LOLCold Flame -Charles Hope Cold Flame refrigerators, electric and kerosene, 1940's-50's.
Now you are finding caches of badges? Aw, that's just rubbing it in! I'm not jealous ... really.
Oz
OZ ~ thanks for the heads up on the Fridge fixture ~ I am sure I had seen it some whee ~ still a few around when I was a kid I guess ~
As the cache ! ~ Yes A Stunning find indeed ~ not just a cache but complete with the enamel ~ I mean HOW COOL is that ! ~
As suggested earlier I am having a few days off work and yesterday decided / planned another hunt on the farm nearby ~
After talkign with Peter for a while I headed out ~ he was stuck with doing typical farming chores ~
I had decided to do a "boundary recce" of the entire area ~ skirting the known entrenched areas ~ expanding the borders as it were ~
I searched the paddocks out further ~ but Iwas amazed at the amount of ferrous trash and detritus. Most this I beleive was littel to nothing to do with Military presence int he 1940s ~
As I worked around to the rear areas I came across what I reckon was a post war period rubbish dump and the original residents of the farm residence used a dump and burnt off every thing they could ~ more detritus and nothign more useless than burnt detritus!
I worked to the eastern border and fence line but found little evidence except for the annoying < 80 mm steel rings which we beleive are pipe joiners used by the military in transferring water to the camps ~ Annoying as they are prolific and regularly found in the camps ~ and can be found some distance from the camps.
In this case the water I am sure was pumped from bore/s placed in the bottom of the near by creeks ~
I did find a n very old rider's stirrup which is a cool find ~
Looks good but deceptive, as it is veined with creek beds ~ dense grass~ snake country~ and a < 30 deg, slope!
Absolutely nothing ~ relics wise or evidence of occupation~ all the "action" was on the top of the rise.
Peter joined me for a hunt behind the house after he had done his “domestics” with the edge trimmer !
When I approached him, he was struggling with his MD. and had removed the battery for his Pin Pointer to power the MD .
Firstly he could not ID or locate a target he was digging ~
So I jumped in with the CTX and my pin pointer ~ the target turned into a Duffle bag lock ~ which he confessed he had NO idea as to what it was ~
But then he announced he had misplaced his digging tool and was using a length of square tapered ( corroded ) steel rod he had found ~
It was about 30 cm long with a right tang on the top ~ tapering off to a spike ~ About 50 mm below the hand grip on the top was a knurled horizontal threaded knob~
I laughed ~ loudly ~ “Mate ~ do you have any ideal what you have here ? “
He told me had found it on the top of the rise ~ He had used it so frequently the rust and corrosion had been removed purely by digging friction.
He was visibly impressed when I announced he had dug a Field radio earthing spike !!
My spike find ~ his has a wiring attachment knob ~ Mine is high tensile steel ~
I believe this site has been bulldozed severely and ~ as happened at Black Gully ( environmental education centre ~ side ) ~ the top soil was bulldozed into heap/s ~ and then ~ trucked away !!!
Home at 15:30 ~
I found no evidence of the Batt./s~ in the area of the recce for the second time ~ the reference map is wrong ~ although ~ to the upper extreme left may be an option to recce too ~
The three units on the site included the 2/1st Machine Gun Batt.
MALANDA, QUEENSLAND. 1944-12-11.
PRIVATE W E MASKELL, (1), AND PRIVATE R A FLETCHER, (2), MEMBERS OF A COMPANY, 2/1 MACHINE GUN BATTALION, ENGAGED IN EXERCISE "RAMPANT", MANNING A VICKERS MEDIUM MACHINE GUN AT LAMMON'S HILL BEFORE THE FINAL ATTACK.
We reside at Malanda ~ Ref : above ~ we did a hunt at Lammon's Hill several years back and found no trace of the occupation in the 1944 Exercise !
4,001
Last edited by AT P Sweep; 03-16-2018 at 08:32 AM.
seems I have found the Spur Identity I found yesterday ~
World War One issue 1916 ~
Spur Skinner Co. 1916 (1)
Standard Military Issue WWI 1916
There were a lot of variants on the kits but i am happy to run with this description ~
Page not found | National Museum of Australia
One Aust Digger’s kit ~ looks like the same spur to me ~ An intriguing short read ~
Okay ~ maybe it never been any where near the Middle east in 1916-1918 ~ but then who knows !
In fact there were some 40 K horses dispatched with the Australians to the Middle east ~ at war’s end ONE~ ONE horse was returned ~ that is SO tragic !!
F*&(*()&kin politics ~ not too expensive to ship these soldier's OWN horses over there but then not to return the survivors to Australia ~
Just maybe a returned Digger of WWI ~ resumed life as a cattle man as most were ~ Maybe the spur DID see active service and was returned to Australia along with the Digger ~
We can never know ~ all we know it is a standard issue cavalry man’s spur ~
It makes my ~ our hearts sad when we see or hear of these light horse regiments in WWI ~ even the fact that so many had to leave their horses in Egypt and then die at Gallipoli ~ Rotten times ~
But as a light horse unit/s ~ They achieved SO many great victories ~ including the last great cavalry charge in History at Damascus ~ and then merely brushed aside !
Least we forget
Horses were still a large part of the army at home in WW2 both for the Militia and the VDC until well into it when vehicles were available in numbers-horses were much used for coastal patrol in areas without roads or other infrastructure (which was almost everywhere back then!). Issue equipment for mounted troops was identical in WW2 to WW1, if not actual WW1 leftovers. If you've ever seen the 1940 made film '40,000 Horsemen', it was possible to shoot that in Sydney then because there were thousands of actual Lighthorsemen available to do it...
PS The horses in the Middle East couldn't be brought back because of exposure to endemic diseases there-still no foot and mouth in Australia-and the troops had seen how the Arabs treated animals and preferred to destroy them than leave them to that fate.
I agree mate~ that horses were a major part of the WWII campaign ~ particularly up here~
I did some research as demonstrated previous posts ~ and the use of horses and donkeys was a major saving cost, related to logistics / local supplies ~
Page error above ~ try again ~
A good read
James Taylor's Light Horse uniform | National Museum of Australia
Did a research recce yesterday ~
First time I have a seen a jet trail since I moved here 18 years ago ~ Suggest it may be rare due to Wet tropics environment (?) or maybe I have just been working head down too long ! (?)
Took it as a good omen ~
Not a big success story ~ more like scaling the Kokoda track ~ steep dense and precarious ~ Real Joe Blake country for sure but no encounters ~
Found some evidence of Diggers moving around the slopes most likely training in bush environments ~
Found some evidence of occupation ~ pity about the clay jug ~ would have been a cracker !
After returning from the mountain side hike I decided to take break and cuppa and Blow Me down I spotted these Sun bakers literally at the rear of the vehicle!!
Had to dig to Taiwan to retrieve the aluminium mug ~
Well ~ pretty quiet here as the Tropical We season and Mother Naature stretches her whims ~ In fact we are waiting to see how developing Cyclone to the West N west develops over this weekend ~
But if a metal detector works best in wet conditions well here it is~ a LOT of rain ~
Done a small clean up of relics of recent hunts `
The mortar frag ~ a nice piece ~
The sun baker webbing buckles came up a trick I was a tad sceptical to begin with ~
The photo belies the quality fo the buckles ~ superb condition ~ for a couple of 75 year old surface dwellers ~ quite amazing ~
4,557
Last edited by AT P Sweep; 03-23-2018 at 07:41 AM.
Well seems like an eon since I posted or even had a Hunt ~
SO ~ DM and I headed out on Saturday for a Hunt in the back country ~
The fore cast was 28 deg ~and a SW breeze sounded good ~ We planned two to three strikes ~
Every wash and creek crossing was flowing and some without concrete slabs were a tad hazardous to say the least ~ Not for the faint heated for sure ~
AS the country is rugged and very hilly we endeavoured to tread slowly and carefully ~
My Nikon battery announced it was "Exhausted " ~ So only photos I got were via the Mobil phone ~
Deposit the relatively low temp I all but fell face down down in the dense grass ~ did not count yet again on the humidity ~
I figured it was just a case of a "mature age MD " pushing the envelope too far ~ too hard! ~ But DM was also struggling ~
After two and half hours we worked our way back to the vehicle ~ ( At the end of the day we both short changed ourselves on fluids ~ and only just scraped through on hydration ~ )
We took a smoko break and moved to site two ~
Thus far I had fallen short of my personal specific targets ~ DM managed to find his first 25 Pounder smoke shell ~ plus a 4 1/2"
imploded frag ~ a complete mortar body frag. Plus several 4 1/2" tail fins.
in fact he scored three as I literally stepped over two shells and a 4.5 " mortar frag ~ laying in the grass ~ all inert~ as I swept the CTX in the wrong direction ~
The second site is a long past 19 Century mining township ~ pretty hard worked but always worth a try ~ I have generally always found something ~
This was prove no exception for me ~
We split up and spent < 1 1/2 hours scouring the outer regions of the township in the hope of greater things ~ But it seemed even this area was not spared form the WWII training excursions of the artillery crews as it seemed every quality target appeared to be a artillery brass frag!
Plus I found a "downed cow" ~ seemed totally incapacitated ~ even tried to get up but not to be ~ a huge Brahman ~
I ignored 90% of ferrous iron signals knowing the history of the area ~ but I did dig several intriguing ferrous items including a rear base 'plug' from a 25 Pounder smoke shell ~ nicely engraved, and a ID disc simply stamped '8' ~
It was then I returned to base camp exhausted yet again ~ another Cuppa and suggested that we call it a day ~ but DM suggested we should give it one more hour ~ I agreed and we headed out again ~
I later thanked Dwayne for pressing the issue ~
As i dug a deep hole to retrieve a Victorian ~ ladies decorative broach~ and knowing the history of the area it has to be minimum 110 years old ~
A beautiful relic indeed ~
So rounded my day of superbly ~
In fact earlier in the day I said emphatically to DM ~ " That is the last trip here for me I must be getting too &*^*^ Old for this mountain climbing BS ~ I am done here ~ "
As we headed home ~ Dwayne asked me ~ "Well ~ are you coming back? "
I all but instantly replied ~ "NO!! " But I paused an d thought ~ "Hey ~ yes we are coming back! For sure ! "
The broach is sensational ~ as I carefully cleaned it with soft brushes and bamboo sticks ~ We believe the flowers were blue ~ the centre section red and the inner section with stars and leaves was / is still green ~
The original as found and the cleaned 'wet' look ~
Amazing !
The first clean up ~
Separation plate for a 25 Pounder Smoke shell
The few ferrous? steel components I will treat via electrolysis ~
6,375
Clean up #1
Clean Up #2
Mostly 25 pounder No 117 HE fuzes ~
As mate said "You have the full set here ~ fuzes ~ separation plate/s ~ end cap ~ and the shell cases ~ Smoke and HE ! ( All collected as separate pieces ~ ) "
I wanted to do a solo run out to the area this morning but old Mate whose son is a local Police officers, strongly deterred me from going their along ~ not only as the high risk in the rough bush country ~but there was also some very dubious characters reside there ~ !
( Seems I have only met / encountered the best of the locals ~ )
The best of the axe heads ~ this one I really think is Coll as it had been used a block splitter and the head severely battle damaged before being discarded ~
I have several Ferrous items in the electrolysis vat~
JUL 10 1942 Australians return to battle at Tel el Eisa
Similar Threads
Posting Permissions
.
Bookmarks