168 replies to this topic

[KIRKY]

Not sure if it has been asked before, but what are Pals best find on the battlefield?

Mine is a cut throat razor from Serre named and traced to an Accrington Pal 1st July casualty?

I have found quite a bit of other stuff but this is a great personal find!

I have never and would never use a metal detector so please do not include these finds.

tony

[Anzac16]

Well show it us with picture's    
mine is a ink pot
i got it from the Verdun battlefield

i will make a picture later this day

[Anzac16]

and this to
a long rubber booth

and this is the inkpot

[Dave_59]

How do you guys find this stuff.
dave

[Anzac16]

Just be lucky  

i don't have an detector
that inkpot i found a long time ago near Verdun
i think it was in the 1980

[KIRKY]

OK here is a picture!

[Tim Birch]

Found near Serre

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[Marco]

Every find is special to me because of the object found, or the location, or the circumstances, or the company at the time, etc.:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~aur/Debris/Debris.htm

Regards,

Marco

[egbert]

Guillemont; Lee Enfield cleaning set

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[egbert]

Artillerieluger; Merville

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[Peter Beckett]

This piece of helmet badge found near Switch Trench, High Wood last year.

See link below


http://1914-1918.org/forum/index.php?showt...06&hl=high+wood


Peter

[Anzac16]

Artillerieluger; Merville

WOW
that is a great find  

[paul guthrie]

I , foolishly, entered a partially collapsed German dugout & found nearly intact pottery type jar which I gave to a collector, also a period wine bottle which I kept. Argonne forest near Crown Prince bunker.

[cooper]

I found a picklehaube spike also near the same bunker. Although also found a nice German Belt Buckle at the Jumping off place for the furthest advance made towards Verdun, finishing at Ft de Souville.

Regards,

Cooper

[Max Poilu]

Not my best finds but here's a nice cross section of typical things found in a few days walking.  Framed to mark my son's first visit to the Somme last year (age 6 months!).

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[KIRKY]

what a great way to remember a first trip! I will do the same for my son who has just registered on the site as kirkyboy!

Tony

[Morval Ross]

Hi Pals,

No serious finds I am afraid, but I was in Tommys Cafe Last year  around the end of september.  There were some Belgian guys diving in the crater in High wood,  They pulled out a complete Lee Enfield with Bayonet still attached, also a Cavalry Sword and a stand for a german maxim machine gun.  The Lee Enfield was in superb condition.  I do not have an electronic copy of the picture but i will try and have a friend of mine scan it and I will post it.  I was not in anyway involved with the actual find and I do not agree in anyway with the activities of these belgian lads, but it was a very strange feeling to hold a Rifle in such good condition that up until an hour before had not seen the light of day for nearly 90 years and to think of the bloke who last held it all those years ago.  very moving I have to admit.

ross.

[BMoorhouse]

An apparently common find on battlefields are old rifle ammunition - seemingly unfired.

I would imagine that they are probably still lethal, and therefore avoid them. Is this correct?

Brendon.

[Max Poilu]

An apparently common find on battlefields are old rifle ammunition - seemingly unfired.

I would imagine that they are probably still lethal, and therefore avoid them. Is this correct?

Very common indeed.  They can be cleaned, loaded and fired just as effectively as the day they were dropped or lost.  The complete rounds, fired cartridges and fired bullets are all easy to find.  The empty fired cases and fired bullets are perfectly safe but the complete rounds while not inherently as dangerous as a live grenade or shell are totally illegal to own and should be left alone.

The apparant 'complete' round in my picture above is an empty fired case with a fired bullet re-inserted for display.

[11thargyll]

hi, i don't wont to come across as a grumpy old git but do you think that taking stuff from the battlefields is the right thing to do? once removed from its original position its value as an archaeological object is lost. one day, if everyone took stuff when visiting these areas, there will be nothing left. maybe taking cap badges, buttons etc does no harm but, to give an example, if any of you had the opportunity to dive on the wreck of HMS Hood would you feel comfortable about taking artifacts from her knowing that over 1400 sailors perished in her? legally shes a war grave so by law you couldn't but thats not the point. far more soldiers we killed on the western front and many thousands still lie where they fell. personally i  feel they and there equipment should be left in peace. what do you do with the stuff anyway, put it on your mantlepiece? i suspect most wives arn't happy with that arrangement, so they end up in the bottom of a drawer somewhere! i may be completely wrong on this but i suspect many people would agree, Arch

[Marco]

They can be cleaned, loaded and fired just as effectively as the day they were dropped or lost.

Hello Giles,

If you don't mind me asking, is this fact or opinion?

We cleanded something like 15 .303 rounds and tried to fire them with a SMLE. None would 'go'.

Regards,

Marco

[Marco]

Hello Arch,

Some observations:

-

do you think that taking stuff from the battlefields is the right thing to do?

I completly agree with you. People should leave these things where they are and contact me so I can verify the find.

-

if everyone took stuff when visiting these areas, there will be nothing left

Exactly the feeling I had when I visited Hastings (Battle) and Agincourt.

-

what do you do with the stuff anyway, put it on your mantlepiece?

Yep. Apperently the trick is to find a wife that matches the furniture and not the other way around.



Regards,

Marco

[bkristof]

I have a nice collection of skulls in laying my back yard. And also a lot of nice collectables like badges, boots, etc. But i don't dig...

[egbert]

Marco,
you're my man

[Max Poilu]

Arch, have a search for this subject - there have been many, many discussions on your points of view - some for, some against, most somewhere in the middle...

Marco,

That is really interesting - I bow to your practical experiment.  It is something I have read in a few places and I had presumed it is perfectly feasible.  I guess everything must be dried out well but again I am only quoting what I have read.

Did the primers fail or the cordite or both?