best regards,
Junior.

[münster]

Hi

I have tried in that area for a long time. I have better luck up here in NRW Germany where any German prisoners were held after the war was over. Temporary field prisons. I promise you if you can find info of where any were in your region you will have IMMENSE luck. As for the Ardennes region I try Irrel, its a dorf where the katzenkopf Arnaments bunker is. I had a little luck around Bitburg in a dorf called Mötsch,,it is near the american airbase from which I understand was a panzer reserve base durning the battle of the bulge. But all I find there is spent cartridges. My detector group mostly stays away from battlefields. The camps are much better because a lot of SS buried their items in the ground.One guy in my group turned up two SS belt buckles in Kassel. Be very careful if you go around Hurtgen forest,,lots of american grenades, BE VERY CAREFUL! If you are ever in the mood to come up here I can show you a great search area. I might try the Eifel once more in the spring...kepp your eyes open for roman items there!!!


CHEERS
DION

[münster]

Forgot to tell you, If you find any ordinance , do not TOUCH it! Call the Polizei at your own discretion. If you are on private property always get permission from the landowner. If by a rare chance you find remains, call the polizei. Iam comfortable with handling old rifle ammo,,,but then again iam a little nuts,but I was told it is hard to make that stuff go off But any grenades or mortars , leave it alone.

[Greg]

Hi Junior,

I used to do quite a bit of metal detecting around La Gleize (last stand of Kampfgruppe Peiper), but aside from one very rusty steel SS belt buckle all I ever found was artillery shrapnel and junk.

I have to echo Dion: be very careful with anything that looks like unexploded ordnance. I was watching some civilian engineers clear an area on a US Army post at Hanau for some new construction. They had to remove all old ordnance down to a depth of two meters. Where they were digging had been a munitions refurbishment plant in WWII, so they were coming up with armloads of unexploded shells. The engineers were throwing these into buckets! They said they were safe because there were no fuses, but I wouldn't have picked one of those things up.

Regards,
Greg

[Johannes Schoen]

Hello Greg,


where did this happen. At Hanau-Wolfgang or Hanau-Lamboy?

Johannes

[Greg]

Hi Johannes,

It was out in the "back side" of the present-day Wolfgang Kaserne, back in the wooded area behind the PX (maybe you are familiar with the Kaserne). I had read in a history of the Hanau posts compiled by the US Army Public Affairs Office that Wolfgang Kaserne contained a weapon and ammunition refurbishment facility during WWII. The facility received and refurbished mostly captured foreign weapons/ammo and prepared it for Wehrmacht use. The engineers who were clearing the area confirmed that. Most of what they were finding were explosive shells of about 55mm diameter, that they said were antiaircraft shells. No markings to be seen on the one I kept (I found one on top of the ground that was obviously empty, or I wouldn't have picked it up).

Regards,
Greg

Hello Greg,


where did this happen. At Hanau-Wolfgang or Hanau-Lamboy?

Johannes

[Johannes Schoen]

Greg,

thank You. I know the atrea, but only from the outside from passing by. Did not know that part of history.

Johannes

[Greg]

Johannes,
That area in the back of Wolfgang Kaserne is full of trash in the ground along with the ordnance, since much of it used to be US Army motor pools and maintenance areas. It's unfortunate that so much motor pool trash and pollutants were left that the ground smells like oil in places.

When I was in Hanau I lived in Old Argonner Kaserne (across B8 from Pioneer Kaserne) in buildings that had been the billets of an engineer battalion built in 1937. Someone with a metal detector once found a 1935 Jugendfest tinnie out in front of the building where I lived (liked the one shown), but I never found anything there!

Regards,
Greg

Greg,

thank You. I know the atrea, but only from the outside from passing by. Did not know that part of history.

Johannes

[junior]

Thanks Guys,

But what about the Hurtgenwald???
Thanks,
Junior.

[münster]

Hurtgen

If your worried about safety Junior , the Hurtgen is the most dangerous place to detect. Lots of American hand grenades. One guy in our club was digging and he was using the fork end of the hammer, and he pulles a grenade out by the pin,,and the pin slipped out. Luckily it didnt explode. Iam not clear on the Belgian detecting laws. I think its illegal in certain regions.
Dion

[münster]

Sorry,,I have no idea why I mentioned Belgium. I was a little hazy this morning