Few simple relics from the Netherlands

[Menno]

Hi,
I live in the Northern parts of the Netherlands in a small village.
During the end of the war in 1945 Trains were being strafed between Leeuwarden and Groningen.
I heard some people found bulled in the fields so I went out with my detector to search also.
To my big surprise I found some also. Never thought I would find items from the war in my home town.
I found two bullets and one bigger item what looks like anti aircraft or at least bigger calibre.
The strange thing is, the bullets are magnetic! I thought only the Germans used steel bullets, or was this only during WW1? One has a strange open tip, see pics. Any identification or comments on these would be nice...
Any idea what kind of fighter planes would come over here?
Cheers Menno
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[phil337]

thos two are probably 50 calibre what is the size?, the one with the open tip could be armour piercing incendiary, the bigger one to me looks like 20mm, i would be very careful handling this, as it could be explosive it lookes fuzed on the end. especialy if the other one is explosive tipped incendiary too!, they may have spent 70 years int he groumd, but still are very dangerous

[hassiman]

Those are American 50 cal. AP rounds. The other looks like a 20mm HE round and is VERY dangerous. Call the authorities and do NOT move or handle it.
I have a friend from Holland who had 1/2 of his face blown off by one of those... and he had been handling them for years.

You may also want to know that digging up that 20mm round could land you in jail. It is VERY VERY illegal to dig such things up in Holland.

In the future if you come across anything like that leave it in place and call the authorities. Any other course of action will either get you killed or in SERIOUS legal trouble.

[Menno]

Thanks for the advise, the smaller ones are like .303 calibre or 7.62. I think there was a german practice range near also.
The bigger one could be 20mm in size, I will take action to get it safely removed.
Was this one also fired by the fighter or anti aircraft?
cheers, Menno

[hassiman]

The 20mm looks to be german. Was fired by both the FW-190 and the ME-109. It has the same fuze on it as a disarmed German 20mm "Mine" round I have sitting on my shelf at home. They were designed so that if they were fired and did not hit the target they would supposedly self destruct. This is why the fired projectiles are so dangerous. ANY WW2 ordinance is extremely dangerous and it has become unstable with age.
Under NO circumstances try to remove a fuse from a projectile as most high-order explosives were poured with wax, which over time outgassed in the heat leaving Nitroglycerine crystals in the fuse threads. Twist it and BOOM. Sometime even move it and BOOM! But likely you would never hear it....

[Martin Bull]

US WWII .50 rounds as used in aircraft were 'boat tailed' ie slightly tapered at the end, whereas the rounds in the photos are parallel to the end.