Bog Lids

Judging by the temperature, rain, fallen leaves and the abundance of berries and mushrooms in the forest one can say that autumn is here. I had hoped that summer would last another 5 or 6 months. Now it looks like I need to find rain clothes and woolen underwear and gear up the searching a notch so I can gather enough rust for the winter. And berries. Need to pick a few kilos of those. The blue ones. They are the best. It goes without saying that the rust is most important of course. So I spent yesterday searching in the Gebirgsjäger camp.

The forest was wet and it felt cold kneeling down to pin point a signal. The Fisher F5 had shown me a patch full of metal and I had been taking away nails and a couple of cream tubes from it and was hunting for the last item hiding itself in the black soil. Its round shape finally gave it away and I could pick up a button.

A crowned eagle. Polish. Hm, how did that end up here, must have been some Polish POWs together with the Gebirgsjägers.. I thought.

I began walking down the slope towards the marshy area where I found all the leather bits a couple of weeks ago. I dreamt about finding great things there. But I needed to get there first, and I didn`t move fast since I had to check signals along the way.

Now I found another small area with lots of signals. It almost looked like someone had been emptying a backpack or a crate. Under the moss were a broken porcelain plate, a k98 cleaning kit, some buttons, two pocket knives, gaming pieces,perfume bottles and cream tubes. In the very edge of the spill, stuck under a root I found a Wound Badge! It was missing the needle and was made of steel, but still, awesome to find.

By the marshy place, which I actually think is more of an overgrown old pond than a marsh, I threw the backpack under a tree and went to check the place with my detector. I found bits from gebirgsjäger boots and several leather frogs for k98 bayonet scabbard and a few ammo pouches.

Some weaker steel signals caught my attention and I got a bit of a dip in the water when trying to reach the metal. It was fresh, but I could feel the shape of a helmet so it was worth the soaking.

The lid I pulled up to the surface was black from all the years in the silt under water. It had three small holes in the dome and lacked the leather liner but looked to be in nice condition. That was such a cool find! I stuck my arm back into the water and felt around. Sure enough I had another one! This time it was only half of a helmet, the rest had rusted away. The next ten minutes I found fragments of four more helmets. I kept searching and found a canteen, Soviet or Finnish, and some shoes.

I was drenched. Not a dry spot on me, and the backpack was getting full. I wandered slowly towards the car, checking signals and eating berries. I found and dug a small trash pit that had some food tins, signal flares, trench candles, spoon, knife, cream tubes and a k98 dummy rifle casing. No coins or more medals though, prehaps they will be found on the next trip :)

Have a nice weekend :)

A Polish button.

A Wound Badge!

Some relics to fill the pockets with.

A small buckle.

A cut down signal flare casing.

7.92 dummy round.