herr
Newbie
Hello guys
Being a newbie here and reading all those interesting stories and finds, I decided to "stick" around here.
During my childhood years, being born and raised in Flanders, Belgium , I have discovered alot of things but unfortunately have no pictures of them to show.
Just to share some of my experiences.
Me and a friend used (still now too) to love to play in the bunkers which were plotted all around the country side.
Many dating back to pre-world war 1 (early 1900's) and some of World War 2.
Now just to play in those was enough excitement for a militaria buff like us, but then deciding to take a small shovel and a chisel added more fuel to the fire.
So we headed off, going to a bunker we called "the potato bunker" as in it was in the middle of a farmers potato field.
It was bricked up but some bricks were missing so we chiseled our way in.
My friend was too scared to go in so I went in.
Except for a few old wooden shelves there wasn't much to see but then I nearly tripped over something stoicking out of the ground.
Dug it up and it was a thin piece of metal, rounded, with bulletholes in them.
Later I thought it to be a piece of bucket.
Pretty stoked about it I pulled it all out and discovering a bone underneath.
It was a long bone, thick, and since the opening is too small it must have been human, it did look like a thigh bone.
Scared as I was I jumped out and we both ran.
We were like 11 and scared so we didn't go to the cops about it or told anyone, which I now really regret doing.
The bunker has now been demolished.
At 15 years of age I joined an amateur archaeological group and we set out under the supervision of archaeologists, to excavate an medieval abbey in Ename (which is now a tourist attraction).
It was an amazing experience, from animal bones, to mural paintings to medieval coins.
One day they found a priest's tomb, it was amazing, the coffin had rotted away revealing the skeleton and a gold chalice pressed onto his sternum, probably from when the wood rotted away and the heavy lid falling on top of him.
The golden chalice had red Ruby's on it, it was beautiful.
Also a few years before that while on holiday at the beach with a youth group, the supervisors made up games for us.
One of them was finding buried coke bottles in depressions in the sand.
So off I went, while everybody piled up in the middle I started at the edges.
After a minute I started to realize that with each scoop I did, a handfull of bullets came flying out.
The area full of WWI bunkers as well as WWII it is not hard to determine where they would have come from.
I so want to get a metal detector and start snooping around this place here in NZ , after collecting militaria for more then ten years and the ridiculous high prices nowadays I need to find another history related hobby
The thrill of history it is just awesome
Regards
Herr
Being a newbie here and reading all those interesting stories and finds, I decided to "stick" around here.
During my childhood years, being born and raised in Flanders, Belgium , I have discovered alot of things but unfortunately have no pictures of them to show.
Just to share some of my experiences.
Me and a friend used (still now too) to love to play in the bunkers which were plotted all around the country side.
Many dating back to pre-world war 1 (early 1900's) and some of World War 2.
Now just to play in those was enough excitement for a militaria buff like us, but then deciding to take a small shovel and a chisel added more fuel to the fire.
So we headed off, going to a bunker we called "the potato bunker" as in it was in the middle of a farmers potato field.
It was bricked up but some bricks were missing so we chiseled our way in.
My friend was too scared to go in so I went in.
Except for a few old wooden shelves there wasn't much to see but then I nearly tripped over something stoicking out of the ground.
Dug it up and it was a thin piece of metal, rounded, with bulletholes in them.
Later I thought it to be a piece of bucket.
Pretty stoked about it I pulled it all out and discovering a bone underneath.
It was a long bone, thick, and since the opening is too small it must have been human, it did look like a thigh bone.
Scared as I was I jumped out and we both ran.
We were like 11 and scared so we didn't go to the cops about it or told anyone, which I now really regret doing.
The bunker has now been demolished.
At 15 years of age I joined an amateur archaeological group and we set out under the supervision of archaeologists, to excavate an medieval abbey in Ename (which is now a tourist attraction).
It was an amazing experience, from animal bones, to mural paintings to medieval coins.
One day they found a priest's tomb, it was amazing, the coffin had rotted away revealing the skeleton and a gold chalice pressed onto his sternum, probably from when the wood rotted away and the heavy lid falling on top of him.
The golden chalice had red Ruby's on it, it was beautiful.
Also a few years before that while on holiday at the beach with a youth group, the supervisors made up games for us.
One of them was finding buried coke bottles in depressions in the sand.
So off I went, while everybody piled up in the middle I started at the edges.
After a minute I started to realize that with each scoop I did, a handfull of bullets came flying out.
The area full of WWI bunkers as well as WWII it is not hard to determine where they would have come from.
I so want to get a metal detector and start snooping around this place here in NZ , after collecting militaria for more then ten years and the ridiculous high prices nowadays I need to find another history related hobby
The thrill of history it is just awesome
Regards
Herr
