D-day Omaha beach MG barrel found.

[OrangSoldier]

Hi !

Yeah I know...Chris will never throw it away or anything like that.. but I only meant that it will not be rewarded by the public, as not many people read this thread.
I really believe that it is severloh's barrel. He left one of them in his position and took the other one with him. As chris found two of them, it is possible that before the Allies bulldozed the area, they threw the MG42 of another position (which is located closer to the beach) in that hole, too.
Keusgen can't believe that those barrels were found there, as during all those years he spent on researching the events on WN62, quite a few people contacted him and claimed that they had found an item involved in the fightings, and after researching it, it appeared to be wrong.
I don't know much about those cases, but in this case I think he is clearly wrong.

Cheers,
0.S.

[muzrub]

Interesting story.

It does outline the importance of a proper excavation. I'm not knocking the diggers for searching, I'm only saying that without the proper techniques -photos, measuring and mapping ( not relying on memories from 1984, for example ). A piece of history could be lost, or left unidentified.
Now we'll never be sure...

The great thing about relic hunting is uncovering awesome relics and discovering some obscure history. The downside to relic hunting is the disturbing of possibly important historical sites.

[cricketchris1944]

I am also sure now that the barrels belong to Severloh due to the location they were found also they were found due to the clean-up of the area for the 40th anniversary and before that the area was covered with brushes and no one was going there because it was impossible.
chris

[Scout]

As it would have been a poor choice of words, I will not say that this discovery 'blows my mind.'
Instead I will simply say, that I find this deeply fascinating.

[cricketchris1944]

Interesting story.

It does outline the importance of a proper excavation. I'm not knocking the diggers for searching, I'm only saying that without the proper techniques -photos, measuring and mapping ( not relying on memories from 1984, for example ). A piece of history could be lost, or left unidentified.
Now we'll never be sure...

The great thing about relic hunting is uncovering awesome relics and discovering some obscure history. The downside to relic hunting is the disturbing of possibly important historical sites.

I was a kid when the site was being clean-up.
If I had not pick them up with the other relic they probably would have been pick-up by some tourrist and the history about them would have been lost.
chris

[Scout]

I was a kid when the site was being clean-up.
If I had not pick them up with the other relic they probably would have been pick-up by some tourrist and the history about them would have been lost.
chris

Agreed.
Further more, what kind of clean-up are we talking about - the meticulous picking over the whole site by people with knowledge and who had done their research ..... or the kind of 'clean-up' which the Führerbunker 'benefitted' from as it was demolished and paved over?
If found by most others, the best case scenario which could be hoped for, would have been the MG barrel in a museum with a note 'MG barrel found on Omaha Beach.'

[davejb]

If it was anything like the clean up at Merville Battery, the French workers at the time were clearing rubbish and bushes ,weeds etc, one party found a relic Bren gun, who promptly sold it to my pal for 10 francs, this was before it became a tourist attraction and museum

[Scout]

On one hand; wow, imagine having bought that Bren for 10 Francs.
On the other hand; there you go, had that been the barrel(s) found then, they would have been lost to history (or rather the location of where exactly they were found etc would have been lost).

[davejb]

No , in this case , when the museum opened proper, he donated the Bren to it, its still there today behind glass for all to see, had it not been turned into a living history exhibit there would have been no place for it to be displayed

[Scout]

Well anyway, there is no guarantee, that 1. the barrel would have been donated to a museum and 2. that the connection to a specific bunker would ever have been made.