SWEATYSOCK
Jr. Member
Was surprised to find the remains of two mortar bombs in a field in Northern England.They were obviously spent so I had no worries picking them up.The landowner mentioned that there had been a Tank Regiment based in the area during
WW 2.
I took the items along to the local Regimental Museum where the curator showed me some dummy rounds that were part of an Arnhem display.They were 2" mortars and could be fitted with different types of warhead,so mine could have been practice or smoke rounds although prior to finding them I had been getting a lot of 'iron' signals in that area - shrapnel ?
I also got a brief and surprising history lesson -
As the Axis forces advanced in North Africa,there was concern over the security of the Suez Canal and the shortcut from the Med to the Indian Ocean.
An idea first mooted by a Royal Navy Commander in 1915 to use high intensity lights to dazzle the enemy was put into action.
CDL or Canal Defence Lights were to be mounted on Matilda and Churchill tanks. Unfortunaely this involved removing the main armament until American Grant tanks became available which had more room on their turrets.
The light was produced from a carbon arc which shone through a 2" by 24" slit in the turret and produced 13,000,000 candle power.The light from 16 tanks allowed a newspaper to be read at the dead of night in the local town 5 miles away !
The whole operation was "Hush Hush" and King George VI and Winston Churchill both visited to witness demonstrations.
The tanks were shipped to France just after D Day but were'nt used offensively until the crossings of the rivers Rhine and Elbe and then just in a secondary "search/spotlighting " role.Which led to various military sources speculating that an opportunity to shorten the war in Europe had been missed.
Apparently there were 6000 troops stationed in the area when the land was commandeered but unfortunately for me I only have permission to search on about 40 acres at present and am unlikely to get any more.Gonna have to hit it hard and see if I can pull up a few cap badges and WHY.
WW 2.
I took the items along to the local Regimental Museum where the curator showed me some dummy rounds that were part of an Arnhem display.They were 2" mortars and could be fitted with different types of warhead,so mine could have been practice or smoke rounds although prior to finding them I had been getting a lot of 'iron' signals in that area - shrapnel ?
I also got a brief and surprising history lesson -
As the Axis forces advanced in North Africa,there was concern over the security of the Suez Canal and the shortcut from the Med to the Indian Ocean.
An idea first mooted by a Royal Navy Commander in 1915 to use high intensity lights to dazzle the enemy was put into action.
CDL or Canal Defence Lights were to be mounted on Matilda and Churchill tanks. Unfortunaely this involved removing the main armament until American Grant tanks became available which had more room on their turrets.
The light was produced from a carbon arc which shone through a 2" by 24" slit in the turret and produced 13,000,000 candle power.The light from 16 tanks allowed a newspaper to be read at the dead of night in the local town 5 miles away !
The whole operation was "Hush Hush" and King George VI and Winston Churchill both visited to witness demonstrations.
The tanks were shipped to France just after D Day but were'nt used offensively until the crossings of the rivers Rhine and Elbe and then just in a secondary "search/spotlighting " role.Which led to various military sources speculating that an opportunity to shorten the war in Europe had been missed.
Apparently there were 6000 troops stationed in the area when the land was commandeered but unfortunately for me I only have permission to search on about 40 acres at present and am unlikely to get any more.Gonna have to hit it hard and see if I can pull up a few cap badges and WHY.
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