Normandy relics

[appie]

As you can see from Appie and Snafu's replies.....this is by no means a clear subject.

I would double check with the authorities prior to travelling to any area. Certainly what appie said about Belgium doesn't appear to be working as I saw quite a few detectorists and MANY recently dug holes.

I suppose my vision was blinkered by WW2 relics as I wasn't even thinking of Portugal, Israel or Sweden when i wrote the above ! I won't find any WW2 relics there so they weren't even involved in my thought processes.

Anyway guys.....double check before you go anywhere !

relichunter

Me neither have ever searchd in Sweden, Portugal or Israel, it was just an example of the law being difrent in European countries.
Of course there is still a lot of digging going on in Belgium and the north of France, I dont think it will ever stop there, its unbelievable howmuch stuff is still outthere, but there is a chance to get nicked of course.
I know for fact that being a foreigner in France doesn't help. Sometimes I see cars with British registration parked, and people walking around with detectors on the battlefields overhere that are part of a museum, a protected national park with graves.
The Gendarmerie also knows this is happening, and thet have a special squad to arrest these diggers. I have met one of them, he is a militaria collector himself and hates foreigners with detectors. If you are lucky you will only loose your detector, if you meet them on a bad day you will get the 5000 euro fine for trying to steel relics and export them. If they find relics in the boot of the car they can take your car and detector, because the car is used to commit the crime. If they find explosives or detonators or anything that even looks dangerous to them in the car, and your car is in the right spot to do so, they can have the bombsquad blow up your car! This sounds unbelievable, but really they have done it before near Arras. If you are being smart by saying you do not understand them or dont speak any French this is also not a problem; they will call for an interpertor and you will have to pay for it at the spot. All costs they have made, even to blow up your car you will have to pay on the spot.
Last but not least; if you get caught with human remains, and believe it or not this has happend before when some guys thought they could simply dig out some graves, you will simply go to prison for a while. I know for fact these guys got a 5 year sentence.
Last year they caught two German "collectors" who where steeling gravestones and selling them as relics on the net. They got a 2 year sentence. I cant say I feel sorry for these lads.

[Panzer 3]

Hi mick,
Great finds I love the water bottle it tells a good story, You were very lucky to find the right place to look you could look all day and find nothing as it has been picked over so many times. I was in Normandy in 07,
Camped at Utah beach, great place. I found some rounds near a bunker up the beach and a U.S, Helmet in the side of a field buried in the grass,
mainly crushable, The farmers throw the stuff in the hedges thats where i look. Welcome to the forum.
dave.

[Paul D]

Good input Appie , that's the way it is in France guys so beware !!!

I have a friend who is a Gendarme in the Somme area and if they catch you will not have a pleasant experience , guaranteed !!!

[appie]

Good input Appie , that's the way it is in France guys so beware !!!

I have a friend who is a Gendarme in the Somme area and if they catch you will not have a pleasant experience , guaranteed !!!

The Gendarmerie searched my house last year, but luckaly I didn't have any not exploaded grenades in my house. All the grenades, mines and other stuff in my collection is inert, so I only get a warning.
Now I am very carefull; the Gendarmerie or the PAF doesn't like guys like us.

[ahrtal]

like to see your ss lid steve

Sorry that they are overdue. I can't seem to load them. I keep getting an error message.

Steve Z.

[justlookin]

why the hostility towards people who use metal detectors?, is it on health and safety grounds that they may blow themselves up or perhaps people are finding valuable treasures and not informing the relevant authority?.

In my mind some great inportant finds have only been discovered thanks to the hobbyist.

[ahrtal]

We run into the same thing here in Virginia. We don't have to get licenses, but one should contact the land owner. In some cases this might involve even signing a release from liability or agreement to share the finds----usually never happens, but sometimes....We are seen as defilers of history by archaeologists and historians, although now they often use metal detectors themselves on digs. They will make some really nice finds, study, map them, photograph them, then put them back in the ground for "posterity"---hen no one gets to see them! We're put in the same class as grave robbers, opportunists, etc. A friend of mine had a house on an area next to the Chancellorsville, and they were building a subdivision near th back of the property. This area had been the site of a Civil War field hospital. Pulled some nice bullets and breast plates (one pierced by a bullet), but it was not "historically significant". We discovered at least three different layers of road bed using different materials--even old clay brick about two feet down, below where we were fining relics. A couple months later it was all gone. At least a couple of us know what lies below the suburban streets. The "scholars" didn't even know the site existed, nor did they care, it would seem.

Steve Z.

[Paul D]

Justlookin,

The problem is you are detecting on land that belongs to someone else that long ago was a Battlefield , imagine if some geezer turned up and started detecting in your garden !!!

In France like anywhere else there are also Black diggers who only dig for profit and not historical interest and body recovery.

Example , two years ago on the Somme two Dutch guys are field walking and find the remains of a British officer including badges and swagger stick from the Gloucester Regt at Longeuval , he could be identified from these items !!

By the time the Gendarmes come the next morning he has been dug up and all badges , swagger stick etc are gone , his identity is lost forever

Luckily when i dig i dig with very honourable guys who will always try and recover bodies if they find them so they can be identified

regards

Paul

[ahrtal]

The area in which we were digging was to be developed for houses, so it was woodland. I have dug in peoples yrs, and gardens---invited of course! also, fill in all holes I dig. If in a battle trench I do as little damage as possible. BTW, I am not in it for the money. I love the historical research involved, recovering items proving my research, and cataloging them. I, too, dig with people of a like mind. We've never recovered a body, but it has happened to people I know. Chances of identification are slim from Civil War sites, but any remains and belongings would be treated with respect by the people with whom i metal detect.

[appie]

In Belgium its really funny why they ban all use of metaldetectors; some years ago there was a big digging going on in Brugges. The archeologes were from the state, but the finds they made were sold on the black market to private collectors in Holland. They didn't go to the Belgian musea, untill the foreign private collectors sold them back to Belgium and made a huge proffit! Because that they change the law, ans France followed the same rule; just no metal detectors.
Now it is 02:05 in the morning, I have to wake up at 6:00 because I am going to Arras (F) to search with some friends on some trenches they find.
I'm taking camera, so if I find any good stuff I will post pitures.
Hope we dont bump into the Gendarmerie!!!!!!!