Soldier Bling & Trench-art
- Inka
- Aug 30, 2021
- 5 min read
Autumn is beginning to show her face around here now. The evenings have become dark again. The morning air is crisper. The wind is carrying needles and the green hills are now dotted with yellow. The forest floor is deep green and flaming red and is filled with berries. I have a feeling this season will be shorter than last years`..
We strolled into the woods which was now fairly dry after having been showered well the last days. Our mission was as it often is when we visit this forest, berries, mushrooms and treasures.
We hadn`t been here since october last year so I was excited when turning on the metal detector. Girlfriend was picking berries and I checked some signals given by the metal detector. When I was digging up a rusted can she nodded to the ground next to where she was standing, "Did you see this?" she asked.
I had not seen it. She had found some large bits of metal poking out from under the moss. It was a pair of large steel spring suspensions together with several brackets. The best thing though was a large jack for a German vehicle . It is of course rusted but I think this one easily can get new life. It`ll be a perfect jack to have in my VW T4.
Around some small birch trees were a ton of different signals. Just a few meters away from where I had found lots of coins and such on our previous trip here. I took away the top layer of moss and let the pin pointer guide me.
It pointed me to coin after coin. Uniform buttons, a K98 muzzle cover, and lots of 7.92 rifle ammo that had exploded in a fire. Between those I found several bullets as well, but a couple of the bullets drew extra attention. They were obviously "B-patronen" that had a small explosive charge, and it had also exploded, tearing the bullets open. I spent an hour crawling around the birches before Girlfriend returned with 6 liter of Crowberries wanting a tea break. That suited me fine so we enjoyed a break sitting on a carpet of moss, enjoying life, listening to the forest and were lucky enough and got a little entertainment from a squirrel too.
I had a small section left around the birch trees with still some signals so I removed the moss and picked out a few more of the exploded casings before luck really struck. I found a ring! The face of the ring was a brass shield with the Finnish lion, and it was attached to a brass band. A really great little find I am very happy with.
Not long after I got another great find. I had uncovered a small decorated square, it was attached to another square with two metal rings. I thought it could be one of those Lapplandfront medals so it got my pulse up a little. I dug more of the item free and then I saw it was a bracelet made up of several of these square links. One of the squares was decorated with a polar bear, another had a reindeer with a sled and a third had a viking ship and the ones between those had some flower decoration. This was also one of those finds that will find its way to the display cabinet.
We moved a bit further into the forest and kept at if for several hours more. I didn`t find much though. I stumbled upon a little pile of rifle ammo, some oven parts, another coin (again a Finnish one) and the strangest find of the day, a musical note sheet stand.
In a pit, under a lot of rocks I found a brass plate, with two holes on the top. I don`t know for what it could have been but my first thought was a gong for the kitchen. Something to call the troops to dinner with, like a gong..perhaps..
Girlfriend had filled two enormous bags with berries, and discovered a couple of dumping pits for me. But it was getting late and we had a big job ahead cleaning berries so we loaded up our findings and tumbled our way through the forest back to the car.
It had almost been midnight before we had finished cleaning the berries so it was a late start this morning. Girlfriend had to work but I wanted to do some more searching. It was a very light rain but it had been pouring down all night, so the minute after I stepped into the forest I was soaked.
I opened up two small dumping pits. One had only garbage, but the other one had two or three non-garbage items. Three field torches, but one of them was broken,a Scho-Ka-Kola tin and a beautiful candle holder made from a signal flare! Trench-art, that is like relic-gold. Always a one-of-a-kind, so personal and it is like touching the history. I am a huge fan of such soldier art.
It took a little while but I found back to yesterdays dumping pit and began searching around the first one. It was a lot of signals and apparently it could be anything. The first two signals I dug there were a nail and a coin. Then I found several track pad brackets, and a few more coins. All the coins but one were Finnish. The odd one out was a Norwegian from 1940.
I opened up one of the corners in the dumping pit and that was a bit of a struggle. A strong network of roots, then rocks and roots before more roots, but below that was a good layer of relics. I pulled out food tins, medical ampoules, coins (again with the Finnish ones!!) buttons, and more of those brackets.
A few perfume bottles, a leather EKM pouch and two handgrenades. A M39 egg, and a M24. The egg was empty but the M24 had the sprengkapsel in place so I dug it down rather deep.
It was already getting close to dinnertime and the rain began its pouring again so I thought it was best to head home. But that dumping pit will be on my mind till the rain stops and I can get back to it. Just too bad it is supposed to rain a whole lot for several days now.
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