168 replies to this topic

[hudsonswhistle]

here we are

[Ice tiger]

I may be new to this forum but I have seen these same arguements, sorry points of view, expressed in many other threads.

The original posting was what is your best find, NOT is the keeping of battlefield finds in agreement with your personal views. Amazing how many replies seem to have missed this.

No matter how many times this subject is debated THERE WILL BE NO ANSWER ACCEPTABLE TO ALL.

We all have our opinions on whats right & wrong. Don't missunderstand me, there are grey areas but each person's grey areas are diffrent.

Using the example of say a relic canteen (I wish, or does that give my view away) seen lying on the surface.
Person one thinks great find & takes it home without any further thoughts, finders keepers.
Person two believes that it will only be taken by someone else if they leave it there so they take it home as it's removal is now justified.
Person three thinks it would be best left for others to see but being in a newly ploughed field, it will rust beyond recognition in a short while if left, so takes it to preserve it.
Person six takes it but makes a GPS note of its position to alert the relevant authorities.
Person seven leaves it where it is and believes that it should rust into the ground, earth to earth, dust to dust etc.

The point is ALL OF THE ABOVE ARE RIGHT! It just depends on your view point.

Now can we please all agree to disagree & get back to the topic in question.

My answer to the original question is an english coin from Plug Street. If only it could talk.

Andy

[KevinEndon]

Found bits and bobs, a horse shoe was good but to find a collar bone and other bits of human remains really touched me and the lads I was with. As the sun was setting over Deville wood we reburied the small amount of remains and for some reason those famous words came into my head. At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them. I and the other lads with me will never forget that moment.

The field had been recently ploughed and the bones were at the edge of a field. The remains were buried where they will no longer be disturbed by a farmer and the soldier can now REST IN PEACE.

[trenchtrotter]

Sticking totally to the question....

I have been lucky to have found a number of pieces of insignia. My best and first was a Manchester City battalion shoulder title in Train alley March 1995. When I picked it up I felt an electric shock type emotion/feeling. One day I will return it to the field it came from.

Was I denying a man his last chance of ID. Absolutely not! was on the surface and even if a body was found within metres no one could make a link. The plough may have dragged it metres and it may have been on the surface in 1930, reburied and moved, reexposed in 1940, buried and moved only to resurface 1970..........until it found me in 1995.

I treasure it, have shown it to others and respect the memory of where it cane from

TT

[tafski]

nice one  TT   helmets  bayonets  used cartridge cases and the like can be  found  all over the place  after ploughing how many times  have  pals  seen this  for themselves  stuck at the  edge of a ploughed  field  where if the farmer has  had time  has dumped them there and how many times  have  tourists picked em up as a souvenier ? this i cant  and  dont have  a problem with. live  ammo ect  is def  a no no

tafski

[Max]

Now can we please all agree to disagree & get back to the topic in question.

Andy

Thanks for the lecture.....maybe you should have taken your own advice.

Andy

[tafski]

here here  max

tafski

[Trenchwire]

Andy

Thanks for the lecture.....maybe you should have taken your own advice.

Andy

hmmmmmmmmmmm

[Mark Cable]

An early French hand grenade (I was told).

My wife wouldn't let me bring it back through the tunnel

Attached Files

•  Grenade.jpg   91.65K   3 downloads

[Garron]

Was the grenade still live?

if it wasn't I don't blame her for not letting you, if you had been stopped with that, customs would have turned your car into a mechano set.

Gaz

[Trenchwire]

Here here Garron i cant believe some people would even think about bringing something like that home,that grenade is obviously alive and whats more i take my kids on that bloody tunnel, nice to know someone like that could be parked in front of you   well done to your mrs.

[Garron]

Thanks, The normal assumption is that after 90 its harmless and wont go bang, in the words of Captain Bertorellia ('allo 'allo) 'Whata mistaka to makea'

Gaz

[Mark Cable]

Was the grenade still live?

if it wasn't I don't blame her for not letting you, if you had been stopped with that, customs would have turned your car into a mechano set.

Gaz

I took it to the newly opened Old Blighty tea rooms opposite the road the entrance to the Lochnegar crater where I found it. The owner who has a small display of such ordinance told me that as it was a black powder grenade it was not likely to be too much problem as the powder would deteriorate after 90 years although it was still live and still possibly dangerous. He was having his garden given a full service by someone with a metal detector to remove any such stuff before planting a lawn and letting his children play out there, he put the grenade in a bucket of water until the man who deals with this sort of thing came to take it away.He told me an interesting story that a few weeks earlier a farmer had ploughed up a Mills grenade and the fuse still ran to 4 seconds so that his tractor and plough were just far enough away when it exploded......

One reason I didn't leave it where is was sitting (on top of the ground 20 yards from the crater) was that two coaches of school children had just arrived and I wasn't too keen to watch them play cricket with it....

Mark

[ianw]

Would any one in their right mind seriously contemplate putting a munition into their car and then try to import it into the UK. If there is a scintilla of a possibility  that it might be live, it should be avoided like the plague.

At the very least, you are inviting a world of aggro from HM Customs. I note Mark's little funny but will let my comment stand.

It is also inevitable that any thread about battlefield finds will end up discussing the morality of keeping such finds. This is because this latter facet of the subject is much more interesting than the "I'll show you mine, if you show me yours" opening question. By the way, my best find was a trench whistle.

I share Max's view of members who dish out thread relevance lectures and then bore the trousers off everyone by attempting a magisterial summing up all the digressions that they are complaining about!

No doubt when the poster has been a member of this forum for more than a fortnight, he might get a grip of it's etiquette, post more moderately and stop peppering his postings with INTENSELY ANNOYING CAPITAL LETTERS. These don't make a statement definitive.

Although digression can be a pain, it can also be one of the great joys of this Forum. I feel that once you launch a thread out onto the unpredictable waters of the GWF , where it goes is out of control, whether it withers, flourishes or transmutes.

[Garron]

Fair enoug,h you had it checked out, but in the way you wrote it it did sound like you had picked it out and just wanted to take it home.

Gaz

[Mark Cable]

Dear all,

With regard to my beloved and now departed grenade. I was trying to be rather tongue in cheek about my wife not letting me keep it. I only took it the 100 yards to dispose of it.

I refer you to my post of four months ago in the classic thread "What do we all do for a living?" to explain why I'm probably aware of the rules about importing such finds....

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/i...st&p=594287

Cheers
Mark

[auchonvillerssomme]

never ever try to make tongue in cheek comments about this subject...they take you far to seriously...although I dare say the word 'seriously' will now be jumped on, it being a serious subject of course.

I'm off now to do a bit of welding on my petrol tank.

Mick

[willy]

[quote name='Mark Cable' date='May 20 2007, 01:37 PM' post='690652']


well mark, if you were on duty at say Dover and you found a possible live grenade, how far would you carry it?

[Mark Cable]

well mark, if you were on duty at say Dover and you found a possible live grenade, how far would you carry it?

To the sea wall!