Dug up things?

[J.von Canon]

Battlefield finds

While serving my US Army enlistment I had the opportunity of spending a year in the Republic of Korea. This was in 1969 and I knew I was still going to see a little more of Asia in the future. Anyway they assigned me to the 2d Inf Div, who to this day still patrols the DMZ. I had a critical MOS[job class} and they could not find a suitible opening for me right away, so being a Sgt they put me with a Texan contractor that had a job of laying lead cable for the Army , along the 38th, from the East to the West of the DMZ and north of the injim river. The ditch the cable had to be placed had to be 3ft or deeper because of the harsh temperatures in the winter.
My job as I mentioned was to keep the 110 man Korean task force secure from the North. I had 4 men under me and even though we were armed {M-14s-Colt 1911s] we knew the north could come down on us fast. In fact 2 weeks earlier we had 6 men killed close to the barrier fence. These men were unarmed except for the Sgt who had a 45.At that time it was customary to have a gun jeep forward and aft of any patrol on the barrier.Anyway back to my story of my great find. One day while watching the men I had the greatest need to use the toilet, so I ran up on a hill and over into a small sandy revine. After I had finished and was getting ready to leave I saw something sticking out of the ground.I started removing the sand from it and pulled out a Browning Auto Rifle.I shook it to remove the sand and the wood just fell off of it, but there it was a complete BAR from the very early 50s. I thought to myself there may be more goodies laying around and sure enough I found a Marines ID card broken in half and then I realized the place I was standing may have been hollow ground. It never occured to me to tell anyone about it, because of all the stress and watching for mines and such, which the following week I found a anti tank mine in the road about 1klick from the entrance to Pamujon. I called demo and they blew it it place. It was about 4ft round and 2ft thick. What got me is this was the primary road and to think of all the vehicles that had drove on it for 20 years or so.Then one day one of the Korean laborers came running to tell me they had hit a water line. A water line on the DMZ, I don,t think so. Went to where the men were digging and this one cat was taking a pick and hitting this round object and I told him to stop right then. Comes to find out it was one of our 105s from 1950 and back to demo we went.
All in all I consider myself lucky ,but I still had to watch the Korean laborers from taking land mines to clay mores in their lunch boxes before they went home. I only wish I had reported the Marine thing, because we have like 7 or 8 thousand men that are still missing from that dam war. I could tell you more of my finds but I,ve already tied up to much thread. Maybe some other time. Thanks for listening to an old disabled vet. DRB

Hello Fordgpw:Always good to hear from vets and their experiences.
Once,in Germany one of my team members found a rusted German helmet in some brushwood overlooking the Donau River,near Gutenstein.Also,a chianti bottle(which I brought back)and the wife uses today for a flower arrangement prop.
Another time(Taiwan)I found some rotted clothes and Jap helmets in a pillbox overlooking a gorge where I used to go swimming.
There was a time I did'nt care much for "rusty"things;how time changes perspective.
Best regards,Jochen von Canon (mil.ret.)

[bratwurstdimsum]

I got this close combat clasp recently, along with a dogtag from a Russian.





Here is the story that came with it (a bit one biased )

The offensive of Soviet troops of Bobruisk and Vitebsk began on the 23rd of June 1944. One of the most brilliant operations of WWII was called BAGRATION. It planed by marshal Zhukov and marshal Vasilevskiy. Its main purpose of this operation was to annihilate the German force "Centre" holding all East Front.
A double superiority in living force, fourfold superiority in artillery, fivefold
superiority in tanks guaranteed a victory to Soviet troops. The First, Second, Third Belorussian Front and First Baltic Front carried out an offensive extremely competently and coordinated. Soviet troops crushed the German defense for seven days. More then 100 000 of German soldiers were encircled in so called Bobruisk Pocket. Adolf Hitler has sent a new commander-in-chief field-marshal Model to East Front. Fuhrer's soldiers vainly tried to dash for 15 times. They fight heroic. This checkmate was catastrophic for the Reich: 18 divisions were completely routed and 50 divisions have lost more then half of man. On the 3rd of July Soviet troops occupied Minsk, on the 13th of July -
Vitebsk and troops assumed the offensive near Lvov. For two month Germans
were dislodged from West Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania.

This CCC went with the dogtag. The dogtag owner belonged to II./ J.R. 531 which joined the 9th Army in Bobruisk, where they were wiped out.

More from the seller:

The exact place where I found this badge and dog-tog is Dubovka. It's approx 10 km from Bobruisk to the South-East. I found items not in the
village but nearby it in the forest. That's all I can tell you about
that place.

[Simon O.]

and you bought it?

[bratwurstdimsum]

Yes, both for about $80 I think.

[münster]

Ill photgraph all my ground dug items I found here in Germany,,,I just moved and most of it is in my girlfriends parents cellar. In the cellar I have a K98 minus the wood, An old American Iver Johnson I found in a hole where a wehrmacht guy stashed it,,I guess they were sold widely in Germany before America entered the conflict,,,Some wehrmacht condom tins(civillian manufature in Berlin but found in soldiers cache with the k98) All I have here right now is some k98 ammo and a synthetic leather pouch that was used to hold the german dogtag. I had found a panzerfaust tube but reburied it because I was told there is still a detonation charge in the tube that is very unstable,,,I really wish I could go back and get it,,,Does anyone here use battery chargers and baking powder to clean there dug items,,I forget the name of the process?

[münster]

Today I was out in the MIDDLE OF THE CITY!!! Köln. I went in a stadtwald with my detector. I found k98 rounds with part of the clip,,,A grenade blasting cap,,in the same stash I found an old bottle marked GES. GESCH. I have a foto if anyone wants to post it.

Cheers,
Dion

[Lasse L]

Posting pic for Münster:

[münster]

The Leather pouch had the Wehrmacht dogtag in it,,,,In the hole with a pistol I found was a sack of about 100 of these old keys!

[deejay]

FJ helmet

I have found many things from WW2 (mainly in the Netherlands). The things I clearly remember: human body parts in a heavily shelled area near Arnhem in 1980 (even got my picture in the paper then at the time), when I was stationed in Germany a local farmer told me a story of a british bomber that crashed about 200 meters from where we were standing then. The explosion made a crater of about ten meters deep in which all the wreckage was dumped and still lies so he says. I briefly searched the site with my metal detector and I did in fact find burnt aircraft parts all around, I still have two parts I kept. I have given the location to a "aircraft recovery group" and they said they would look into it.

Another nice find was this Fallschirmjäger helmet shell.

Found in a old barn in a cardboard box amoung a ground dug K-98, a nicely kept exchange barrel of a MG-42 (which I gave to the Airborne museum Hartenstein), a large piece of US camoflage parachute another german M40 helmet and a british dispatcher helmet (both rusty shells) some spent cartridges en some other odds and ends.

The farm where I found these is located at a place called Heeswijk which lies about 4 km from Veghel (101st airborne 1944). The farmers son had collected the items from around the area as he stated.

I am convinced that the helmet is from a fallschirmjäger from Col. van der Heydte's 6th Parachute regiment as they were stationed in the area and also fought a fierce battle against 506 PIR on september 25, 1944.

The helmet does not have the liner to it anymore and it has major battle damage to it as you can see. I have preserved it by spraying it with a thick layer of varnish inside and out and it seems to keep nice now after 4 years of having it.

I also found some nice pieces of british mortar schrapnel under the railway bridge at Arnhem, made of brass they are just as sharp as in 1944!

These are the nicest things I (or we) found, of coarse we also found live ammo... german 20 mm high explosive, brisant shells etc. These are very dangerous as they are very instable after all these years, you only have to look at them and they will go off .... these finds are for our police and EOD and also the main reason why searching is forbidden in most areas. Still lots of "accidents" happen and people still do get killed after all these years.

many regards,

DJ

[landsknechte]

Here are my ground dug items, allegedly taken from the area near Kursk:








About the only thing to be dug around where I live is wayward pocket change and the occasional beer can..

--Chris

[Sturmpnr]

Items dug from Eastern Front 2000

Here is part of the items we found in a series of Russian Trenches and Bunkers in a dig in Demyansk in 2000. Soil type was low oxygen type and items were in fantastic condition. I let the local guys make them inert... Regards, Toomas Salazar

[JustinS]

Here is part of the items we found in a series of Russian Trenches and Bunkers in a dig in Demyansk in 2000. Soil type was low oxygen type and items were in fantastic condition. I let the local guys make them inert... Regards, Toomas Salazar

Wow, that lot is amazing! The condition is a miracle! Any more photos?

Justin

[münster]

Dee Jay

Hi Dee Jay,


Do you think you could let me in on some good locations in NL? I live close by and would love to try my luck there.

Cheers,

Dion

[junior]

Who has pics when he's digging up things? HINT

[münster]

My cam is connected to my PC ,,AND IT SUCKS!!!! nEVER BUY A LOGITEC QUICK CAM TRAVELLER!!!!! I would love to post the pics of excursions digging,,,but you would mostly see me and my friends drinking beer in the forest