Ground dug

[Eric K.]

Theres no doubt that there is some danger involved,But some ammo doesnt become more dangerous after 60 years but almost inert.Last month they found a 500 pound bomb in Kaiserslautern ,they used a bulldozer to move it .cased ammo USUALLY is no problem to handle but i wouldnt mess with arty,grenades,AT ammo etc....Since i've been in the Army i've delt with alot worse,maybe it desensitized(??) me to ammo??

Eric.

[mietek]

But some ammo doesnt become more dangerous after 60 years but almost inert.
Eric.

May be true, but problem is that you never know 100%, which is more and which is less dangerous. So better to treat all as dangerous.
Some artillery shells were filled by picric acid (lack of trotil). After many years in the ground picric acid react and we have picric salts, which is very sensitive .

Using buldozer to move a bomb. Possible, if it was concrete practice bomb, quite common on old airfields. In other case I would prefere to be far from that place.

best

mietek

[Eric K.]

I think it was a U.S. bomb and i agree i would stay ffaaarrrr away!!!
Its possible they deactivated it before the move ( I hope)
Eric.

[Eric K.]

One quick question for you

(I think Erics findings are from airfield used by Germans (20mm+Lebel+Mauzer) than by Allies(303, 12,7)).

Why do you think this is from an airfield?
Eric.

[Zünder]

The 2 cm rounds are all luftwaffe, 7,9 was also in use by the luftwaffe.
8 mm Lebel was used by second rate troups, who often guarded airfields.

.303 was used by royal airforce, 12,7 by US airforce.

The assumption that the ammo was found on or near an old airfield makes perfect sense.

[mietek]

Hi

Exactly as Zünder wrote, especially that 20mm was with part of the belt.
Of course it could be also ammo storage area, or place of ammo deactivation, but usually in places as that are destroyed shells and 20mm will be without belt.
20mm were stored in boxes (inner from metal, outer from wood), each round (bullet) in the paper tube, not in the belt.

20mm air ammo is very rare. It was also used by ground troops, but in very limited quantity. Airfield is the most logical. Was it old airfield?

Best regards

mietek

[Eric K.]

It wa no where near an airfield ,its on the top of a hill in the middle of the woods with Pieces of a knocked out panzer and some fighting position.There might have been AA there but thats as close as the luftwaffe got.Any ideas why this ammo would be there?

Eric

[mietek]

Hi.

20mm on ground mounts are very rare. I found only 3-4 places where they were used (lots of shells). Lebel is very common on German positions.
What else did you find there? Shrapnels? Empty or destroyed ammo? Pieces of aluminium?

Best regards

mietek

[Eric K.]

Found alot of shrapnel i've posted the story somewhere else but cant find it but basically there was a big German position on this hilltop and the Americans assaulted it from the bottom. By the craters it looked like it was hit with a pretty big Arty barrage and then right behind the trench and fighting position there aare 3 BIG craters maybe 250-500 pound bombs?? There are two rouund positions on the end (mg?) with a trench about 25 meters long between them theyre maybe a foot deep now and the craters are maybe 2-3 feet deep but theres no doubting wht it is.

Eric

[Eric K.]

Oh yeah this is also the place i found the BAR it was maybe 100 meters from the fighting position.heres the link to the BAR

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ad.php?t=58890