- #1
Thread Owner
Hi again
Below are the results of some of my visits over 2009, so I can catch you up with the other forum I go on a lot !!! I'll post a 2010 thread soon.
All these finds were made on old Airfields and barracks in the UK. No shortage of them to search.......as Winston said, we were the biggest aircraft carrier in the world !
So here we go.......
This first picture was one of my most exciting days around the barracks area of an old USAAF base. The base was also used as a POW camp at the end of the war. Things of particular note are as follows. Far left the handle from an M8 flare gun, next to it a loading tool for a sten gun magazine. A relic 'Ipana' toothpaste tube in superb condition, (the guys rolled them up before throwing them away hence, when I unroll them, the paint is perfectly preserved). The gold button is Kriegsmarine with a pebble button beneath it. The spoon has 'AM' and a crown stamped on the handle. Bottom right the inner fuse column for a No.36......intact and unfired. Why on earth they took one apart I suppose I'll never know ! Middle bottom the most exciting of all. Bits of German dogtag and a silver wound badge !
This trip brought lots of coins and toiletries, including German and French coins from WW2.
Interesting finds on this trip as I found where the WAAFs were with the compact and lipstick tube. Also found a 'Perfecta' wooden harmonica that was only manufactured in Germany and never exported so it must have been a POWs. The small telephone with the remains of the light green paint is from a key chain, almost certainly from the set that had the keys to the scrambler phone box as they were painted the colour of the telephone ! Far left is the most interesting......clock face from a spitfire instrument panel.
A short trip the next one so finds were limited. However, I did find a nice RAF cap badge and a US collar tab, along with the front metal filters from a British issue gas mask.
An unusual find in this picture and I've yet to understand how the heck it got there. The identifiable stuff is a British kit bag lock, (or at least one 'arm' of one), a complete razor and a lovely fork which, when cleaned, revealed a very clear RAF crest on the front of the handle. The unusual find ? Item top middle, the dome thing. It has a clear number stamped on it and it has been positively identified as coming from an FW 190. More precisely, the cover for the MG/Cannon selector switch.
This next trip brought the normal spent cartridge finds, totally overshadowed by what I found spread around the base of a tree. One can only assume the coins were left in a pile and a tree grew through the middle of the pile, spreading them neatly around the base. All German, all dated between 1940 and 1942.
Next trip saw yet more exciting finds. Firstly let me make it clear that the .50cal far left is TOTALLY INERT. You can see that there is no blast cap in place at all and the head pulls quite easily to reveal an empty interior. Just to the right of the 50cal a crotal bell, circa 1600 !!! Odd I know but I was bound to find something older than WW2 I suppose ! The silver ring to the right of the bell is actually a good luck charm. The one cent you can see in the picture sat in the middle of the ring.....around the ring are the words 'Keep me and never go broke'. An American lucky charm. Above that a nicely preserved Gibbs dentifrice tooth powder tin. And to the right......an earpiece and the 'speaker' from an American pilots helmet. Beneath that lots of buttons, two of which are German pebble buttons, one a collar button with the company number embossed on it. The thing to the right of the buttons.........the remains of a dart ! Some nice toiletry tubes and the large tin is a razor tin ! Note the spoon with the 'US' stamp on it.
Last picture for this thread and a very nice trip. All the spent 9mm, 380's and 45's were found in one very small hole. Either someone was practising with various weapons or they had collected a pocketful of spent rounds and threw them away. Springs Delight was WW2 jam and the puffer was from a scent bottle. The silver button is brilliant, clearly stamped 'Kriegsmarine 1939' on the back. Best find of the day though was the lead plane. Obviously 'created' by one of the servicemen. On close examination it appears to be a model of a Blenheim.
Another trip came up with a base nut off a No. 36 grenade that was clearly removed before the grenade met it's normal end. Why I shall never know. The larger metal object top middle is clearly marked and tracked down as the MG belt ejector port from the port wing of a P51E. A nice relic brylcream tube as well.
This next trip turned into a .50cal and 20mm bonanza with over 20 of each claibre being found all in the same 'hole'. Took me nearly two hours to get them all out ! Another No. 36 base nut, undamaged with no evidence of it being 'used' and two very nice tea ration tins. The black switch in the middle has been variously ID'd as the switch for the tail light of a Willy's Jeep to the bomb release switch for a BF109 !
All the following finds were made at a B17 base. The condition of the 50cal at the bottom left middle astounded me. The small lead pellets are of ammo crates and the large 'nuts' are transport nuts for MC bombs, probably 500lbers. I found literally HUNDREDS of them at the back of the bomb store area which I found rather odd, as I thought the Americans only fused the bombs at the planes, not in the bomb dump ? The two tail pistols were also very nice, both of which had the cardboard cover in place and, as you can see, have some of the paint visible too.
Last image for this thread is a search that came up with a quarter of a German dogtag that matched a piece found months earlier ! Joining the two together ID'd the soldier as a paratrooper from a regiment decimated in Normandy. Far right top are two thermostats although goodness knows what off. The 9mm you can see is INERT as someone decided to shove a spent bullet back into a spent cartridge, the cartridge clearly fired and the bullet with rifling marks on it. The remains of a braclet with 'Lucky Carter' engraved on it were also found but I never had any luck tracking him down.
Look out for my 2010 catch up thread
Cheers
ww2digger
Below are the results of some of my visits over 2009, so I can catch you up with the other forum I go on a lot !!! I'll post a 2010 thread soon.
All these finds were made on old Airfields and barracks in the UK. No shortage of them to search.......as Winston said, we were the biggest aircraft carrier in the world !
So here we go.......
This first picture was one of my most exciting days around the barracks area of an old USAAF base. The base was also used as a POW camp at the end of the war. Things of particular note are as follows. Far left the handle from an M8 flare gun, next to it a loading tool for a sten gun magazine. A relic 'Ipana' toothpaste tube in superb condition, (the guys rolled them up before throwing them away hence, when I unroll them, the paint is perfectly preserved). The gold button is Kriegsmarine with a pebble button beneath it. The spoon has 'AM' and a crown stamped on the handle. Bottom right the inner fuse column for a No.36......intact and unfired. Why on earth they took one apart I suppose I'll never know ! Middle bottom the most exciting of all. Bits of German dogtag and a silver wound badge !
This trip brought lots of coins and toiletries, including German and French coins from WW2.
Interesting finds on this trip as I found where the WAAFs were with the compact and lipstick tube. Also found a 'Perfecta' wooden harmonica that was only manufactured in Germany and never exported so it must have been a POWs. The small telephone with the remains of the light green paint is from a key chain, almost certainly from the set that had the keys to the scrambler phone box as they were painted the colour of the telephone ! Far left is the most interesting......clock face from a spitfire instrument panel.
A short trip the next one so finds were limited. However, I did find a nice RAF cap badge and a US collar tab, along with the front metal filters from a British issue gas mask.
An unusual find in this picture and I've yet to understand how the heck it got there. The identifiable stuff is a British kit bag lock, (or at least one 'arm' of one), a complete razor and a lovely fork which, when cleaned, revealed a very clear RAF crest on the front of the handle. The unusual find ? Item top middle, the dome thing. It has a clear number stamped on it and it has been positively identified as coming from an FW 190. More precisely, the cover for the MG/Cannon selector switch.
This next trip brought the normal spent cartridge finds, totally overshadowed by what I found spread around the base of a tree. One can only assume the coins were left in a pile and a tree grew through the middle of the pile, spreading them neatly around the base. All German, all dated between 1940 and 1942.
Next trip saw yet more exciting finds. Firstly let me make it clear that the .50cal far left is TOTALLY INERT. You can see that there is no blast cap in place at all and the head pulls quite easily to reveal an empty interior. Just to the right of the 50cal a crotal bell, circa 1600 !!! Odd I know but I was bound to find something older than WW2 I suppose ! The silver ring to the right of the bell is actually a good luck charm. The one cent you can see in the picture sat in the middle of the ring.....around the ring are the words 'Keep me and never go broke'. An American lucky charm. Above that a nicely preserved Gibbs dentifrice tooth powder tin. And to the right......an earpiece and the 'speaker' from an American pilots helmet. Beneath that lots of buttons, two of which are German pebble buttons, one a collar button with the company number embossed on it. The thing to the right of the buttons.........the remains of a dart ! Some nice toiletry tubes and the large tin is a razor tin ! Note the spoon with the 'US' stamp on it.
Last picture for this thread and a very nice trip. All the spent 9mm, 380's and 45's were found in one very small hole. Either someone was practising with various weapons or they had collected a pocketful of spent rounds and threw them away. Springs Delight was WW2 jam and the puffer was from a scent bottle. The silver button is brilliant, clearly stamped 'Kriegsmarine 1939' on the back. Best find of the day though was the lead plane. Obviously 'created' by one of the servicemen. On close examination it appears to be a model of a Blenheim.
Another trip came up with a base nut off a No. 36 grenade that was clearly removed before the grenade met it's normal end. Why I shall never know. The larger metal object top middle is clearly marked and tracked down as the MG belt ejector port from the port wing of a P51E. A nice relic brylcream tube as well.
This next trip turned into a .50cal and 20mm bonanza with over 20 of each claibre being found all in the same 'hole'. Took me nearly two hours to get them all out ! Another No. 36 base nut, undamaged with no evidence of it being 'used' and two very nice tea ration tins. The black switch in the middle has been variously ID'd as the switch for the tail light of a Willy's Jeep to the bomb release switch for a BF109 !
All the following finds were made at a B17 base. The condition of the 50cal at the bottom left middle astounded me. The small lead pellets are of ammo crates and the large 'nuts' are transport nuts for MC bombs, probably 500lbers. I found literally HUNDREDS of them at the back of the bomb store area which I found rather odd, as I thought the Americans only fused the bombs at the planes, not in the bomb dump ? The two tail pistols were also very nice, both of which had the cardboard cover in place and, as you can see, have some of the paint visible too.
Last image for this thread is a search that came up with a quarter of a German dogtag that matched a piece found months earlier ! Joining the two together ID'd the soldier as a paratrooper from a regiment decimated in Normandy. Far right top are two thermostats although goodness knows what off. The 9mm you can see is INERT as someone decided to shove a spent bullet back into a spent cartridge, the cartridge clearly fired and the bullet with rifling marks on it. The remains of a braclet with 'Lucky Carter' engraved on it were also found but I never had any luck tracking him down.
Look out for my 2010 catch up thread
Cheers
ww2digger
tube from the last pic myself a few weeks ago too. In much badder condition....barely identificable. You had a lot of digging some trash pits. I love those. You need to find some aircraft parts! Looking forward for the pics of 2010!
