Australian WWII - Far North Queensland Metal detecting and recovery

[AT P Sweep]

Talking to a the Boss of Maintenance this morning and he was telling me, his Dad who was also based up here in WWII ~ was trained by Gurkha that were also embed with the the 9 Div. here ~

Obviously the Gurkha's were also from the India/ Burma regions ~


Gurkha - Wikipedia

[AT P Sweep]

Wet weather and indoors stuff ~ doing research yesterday I found this amazing photo taken at Monte Cassino 1944~

The timing of the snap is truly amazing ~

Monte Cassino Fallschirmjäger mit Granatwerfer- German Paratroopers with a heavy mortar.

Meanwhile my research into the 14th / 20th Hussars being attached to the Australian 9th AIF in 1944 took one small step forward ~

Australia War graves registry ~ Papua New Guinea war graves:


Grave Marker PNG ~ Australian Cemeteries - War Graves - Papua New Guinea - Lae

STANTON, Captain, ARTHUR JOHN CECIL, 73088. 14th/20th King's Hussars. Royal Armoured Corps attd. 2/9 Bn. Australian Infantry. 29th January 1944.


Age 27. Son of Brigadier General F. H. G. Stanton and Hilda Margaret Stanton, of Greys toke, Cumberland. Awarded King's Gold Medal and Sword, R.M.C. Sandhurst, July, 1937. F. D. 1.

Any suggestions on information this issue would be appreciated ~


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[AT P Sweep]

After all my furore related the British Servicemen being embedded with the Australian 9th Div. ~ I was cleaning up and going through trays of “parked” relics and I came across this puppy ~

Seems I just may have too many ~ and this one was brushed aside ~ LOL

Came up a Trick ~ as they all generally do ~ ( Standard United Kingdom Army General Service Button.)

[AT P Sweep]

After our team effort the place #3 was a bit of dead loss ~ but it kept ringing in my ears after Paul said ~ he and Paul had never been there and not seen coinage !

But this time I left the spade in the transport, and opted for a battle axe ~ my cane knife ~


I hit targets instantly~ as soon as I entered the canopy ~ but all the signal were trash ~ A LOT of ferrous signals ~

I headed west ~ and soon hit that Lantana in mass ~ I soon mastered knocking over the Lantana ~ and yet retain a high degree of energy ~ But it is hard yakka for sure ~

And in this exercise with little and no gain as I found NOTHING ~ ignoring the ferrous signals ~ of course ~maybe even cheating myself as even ferrous relics can be woirth while as most know ~

I dug two ~ one showed some potential f a good signal but turned into a workshop file/ rasp ~ a common find in MD relics ~ and a solid steel lunch pin with grip ~ And I did dig a steel Duffle bag lock or what was left of it ~

I worked down the timber some 100-150 m beating back the Lantana before quittign and retreating back the stat point and plan to head east where the Lantana was no where near as dense ~

(Picked a great day to go Bush bashing as the winds were full on and simply rattled the over head canopy and barely bothered me ~ The prolific rains had backed off completely so no worries mate ~ about getting wet ~ I did a recce on Friday and got wet feet and a grass tick ~ with no rewards at all ! ) )


So I pushed on SE ~ good going but nothing ~ I paused to shoot a short video for my better half as she likes to see the ground I am in ~ and I commented it all looked like a fail ~ again ~ and I would more than likely call it a day after another 15 minutes ~

I barely put the camera away and started off again I dug two high tones pieces ~ one a piece of a kerosene stove or lantern and the other I have no idea but kept both ~


I thought maybe I found a timber workers camp ? ~

Then it was a very unusual find~ a cache of toothpaste and shave (?) tubes ~ So amny I gave up digging them ~ all intact ~ and a heap of them in one spot ! ?

I bagged two samples and the smaller one is labelled “Plum Jam” 25 gram. A Tongal Milk Products Pty Ltd

Then a Blank 303 ~ optimistic ~

That was followed by a medium size hole ( 50 cm dia.* 50 cm.deep) with lot of signals ~

Straight up a Military badge backing plate ~ Cool~ always welcome ~ U Ripper!

Then a Key ~

I bagged all the tent rings to eliminate them from the hole ~ additionally there were more signals on the opposite side of the hole ~ I spent yonks clearing the hole !

I then circumnavigated the area but found nothing ~ returned to the area of the hole ~ in short I worked the area and came up with a Rising Sun ~ an AUST. flash ~ a 44 penny ~

The bent piece is a brass bolt not an electrical cord.






A short discussion with Paul S ~ who works in Military Logistics ~ we agree the ‘Plum Jam’ from Tongala Pty Ltd ~ is in Grams ~ not ounces which suggests modern ~ and as PS suggested the tube I did bring home are in a ‘military ‘ green ~ SO they were military kit issue ~

And as many locals will know there is generally a flow of Military exercises and training in this area ~ as I speak I believe there is a US and Australian exercise going on ~

Ironic that these blokes were mere meters from a dump hole of WWII kit ~ But then I have seen this scenario before ~ modern shell cases amongst WWII ~


I scouted around and found that much of the area is in fact ‘terraced’ ~ So any theory of the area entirely being bulldozed is not completely accurate ~ as the terraces would have been eliminated ~

Nice day ~ windy but an improvement over the last couple of outings.. seems I have paid the ransom for the great finds I have had of late~ Hopefully ~ the fresh start for more great finds ~ Home 16.45 hrs.

The officer's webbing P37 cleaned up superbly ~

infantrymen of the Australian 2_6th Battalion training in the Watsonville area of North Queensland, April 1944

[lithgow]

The condensed milk and jam are from the 24 hour individual 'combat' ration pack-this is a mixture of tins, tubes and packets of various foods and other goodies-the exact contents have varied over time and in the A, B, C, D, E and F types issued to provide variety but the condensed milk was/is a constant inclusion.

[AT P Sweep]

Mate I reckon the traditional Aussie foot soldiers deserved to have FIG jam as well ~ dam well mostly deserved it I reckon ~ cliched or not ~ LOL

[AT P Sweep]

We as a family and friends reckon we have put together the mystery item ~ the brass round piece. it is a candle holder ~

This is quite an amazing collection in the same < 15 sq. metres. about> .

First the two brass pieces ~ an antique candle holder and a light element fuel lantern ~ then a collection of modern (?) Military canteen/ mess kit tubes, discarded within meters of the two 'Victorian"pieces ~

And then another 5-6 metres on a hole with WWII relics.. ~ what an intriguing combination ~

[AT P Sweep]

Clean up ~

Another superb result all round ~ Some of That local soil is pretty cool ~

Even the blank round came up a trick!

[AT P Sweep]

Well two hunts in the last week ~

The first to a previous site with an extended theory on the area ~ My previous visits revealed a road which ran right through the camp site ~ and that area was / is extremely voer grown with heavy ( short ) grass ~

My theory poaid off well and I located several 'new' gun park terraces amongst a cluster of since grown pine trees ~

General opinion now is that the flat rectangular piece with a single hole ~ is ~ are ~ badge backing plates and not even our best local experts claim a positive ID on these as most of us have found them ~ but I ask what badge as there are no single Australian forces badges with a single pin (?)



The belt buckle ~ I recalled I had found one the same quite some time back and sure enough ~ both a spectacular clean up~ the second from this hunt is actually 'battle damaged ' and bent ~ but that adds to the mysticism of the relic as I see it.




The KG VI Penny has to be the best result I think I have ever had on the copper coins to date ! Stunning.

I left the spoon till last and generally I do not even bother with the 'silver ware' but this one I cleaned up and unless I had cleaned it up one would have never realised that is in fact stamped ~ ( Seems there are deeper darker forces at work here as to the mere fact that I decided to clean this one up at all! )

I searched the Nominal role lists in the AWM web site and there are pages of 'Harris' listed!

But I believe I found him ~

I checked the phone listings for his home region and BOY! ~ He or his family are right rabbits as there SEVENTY TWO Harris's in the area ! LOL)

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[AT P Sweep]

I received a reply from the Australian War Memorial regarding the fifty GB Officer's posted with the Aust. 9th Division in 1944.

There is no official known record of this ~ but the investigating member of the AWM did report when he checked the records / diaries, around October 1944 and the two English officer's photographed at Shaggy Ridge encounter, he actually found mention the additional presence of five Indian Army officers being at the same encounter.


But he also supplied a photo of 32 British officers photographed at a staging camp here in QLD. The photo I don't have aces to, despite doing a rudimentary search~ as am at the Office at the moment and have not managed to locate the shot on the AWM .

I will post later ~