Australian WWII - Far North Queensland Metal detecting and recovery

[AT P Sweep]

My off sider found a fantastic Story about an Australian ID tag that another bloke has found ~ The bloke posted his story on his Farce Book account.

( Took a few mails to establish that the ID tag was found in Bunbury West Australia ~ )


He was member of the 2/4th Machine Gun Batt. And at the end of the day ~ he was captured in Malaya and was confined t the Changi prison till 1944. After which he was transported to The Burma site but obviously survived !


The confusion on my part is that the 2/4th Batt. was also based here in Far North QLD and I have frequented the site regularly


But the amazing part was that he actually did an interview which he told the story of the unusual & unique ID tag ~

Apparently he told the story that he retrieved part of a engine plate from a crashed Zero at the Changi airport ~ while ~ he was actually a POW ~

"We made various articles out of the aluminum that was obtained , such as wrist bands for identification and put our colour patch in them which I cannot find the one that I had , but the colour patch you would put on your wrist with the aluminum on it and that was your identification and would walk around with identification". Unquote.

( I got an error message on the interview )

Transcribe



( This tends to be endorsed by the 2001 ABC story of "Changi" ( the mini series.) Some may recall the series about six Diggers as in today (2001) and the reflections of their POW lifestyle and the fact that in the early days they were essentially allowed to wander around the district unescorted ! )

But in the interview he spoke about the ID tag which he lost ~ and now in 2017 his tag has been found ~

I for one would be in touch with the family and the folks that did the interview to complete the story ~

He passed away in 2003 ~


https://www.awm.gov.au/unit/U56173/

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[AT P Sweep]

I did a little more research on the Aussie Hero McCann LW ~

Well he should have been listed under amazing character ~ He was along with other Australian troops summarily put before a firing squad after surrendering to the Japanese ~ before eventually going back into captivity a second time ~ and put in a Japanese Hospital ~

02 Nov 1945 - SURVIVED FIRING SQUAD. - Trove

I also found a further NLA reference to his being a witness in War criminal proceedings post 1945!

[AT P Sweep]

I did manage a Hunt a few weeks back now~ solo ~ and targeted a well worked area but this time I deliberately aimed for the top of a grassy knoll which I believe has been off putting for most of punters ~ be it just too hard ~ or afraid of the Joe Blakes ~

The grass certainly intense and dense on the ground with copious Singapore Daisy and a multitude of other grasses ~

I set the CTX for deep retrieval and had a very pleasant couple of hours ~

Score of the day was a worn 1913 KG V Rule Britannia penny ~

Had to be an import as Australia had it's own coins after 1911 ~ I dare an Australian Digger bought it back form the North African theatre ~ ore even the UK ~

Mine is not quite a tidy as this example but you get the idea ! LOL

No shortage of scrap brass ~ plus a fired artillery case primer and the webbing buckles ~ The ring is an off cut from a two pounder shell case!

And the molten mass at the bottom is ~ believe it or not ~ the remains of a (hat) Rising Sun !!! Hmm does this constitute #61 ?!

The piece ~ centre right is actually brass battery cable terminal with a very badly corroded steel bolt ~ You can bet your sheep station that one got the mixed signals going ~ Bluey ~

[AT P Sweep]

Well ~ pretty quiet around here of late but finally gained access To a new site ~ but to access that we had to gain permission ~

It was definitely a rural / farm site with unknown WWII military occupancy ~
Two of us headed over last Saturday ~ and dodged the bullet on the iffy weather of late ~ in fact in two hunts on the site ~ we were fortunate as the weather has been very dodgy of late right back January ~

Anyway the high ground was a bit of a miss ~ but I soon found some very old detritus int he form of huge chain links and miscellaneous hardware ~ The right in the middle I came up with a $1 Goldie ~ !?

Not more then ten minutes later I scored another Rising Sun ~

So game on ~ Rural and military presence ~

The grass was pretty hard work and varied from intense to virtual open ground ~ to boggy water logged ground ~

But the amount of trash and detritus was staggering ~ bits o machinery ~ oddments and even heaps of broken glass ~

We found several beer bottle bases which are good indication of time frame.. ~ dated 1941 and 1944~

Also found concrete foundations of a ablutions block ~ which would certainly indicated a mass cap area of troops ~

The area was actually amongst other units ~ an Engineering Corp ~

1944-11-27. CAPTAIN L.J. HILL, ELECTRICAL AND MECHANICAL ENGINEER HQ 1 CORPS (1), WITH LIEUTENANT COLONEL C.V. ANDERSON, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF ORDNANCE SERVICE HQ 1 CORPS, (2), INSPECTING A PROJECTOR INFANTRY TANK ATTACK PROJECTILE.





1943-11-02. VX16165 CORPORAL G. MOOR OF "A" AUSTRALIAN CORPS OF SIGNALS, TESTS ALONG THE ROUTE WITH HIS PORTABLE TELEPHONE IN SEARCH OF A LINE FAULT.




1945-03-26. A PORTABLE STAIN WINDOW PAINTED ON WHITE DUCK CANVAS BY CAPTAIN I.M. MCBAIN, ROYAL AUSTRALIAN ENGINEERS, FOR THE PROTESTANT DENOMINATION CHAPEL AT HEADQUARTERS 1 CORPS.

What at the end perplexed me that we always find coins ~ pre decimals ~ but not a single solitary coin emerged on the site ~ ( I actually wonder if some else has been there previously with a MD tuned to purely to coins and silvers ~ ??)

The variety of stuff was enormous~

After Smoko I headed off again on my Pat mah ~ and I soon uncovered a stunning item which I NEVER expected to see ~ even in Australia ~

It was part of a radio communication cable spool ~ German Army ~ ( I recognized it immediately~ ) Unfortunately being ferrous metal it was way too far gone ~ But I was stunned ~

Merete my partner found the photo of the WWI German troops ~ so this may well have been a standard production right through to the end of 1945 (?)

( I am sure there are much more well informed members on site ~ whocoudl clarify even further ~ )

I dug three stirrups ~ a primus fuel stove/ light ~

I was puzzled by these concrete forms ~ as there was so many of them ~ <10> all laid out in alignment ~ Dwayne suggested they were excess stocks of concrete (bags) simply left by the military work crews ~ after completion of the nearby ablutions block ~ makes complete sense ~

I took home a salt shaker top ~ a 1800s Umbrella piece ~ the bullet cases f
But in two trips some unusual stuff to say the least ~ and a huge variety !~ We even found the nearby creek banks were embedded with large amounts of trash and metal ~

Last shot if of the various buckles ~ the salt shaker top and the Umbrella piece cleaned up ~

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[lithgow]

Cable spool might have been a useful piece that was souvenired in North Africa-that German WW1 pic is very early-Pickelhaub on the Officer says pre 1916 and no trenches of any note-may have been taken in training as cameras weren't very portable or easy to use under battle conditions at the time.

[AT P Sweep]

Cheers mate ~ always appreciate yours and the other bloke's input ~

I agree on the item being bought back ~ and certainly a "nice " but bitter sweet find...

As I always advocate ~ "You just NEVER know what you are going to find in this game " eh ~

[AT P Sweep]

More finds misc. found on the site ~

The 303 cases were Bren gun fired aka ~ typical Bren gun slotted firing pin foot print ~

The ring is huge ~ < 12> dia. Perhaps used to tethering the occasional rogue elephant ? )



The bin lid was in such good condition I thought it was brass or alloy but no ~ ferrous metal ~

Water bungs ~ WWII alloy ~ not included ~ plus misc. smalls ~ a lot of 'tease' evidence of the military ~ including such as 'Dixie' tray handle ~ more cutlery ~ spoons ~

But nothing more spectacular ~ just enough to keep us interested and scratching around ~ The amount of machinery parts and off cuts plus ~ unusual broken glass items was staggering ~

[AT P Sweep]

Well ~ the weather has been foul of late and thsi weeknd is no exception as Winter closes in ~

I spent time working becoming proficient with Computor and the Minelab Detector ~ turned out be great fun on a wet miserable day~

I then headed out on a reasonable day to field test the CTX remapping ~

The site was one of my first sites and now years later si worked to death by every bloke , his dog and MD!

Plus I wanted to relocate a deep target in the area ~ which I had left previously due to the depth and the water logging ~

I spent a few hours and well pleased with the remapping ~

I think the target~ if the right one ~ is a cast iron pipe ~

No outstanding targets but still pleasantly surprised considering such a well worked site ~

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[AT P Sweep]

Last weekend we did a couple of short hunts as the weather was actually reasonable for a change ~

First we did a run up into the Herberton Hills to check out a site which a mine and camp site in the 1950-60s ~

Of course the site was well worked by 2017 but we figured we would have look anyway ~

The dam is man made, and was very effectively created by simply bull dozing a narrow but deep ravine !

Pretty hard country , like most mines ites but a pleasant outing regardless~

The site had been burnt off ~ but not much but trash and detritus was found ~

DM found neat buckle ~ ( THe advertising even promises it will get the Girls in ! )

We then headed further on to check out a back road which accesses WWII site/s including gun pits and firing ranges ~

Also the site of a colonial family memorial sign is ~

[AIF]

Been doing a bit of cleaning up of some of my fifty Cal. BMG rounds and cases after my off sider was going to dispose of a small bag of shells and cases .

In the lot was some three fifty cals. and an unusual .45 acp round ~

First stage into the 'snake oil' ( which is primarily designed for cleaning up silver coins but I found it works very well on brass as well~ )

Attachment 1057012

I am currently using my orbital sander mounted in the vice with moderate grade wet and dry ~ and finish off with a 1500 grade W&D. by hand and polish !

I know many like to retain the original patina ~ I do have an intact and 'live' round soaking in oil ( for 12 months now1) which I am undecided about ~


Attachment 1057013

Obviously finish varies from those recovered from the soil, those fired and non-fired ~ to those which have never 'hit the dirt' ~

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Then when I was cleaning up some of the projectiles I have accumulated ~ I took the grunge off a particularly grotty one to find ~ Opps it has a zinc/ nickle coating ~

Long story short it is a Vickers tracer round !!!!!!

Attachment 1057016

In the end I have a fifty BMG case which has had the projectile ripped out as rougly a Bush dentist would pulla swaggies's molar!

The Vickers fit all but perfectly and looks the part even if it is a 'lie'!

Attachment 1057017


Then the last round which was donated my a mate turned out to be a nice surprise ~ 1937 FA

Attachment 1057018

Attachment 1057019

But still a few more to go ~ mot including the 'modern' post War era types ~

Attachment 1057020


Attachment 1057021

Some unmolested ~ some partially cleaned and ~ One original Aust Digger's WWII souvenir acquisition ~

Attachment 1057023


About 1/3 the way through the lot!

Attachment 1057024


Attachment 1057022

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They have come up great with a clean and polish!
That nickle plated projectile isn't for a vickers it is actually a Boys anti tank rifle round.