Piles of Rust & a Little Silver

Yesterday it was finally time again for a trip out to the woods together with Jimmy. He has been busy this summer trying to make wine into water, but luckily his holiday has ended so we could get some searching done.

We met at the landowners place and there it was talk about a large garbage dump the guy recalled from childhood. While me and Jimmy began searching around the property the guy jumped on his ATV and sped off to try located the old dumping place. When he returned all we had found relating to the wartime was a food tin and a few rolls of barbed wire.

Having got directions we strolled off across the field and into the forest. A few meters in on the bank of a dried out side arm of the river were piles of rust laying. We could spot a soup container in all the mess. Jimmy pryed it loose but it was missing the lid and was full of hardened tar.

The dump seemed to contain a lot of vehicle bits and we began piling the useable pieces on top of the river bank. From under a steel plate Jimmy dragged out a super looking Panzerhandlampe. A rare find and one of the best examples I have seen come out of the ground.

We found a small part of a motorcycle fender still with the license plate attached, and a dinged up and partly ripped vehicle license plate. Those will be fun to sink into the oxalic bath. Several shovels and axe heads had been dumped there, but we didn`t find much other tools.

I bet the locals back then took most of the things they could use around the farms for themselves. I found a door from a vehicle. I am not sure which vehicle it belongs to but it is similar to a Horch door. It was in really good condition and I am very excited to clean it up. Jimmy moved across the riverbed and in the middle of it he picked up a smashed Einheitslanterne. While I was piling up the last of the serviceable bits he found a second pile of rust.

​ A partly destroyed kettle from a fieldkitchen was the first item I spotted, together with several large rubber wheels. We removed a layer of wires before going through a thick layer of items rusting away.

Here we found Noteks lamps, both front- and rear lamps. Part of a RSO wheel, a Finnish canteen and a bakelite bodied horn from a vehicle.

Then weapon related parts began coming out from the side of the river. One bakelite grip, from a MP38/40 I think, a bolt for the same and a MG bolt. Some parts from an MG lafette and several MG spare barrell containers, one of which in amazing condition.

We were lucky it was such a dry summer, if not we would have needed scuba gear to find and save these parts. I filled the backpack as much as possible and was barely able to get it on my back, and it was a sweaty and painfull stroll back to the car. Of course lots had to be left on the bank, but will be collected at first oportunity.

Now we headed off into the Gebirgsjäger camp area to see what was hidden under layers of moss and roots there. We spent a couple of hours checking signals and a few good items surfaced. Jimmy got the best find straight away. Silver jewelry. A pendant with a piece of amber. And later he dug up some coins, 5- and 10 Reichpfennigs.

I dug up a tiny stove. A toy I thought, but when I turned it upside down I noticed in the bottom was a pencil sharpener. Then I found a german tent peg in aluminum, and several karbid lamps.

Then I thought I had a helmet! But it was a partly crushed vehicle headlight. A couple of vehicle- and equipment ID and instruction tags got put into the pockets and I spent a little time getting a steering wheel loose from some sturdy roots.

Just before we were out of energy and called it quits I dug on a rubbish signal that prooved to be a quite nice find. A vehicle license plate! And the last item to be dug up was a 5 cm cannon casing!

The day had been a great success, we had found relics we were happy with, gotten lots of fresh air and become slimmer and fitter :D

The weather people are talking about big amounts of rain in the coming days, but I hope they are wrong, coz there is more rust and berries to collect before the season ends :)

A nice ashtray.

Jimmy with his Panzerhandlampe.

License plate.

MP38/40 grip plate.

My pencil sharpener.

Jimmys silver.

The tags we found.

I cleaned up the spare barrell container: