Signs of the Gebirgsmarine

When I went back to the small relic dump I found it as I had left it, except a pile of fresh moose droppings next to it. I stuck the bayonet in the ground and sure, the rest of the ice had thawed away.

I worked along the edge of it and freed a small shovel and a knife, a rotten field torch and a couple of coins. Except a small porcelain jar and its lid little more than rusted nails and a food tin came out from the ground.

I filled back what I had dug out, put the top soil back in place and tidied up and checked the area around. Just half meter away I found a pocket knife, a spork and also a nice k98 muzzle cap.

Apparently the mosquitoes had lunch at the same time as me so naturally my food ended up tasting bug repellent...

Searching around randomly led me to a small dug out full of signals, and with a few pieces of metal poking out of the ground. Opening it up and scraping away some soil reminded me how important it is to use a tool and not the hand for this work. A big sharp piece of glass was sticking out from the messkit I was removing soil from.

The messkit was a bit dinged up and missed its lid, but I am hoping to find some engravings on it when cleaning it.

A couple of hours later I had to get back home, but I had some promising finds. Crate parts, batteries, several knives and tools, bottles, a toothbrush and some bakelite bits.

Two days later I was back and spent many hours digging, scraping and lifting rocks and rust. I found some Einheitslanterne parts, a big axe head which I wonder if might be of Soviet origin, radio parts, a shotglass and a quite nice orange smoke candle.

On the bottom of it all was some woolen cloth, then a uniform button. I turned it around and it was a Kriegsmarine button. Here, high up in the valley, almost on the mountain, so more like a Gebirgsmarine. A funny find. Several more buttons came out from the soil and when I lifted away a bit of asphalt cardboard which had been used to cover the roof of the dugout, my pulse rose a little bit.

A Gefreiters rank chevron badge was about the only bit of cloth left of the uniform jacket that had been discarded here. I carefully removed it from the soil and put it in a small box intended for fragile items.

Continuing digging the next find was even better. At first I didn`t get what I was looking at but soon enough I knew I had the flag holder from a vehicle. It was in great condition, painted white and almost no corrosion or staining to the metal at all. The flag itself had been painted on a piece of plywood which sadly was all gone.

I got through the rest of the dump without any other good finds, but after having filled it back in and tidied up i checked around the edges I found a signal flare casing in exellent condition.

Now even the more deeper ground frost is thawing away, the spring rush at work is over, the garden and potatofield is up and running, so now there is little else to do than roam the forests :)

Have a great week :)

Knife and a small shovel.

The large piece of glass sticking out of the messkit could easily have made a mess of my day.

I wonder if it is a Soviet/Red Army axe.

KM buttons.

The Gefreiter chevron.

Flag holder for a vehicle.

Lunchtime in the green is always lovely.