E.T.`s Silver
- Inka
- Aug 12, 2024
- 3 min read
On my first trip out with the detector this week I went to the Luftwaffe field hospital for some searching and digging. A button, a few rifle casings and a glass syringe were the only items that didn`t directly fall in the `garbage`category after four hours of searching. The luck had totally evaded me on this trip, but I was in good spirits, the weather was nice and I had enjoyed digging up every signal.
The next day I wanted to visit the camp with the marsh where lots of leather items and helmets had been dumped. The last couple of months have been warm and dry so I was hoping the water level would be lower than usual.
I was glad I hadn`t forgotten the bug repellent in the car, coz I was going to need it. The marsh seemed to have shrunk a bit, but the air above it was vibrating from tiny flying biters.
I stuck my arm into the marsh to the depth of my elbow when I had contact with relics. It was a bunch of k98 leather frogs. Other than that the stitching had rotted away they were in great condition.
I fished out an intact gebirgsjäger boot and several bits of helmet liner leather, chin straps and some k98 ammo pouches.
Checking around a little for iron signals resulted in three or four fragments of german helmets. The conditions aren`t exactly healthy for metal on this site.
Around the marsh I picked up another few not-so-good signals and dug up three more helmet wrecks. They are only fragments but I think some of them can be made into some cool displays.
Some of the better signals around were a handfull of helmet liner bands made with high quality aluminum.
Heavy loaded on route back to the car I found a gigantic bike pedal. Looks like an ordinary truppenfahrrad pedal, but is far thicker and heavier. Did some wartime motorcycles have such as starters?
A few days later I made another trip. This time to the gebirgsjäger camp where I found the three badges a few weeks back. This time I was just almost that lucky again.
Hours had went by, it was pretty warm, the bugs tried to drain me, and every signal I dug were rubbish. Not even a rifle casing.
I was walking around, searching and checking, and writing a report in my mind about such trips, where nothing remotely interesting surfaces and how not to loose motivation. At that moment the detector delivered a clear and steady signal.
Directly under the grass, in the fine sand was a monogrammed silver ring staring back at me. "E.T" was engraved on it.
A bit of the band was broken and missing, but the detector couldn`t pick it up anywhere, so prehaps it had broken before being tossed away.
That find got the motivation back in place for sure. I kept going for another couple of hours but after who-knows how many signals the only other relic I brought home that day was a Norwegian coin, a few parts from a crate and a modern VW logo for a car.
Yesterday I wanted to re-visit a place I hadn`t been to for a few seasons. Many people have searched this forest, but still I managed to find a couple of helmets and some good stuff on my previous trips.
It took a little while before I found back to the place, but when I stood there it was like being home again. I knew my way around these trees.
The only difference it felt like it was emptier, farther between good signals, and I saw fresh traces of other diggers. Again I didn`t have much luck with finds, but a few cream tubes, casings and coins were tucked into the backpack. I also dug up an old timber axe, a large padlock, the solex from an engine, a horse shoe with a plate mounted on it, maybe a trench-art project, and the lid for a field kitchen pan or pot.
We can see the early signs of fall here now, and the forests are overflowing of berries. The GirlfriendWife and I picked lots of blueberries, strawberries and rasberry this weekend, so now the entire house is smelling of fresh jam :)
Thanks for reading, and here is to a better week !! :)
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