305 replies to this topic

[maldon]

Better one here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsHslzodBzA&NR=1

Yes, brilliant programme. I got this on DVD for Christmas.

Thanks for highlighting this.

SPN
Maldon

[PBI]

If any Member requires a DVD of the complete Series of "Finding the Fallen" please PM me for details.Regards Russ.

[jdajd]

Jon,

I visited the Somme for 12 years before a "significant find"...then every year I seemed to find a badge simply by walking the ploughed fields.
For the last two years of plenty of walking....nothing, yet my companion a few meters from me found the Middlesex and Kent badge in two days...they find you and not the other way round.

Regards

TT

Guess I'll just have to keep going.  Hope my wife accepts this excuse.

Jon

[seadog]

TT my experiences are the same as yours, just three examples:

All day walking near Hop & Ale Trenches, Delville Wood – Nothing
Friend arrives from shopping and Bingo! he finds a Manchester Regmt shoulder badge.

Death Valley, Mametz Wood walk. Guest who had never been to the battlefields before finds a Canadian ID tag laying on the surface.

Fricourt, friends sons just cannot stop finding things including a Calthrop in excellent condition plus a small mirror with German writing on the back. I reckon it is because kids are lower to the ground.

Many more instance too distressing to note, still just the act of walking the fields is to my mind one of the best parts of a visit to the Western Front and the only way to get an appreciation of the ground.

Regards
Norman

Edited to add:
Just one more, Stopped car near Bazentin Wood on road to Longueval. Small boy gets out walks a few feet into a ploughed field and finds a German Belt Buckle with "Gott Mit Uns" on it which no form of bribery can make him give up!.

[Deerhunter]

About as respectful as taking the photo's in the first place. Personally I find your moralistic stance completely and utterly hypocritical.

Andy

Strong words, Andy.  People may take photographs for personal reasons, but may prefer not to publish them on a public portal such as this.  Not really hypocritical, but a separation of the public and private domains. Live and let live, my friend.

Back on thread, I have found lots of bits and pieces, all anonymous, such as empty cases, artillery fuses, and similar.  I was, as a boy, nearly thirty years ago, given a Manchesters shoulder title and some clips of ammunition by one of the CWGC curators at a cemetery in Ypres (Essex Farm) following the re-burial of a British soldier they brought in from the fields.  That was in 1983, but with hindsight I wished I'd asked for the soldier's name and details then.

[Agh57]

Only 3 shrapnel balls for me (2 from the Somme and 1 from Ypres) one was on the road at the Sheffield Memorial Park) and some exploded shell cases. Mind you I was quite excited when I picked them up.

I did come accross 2 grenades on the surface of a field near Ramcourt. They were visible from the road. I had a look and took some pictures but left them alone.

I will have another look when I go at Easter. It may be my middle-class guilt but I always feel someone is goinng to appear and have a go at me (even if I follow all the accepted conventions about not going on crops etc.)

[brucehubbard]

A couple of years ago, I was in Mill Road CWGC, just after it had been raining. I think I picked up about a dozen shrapnel balls in about 10 minutes.

Last June, I was guiding a school party, and we had walked up the track towards Sheffield memorial park. Standing with my back to the first cemetery, I was waxing lyrical about the Pals battns., and the four copses, and went on to try to explain what shrapnel was. Glacing down for a moment, taking breath, there on the ground exactly between my feet was a schrapnel ball. I picked it up and passed it around, so the pupils then all stopped listening to me and began starring hard at the ground, wanting one of their own! The teachers, a cynical crew, accused me of planting it.

Should you be desparate to get some of them, Patrick, in the Shell Hole bookshop in Ypres, has a large plastic bucket of them. Ferretting through the bucket, I was able to find a Napoleonic musket ball, and a couple of the post-1916 German steel balls. Worth a look, at at 10c each, not expensive.

Bruce

[seadog]

The scrapyard in Fricourt was an excellent source of memorabilia with oildrums full of shell fuses and shrapnel balls by the ton. Also a small hill of shell cases and plenty of rifles in appropriately distressed condition. Does anybody know whether the yard is still there?, it was always a favourite stop on a trip to the Somme and at least you could guarentee taking home a few shell fuses etc.

Norman

PS:  Friends young lads were trained in field walking by having shrapnel balls surreptitiously dropped in front of them so they could find something by themselves. Anything good they found was immediately confiscated on the grounds of "Health & Safety" of course, the rest they could keep!.

[PBI]

http://www.flanderland.de/locations-orte/spanbroekmolen/

I took the following Photos of the Live and spent Cartridges in my Friends Mothers Back Garden at Spanbroekmolen,this is only a fraction of the stuff that She has found over the years.Please scroll down the page to view the Photos.Regards Russ.

[seadog]

Truly amazing PBI, so I take it that you have a reasonable collection of cartridge cases?, by the way that web site is one of my very favourites and Malte is doing a great job!.

Regards
Norman

[PBI]

Hi Norman,Malte hasnt had such a great time of late what with one thing and another,and he does do a great job with his web site,as for my own personal collection Mrs PBI is threatening to leave me unless i drastically downsize the collection of WW1 related material...i might well downsize Mrs PBI to a Wooden Box rather than get rid of my beloved collection...

[trenchtrotter]

Norman,

Its all luck of the draw!!! I think we all have similar experiences. Its the walk and experience that counts but a find whatever it is is a nice "icing on the cake" so to speak!

Re Serre, a friend and fellow pal on here walked out of the main gate of the park ( just where all the parties congregate) bent down and picked up a lovely large Accrigton Pals button with the regimental device clearly visible!

I was a meter from him....bah!!!

TT

[seadog]

Hi Norman,Malte hasnt had such a great time of late what with one thing and another,and he does do a great job with his web site,as for my own personal collection Mrs PBI is threatening to leave me unless i drastically downsize the collection of WW1 related material...i might well downsize Mrs PBI to a Wooden Box rather than get rid of my beloved collection...

What an excellent and pragmatic attitude PBI, well done for showing such common sense.

Norman

PS Sorry to hear about Malte I hope things improve for him whatever the problem.

[Ice tiger]

Only a couple of lead balls & a few bullets from the edge of clearly defined pathways.

I am always unsure of the law in regard to "field walking" in France/Belgium and thus extreemley wary of walking on agricultural land. This stems from having had a shot gun discharged without warning in my general direction in Oxfordshirea few years ago. Not an experience I am in a hurry to repeat.

Andy

[trenchtrotter]

Andy,

I can only speak for France and in particular the Somme....

As long as you are not walking on crops or seedlings generally the farmers are ok. I have been asked to leave two fields in 24 years and always in a polite way. Likewise I have been in a field with workers who have not batted an eye. Other parts of France are however less accomodating.

TT

[brucehubbard]

Norman,

Its all luck of the draw!!! I think we all have similar experiences. Its the walk and experience that counts but a find whatever it is is a nice "icing on the cake" so to speak!

Re Serre, a friend and fellow pal on here walked out of the main gate of the park ( just where all the parties congregate) bent down and picked up a lovely large Accrigton Pals button with the regimental device clearly visible!

I was a meter from him....bah!!!

TT

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I must have missed that button too!

Lucky s*d!

Bruce

[CROONAERT]

What's an 'Accrington Pals button'?   They didn't have any distinctive insignia.

Dave

[auchonvillerssomme]

Only a couple of lead balls & a few bullets from the edge of clearly defined pathways.

I am always unsure of the law in regard to "field walking" in France/Belgium and thus extreemley wary of walking on agricultural land. This stems from having had a shot gun discharged without warning in my general direction in Oxfordshirea few years ago. Not an experience I am in a hurry to repeat.

Andy

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Get back out there.

Mick

[trenchtrotter]

Dave,

Standard east lancs but from where it was.......had to be a pals chap.

Regards

TT

[Dawleyjockey]

About 9 years ago with a fellow forum member we found a 4th city 'Kings' (Liverpool Pals) shoulder flash and a MGC shoulder flash within 1metre of each other near (Or what was ) Arrow Head Copse - Maltz Horn Farm, 6 years later on the Trones wood side of the road I found a 1897 Indian Rupee.
Looking forward to the start of this years Visit(s)

[CROONAERT]

Standard east lancs but from where it was.......had to be a pals chap.

Ah...I see, thanks for that. Sorry to cast doubt, but wouldn't you think it was more likely to be a 1st or 2nd (or 4th/5th) Bn button from one of the 'Somme Day' visits of the 1920's/30s (and beyond)?.... (It was a very rare Accy Pal (even officer) who would have been wearing an ELR button on 1st July 1916 (practically all the ORs were wearing standard GS or plain brass buttons on that day). ELR battalions were also in the area later in 1916 and also in 1918 - there were even East Lancs territorials in the vicinity (still dressed in SD - and all with ELR buttons) during the winter of 1939/40).  Chances are actually stacked against it being a pals button!

Dave

[trenchtrotter]

Dave,

The thing is we will never know?

Regards

TT

[auchonvillerssomme]

Sounds like the confusion around the West Yorkshire Regt officers button my wife found on the west side of Delville Wood.

The coins are interesting - I have come across a small hoard which contained a variety of British, French and a Canadian 10 cent piece. The 2 gold pieces are mint and the silver came up fantastically in silver dip. This was found after some very deep ploughing in the remains of what I first thought was a leather ammunition pouch.

Mick

[59165]

The coins are interesting - I have come across a small hoard which contained a variety of British, French and a Canadian 10 cent piece. The 2 gold pieces are mint and the silver came up fantastically in silver dip. This was found after some very deep ploughing in the remains of what I first thought was a leather ammunition pouch.

Mick

Years ago I bought a bag of brass bits from a farmer at Billy Berclau (nr.Lens).
Apart from all the drive bands,fuzes & stuff,there were some tin bits etc.plus...about 30 Roman coins.
The amount of Asterix stuff found in France every year in WW1 spots is suprisingly large.

Dave.

[auchonvillerssomme]

I wonder what archaeolgoical digs have taken place in the past, particularly in the area around places like the Butte de Warlencourt. It is cited as an ancient burial mound. In the summer I want to have a look and ask around the museum at Amiens.