German relic hunter.. new to this forum

Thanx Thorsten for sharing! Excellent!

I hope more people will read these!

 

Hello Thorsten!

Thanks for providing those links to your excellent story. That is one well documented piece of relic hunting! I very much enjoyed reading about your trip and hope you will add more in the future! I thought the graohics were great too. It definately made me want to go out myself!

Hope to see and read more in the future! Have you been able to document the story about what happened there during the war as well??

 

Hello Kai-Petri and Stevin,

glad you liked the stories. Thank you for the friendly words.

@Stevin:

Site # 1 (the crossroad) was an assembly point at the end of WW 2. A subunit of a SS Panzergrenadierdivision marched from this crossroad into captivity. I think this was May 7, 1945. In the archives I found the written order which led me to that place.

Site #2 (hill 820) was the last known position of another subunit of the same division. It held hill 820 on May 4 to 6. Again, in the archives I found the order to take that position (dating from May 3 if I recall correctly). This order was the decisive hint to locate the place.

Prior to May 1945 neither site had any military or historical meaning.

Bye,
Thorsten

 

This year I was luky to pull out a hedge in Normandy the following...

105mm artillery shell
88mm Anti-Tank Shell
a German Gas mask case

Can anyone give any pointers on the best method of preserving these items? Will try to post pictures of them, the gas mask case is almost complete apart from a bullet hole through it and it seems to have been run over at one end.

They look great on the mantelpiece above the fire in the living room, not sure if the missus agrees with that (she secretly likes them really), but they attract lots of questions...

 

Thorsten, it's great to see you back here again.

I missed your posting earlier this month as I was exploring the foxholes of the Ardennes ( but not as thoroughly as your investigations...).

You stories and photos are really exciting - the discovery of the PPSh for instance ; just amazing !

 

Thanks Martin,

hope your expedition to the Ardennes was a success!

Bye,
Thorsten

 

RedBaron, a couple of pointers for preserving your historic 'finds' :

It depends on how badly rusted they are ( I'm assuming the 88 will be a steel-case, not brass ). If the rusting hasn't gone through ( ie it's not in the 'lace curtains' stage ), then a stiff brushing off of loose rust should be OK followed by a nice spraying over with liquid furniture wax ( 'Mr Sheen' or suchlike ).

If it is lace-curtains, then all you can do is give it a good spraying over with a penetrating oil such as WD40, and repeat a few times until the oil really soaks in. Otherwise, as the item gradually dries out in the centrally-heated environment of your house, you will just end up with a pile of unsightly rust flakes. Repeat either of the above aprroximately every six months or so.

Do NOT do anyhing drastic such as heavy wire-brushing or even sand-blasting ; the relics will just fall apart.

If the shellcases are brass, then you have no problems.

The other big enemy of such artefacts is wives/mothers/girlfriends : in extreme cases historic items have been known to mysteriously vanish without trace in the collectors' absence.....

 

As Thorsten has 'resurfaced', this original thread is *bumped* for newer members ( and older ones with fading memories ! )