Legenda Military Archaeology Expedition Autumn 2016
- Inka
- Oct 18, 2016
- 6 min read
I flew out from Northern Norway early on the morning and before lunch I stepped out of Riga Airport and jumped into a Taxi. About half way into the city the driver began texting his phone at the same time as he turned onto the main road and BLAM!!
From behind a large trailer smashed into the side of the taxi almost throwing it up on the sidewalk.
The road was covered in car parts and broken glass. Luckily the driver of the trailer had been more aware than my taxi driver and didn`t hit us straight on. Then it would have been the end of my expeditions. We were not injured, I only had some pain in my knee, wrist, elbow and ribs, so I got the driver to call me a new cab and a few minutes later I was checking in to the hotel and met up with my friends.
Early next morning I woke up a bit stiff and bruised from the crash, but feeling fine and ready to dig, and rushed down to the reception to find out who had won the hangover competition. This time I was so happy to not win, it was Anton who was the lucky one and he really looked like he was suffering.
We went to the pick up point and met up with the Latvians and drove towards a forested area just outside Riga.
On one side of the road were some fields and a small forest where it had been a Russian WW1 field hospital, and on the other side a forest where it should be field-and massgraves.
Because of it being a somewhat protected area we could not use any heavy machinery so these graves had to be dug with the help of shovels and muscles. We brought shovels, probes and everything we needed from the cars and set up a table and a big barbeque as diggers need food.
More diggers arrived and soon the site was busy. With the probes and some test pits the first graves were located and we began working. After a while several large holes had been dug and the first signs of soldiers began to show.
As soon as the tips of the soldiers boots poked through the sand the work slowed down as great care must be taken and the remains is cleaned from the sand by the help of trowels and brushes.
By lunchtime several of the lost soldiers had been uncovered and could be lifted out into bonetrays and bodybags. Most of them had remains of their greatcoats and a few still had their caps on. With the detectors and pinpointers any metal items on and around the soldiers were located and placed into small plastic bags and put in the bodybags together with the soldier remains.
Roberts was in charge of the BBQ and coffee making so he too had a busy day as the diggers were gathering around him when they grew hungry and thirsty.
The day went on like this and more and more soldiers came out from the ground and in the evening we had recovered 33.
When the sun set we called it a day and the we were dropped off at a local hotel in Kekava where we were staying for the weekend. After a half cooked dinner at the local pizza place we all went to sleep as we had had a long day.
Saturday morning we had a nice breakfast at the hotel and Duksi and Talis came to pick us up around 0830. Today Talis had called in several other Latvian digger groups to help us as we had no idea how many graves it could be at the site. So as the morning went on more and more cars parked by the road, and before lunchtime the forest was a busy place.
We continued the work together with the same great care as the day before.
The graves were around 1,5 -2 meters deep, and since the soil was fine sand it was always the risk a wall would collapse. This happened in one of the pits where Steve, Gary and Jon were working. A soldier was laying under a large tree with lots of thick roots so Steve had sort of tunelled towards the soldier when the whole thing collapsed on him, luckily he was dragged out immediately unharmed just full of sand.
At lunch we were served hot soup which was delicious and when all the diggers were full and fresh after the rest the work continued.
Soldiers were recovered, holes filled back and new ones opened and when one digger was tired another one took his place and everyone seemed to help eachother as best they could.
If someone didn`t find something to do Talis always had new things for them to do, gather firewood, pick up garbage or bring up new bodybags and bonetrays.
Towards dinnertime we were called to gather around the table, two of the diggers, Gatis and Ilgonis were awarded the badge for finding lost soldiers, and they were both plastered with big smiles as a celebratory toast for them went around the group.
At one point when it had been decided to only dig one more row of graves as time wouldn`t allow much more to be done. So some of us found our detectors to do a little search in the surrounding area. We found lots of Arisaka and Mosin ammo and some live artillery shells. Me and Kim went to search the field hospital but didn`t have much luck. Kim found a strange rifle casing which we thought could be some kind of hunter ammo but on closer inspection it turned out to be two casings modified into a pencil, a very nice little find.
In the evening 32 soldiers had been exhumed and all the pits filled back. From archives we had names for 20 of the soldiers and some more searching will be done on the site at a later time.
Back in Kekeva we were not all that eager for uncooked pizza so we found the other restaurant a few km away from the hotel. It was a very cozy little place with some great food and very friendly atmosphere and we had a fantastic evening together and didn`t leave before it was time for them to close up a bit before midnight.
Early Sunday morning we were ready for another day in the forest. Today we drove to a place called "Machinegun Hill" where christmas 1916 saw fierce battles between the Russians and the Germans.
Seeing the idyllic forest with soft rolling hills covered in trenches, bunkers and shell craters was a bit surreal. Some diggers had arrived before us and were already busy recovering a few soldiers they had found in a trench. We spread out in all directions sweeping the metal detectors in front of us.
I took directions towards a nearby hill and dug every signal I got, and it beeped everywhere. I found shrapnel, lots of shrapnel, japanese, russian and german rifle ammo and even a few ww1 Brennzunders from handgrenades, and a few live 77mm German artillery shells. Also shrapnel balls were found everywhere as they give off a good signal.
When we gathered for lunch some cakes were placed between us and we had a small celebration of Roberts birthday, and I ll tell you it is one of the best cakes I have ever had (sorry Mom, but they were amazing).
One of the diggers had a long iron signal and began digging it and soon a ww1 Mauser saw daylight again, a superb find.
Someone found a piece of a German EKM but I think most of the guys found mainly shrapnel and shells, nothing spectacular was found.
Late on the afternoon a trenchline was dug and suddenly bones came out from it. Several lost soldiers were being exhumed and it looked like they had all died from a detonation and it was found rests of a exploded handgrenade between them. Before we left 9 soldiers had been recovered on the hill.
People had flights to catch in the evening so when the sun was dipping behind the treeline we collected our equipment and had to say goodbye to eachother.
I arrived home to a cold and frozen Nordland and immediately sunk into a light post-expedition depression but meeting my funny cats again sorted that.
I want to give a big thanks to our bossand hero Talis and the rest of the latvian crew for making this great expedition happen, and a big thanks to the other digger groups that helped us recover the ww1 graves.
Until next time, stay happy and do someting good :)
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