Pre D Day battleground Training Area.

[davejb]

The Lighter is definately post war, they never had gas filled as far as im aware because the aerosols hadnt been invented then, the other items are cool

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Part of a MK2 British trip flare, this is the arm that attached the trip wire to the flare. Its in great condition with most of the original paint still intact and even the rusted spring still works.



Im very happy to have found this , my first Grenade handle and in great condition too.



It's the handle for a US (WW2) 200A1 fuse, these were used on the M6, M7. M8 and other coloured Smoke or Gas irratant grenades. I think this came off a smoke grenade used in training it was manufactured by Universal Automatic Machine Co of Marshall TX.
Finding this has made me more sure that the rusted tin like relic with ventilation holes shown previously on this thread is probably the remains of a used smoke grenade.





Now next was a surprising find from this site, it's made of brass and when recovered I was tempted to dump it straight in my scrap bucket but I vaguely remembered seeing one somewhere in the distant past. Anyway after a little research I had found the answer, view the next picture to see one located on the net.



It's a fuze cap for a British 25 pounder shell , but I still dont know what it was doing on this site because I've found no evidence of anything connected with heavy artillery?



A recent search and another two British 3 inch tails, photo taken just after recovery.



The next picture show's the three stages of cleaning relic tails.
The left hand tail is as found, heavily rusted and caked in mud, the middle relic is shown after a good clean removing the mud and loose rust followed by an overnight swim in distilled (white) vinegar followed by a good rub down with metal scourer. It's now ready for another overnight dip in the vinegar followed by another good rub down. The last relic (right hand side) has already had this and is now ready for a good soak in fresh water to remove all traces of vinegar before sealing.



Close up of the semi clean and cleaned relic tails.



Recently found but not cleaned pile of loose US mortar fins and the remains of damaged tails.



A detached US M6 A1 Bazooka fin unit



A nice pair of US M9 A1 rifle grenade tails, the top one still has most of its original paint



and finally unidentifed, made of thick, robust and weighty steel, it has a slight curve to its shape and a couple of projections on the inside?



Thanks for looking and any help with iding items.
Cheers
LUCKYSTRIKE

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Cheers Dave,
Thanks for confirming the age of the lighter, by it's outward appearance I did think perhaps War dated, but WW2 was liquid fueled lighters so wasnt sure.
LS

[davejb]

Yes thats correct petrol was commonly used, if they could the troops would fill up their lighters from petrol bowsers, my dad used to do this but some twit left the valve open for too long and there was a large puddle of fuel on the ground, another twit lit a fag right beside my old man and dropped his lighter, up went the old man in a sheet of flame, burnt a lot of his hair , his hands, and his battle dress, dad was in the hospital for a week with minor burns , then came out and got promoted to sergeant, then got put on a charge for self inflicted wounds, he should have gone to the pokey but D-day was only a few weeks away and his CO squashed the charge

[dangermouse]

:'( your site is making me sick! So many American finds, you must be over the moon with that "fly-off" lever from the smoke nade! Its a real gem. If you happen to feel you have too many of those 81mm mortar fins and bazooka tails, I would gladly trade my left arm or just about anything I have found!

Mouse

[Whitehunter]

Wicked stuff LS, I'm not sure what i like the best. That's a nice trip wire. Do you have all the pieces to make the complete thing now?


John

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Hi Dave,
Very interesting story and glad to hear that no lasting damage was caused, I imagine it was quite a common occurance caused by attempting to get the fuel into those little lighters tanks by using bowsers or even jerry cans, it must have been a nightmare.
Hi DM
Thanks mate for the thumbs up on my recent finds, I realise US gears your thing so yes no problem we can work out a swap for some bits and arrange it before we next meet up Ill bring them over .
Hi John,
I do have all the parts except perhaps the most important bit the trip wire . Ill try and put one together for display soon but the flare bodies I have are all a little nibbled around the tops.
Cheers
LUCKYSTRIKE

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

I thought it was time I posted a few more of my recent finds, all these were found prior to Christmas when I visited the site a few times. You may recognise some of these because they have been posted previously in as found condition but have since been cleaned and preserved.

I finally got around to reassembling the post war MG disintergrating links using a few of the fired blank 7.62 rounds found at the site. These are Nato links probably from a GPMG and the rounds are all 1950's dated.



When found this was heavily rusted but a soak in white vinegar for a couple of days improved it so much in fact it's now possible to make out the marking on the steel base.





Another British 3 inch mortar tail, this still retains part of the lacker covering for protect against rust.



I've already posted one of these before, that one was in better condition than these and the markings were readable on that one. But after finding another two I'd love to know what these are, they are a light weight alloy like aluminium. Could they be a pressure plate for launching grenades from rifles?





A very melted 2 inch mortar tail, this may have been due to phosphorous so I was very cautious cleaning this and prior to that gave it a couple of good hammer blows to remove any loose melt prior to cleaning. No problems were encountered.



Another unknown alloy object which is still unidentified, it has suffered quite a few small shrapnel penetrations, the peices shown below fell out of it when cleaned. Could they be part of a switch?





Ive found one area where there are loads of tent pegs, these are just a few.



An unknown handle perhaps from an ammo box, notice it still retains traces of red paint.



Ive found a few of these in various conditions whilst searching this site, these are the latest finds the tails of US M9 A1 Rifle Grenades with some still retaining the fins



This one has suffered a shrapnel hit that punched a hole right through.



This nose cone is the second of its type that I have found from this site, although I display the first on the body of a practice bazooka round I do not think this is correct. Do you have any suggestions or could confirm what this could be from?



Thank you for viewing and any help with the unidentified relics.

I have a few more relics to post soon
Cheers
LUCKYSTRIKE

[m3bobby]

The cones could be the shaped charge cone from the bazooka head.

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

A pretty much intact US M7 A1 (fired) Practice Bazooka round thats only missing the body and nose cone. It has taken a shrapnel hit where the counter balance weight joins the rocket motor bending it out of true.







The tails from three different US Bazooka rounds, being of varying lengths, having different fins or being studded.



Even the top one when rolled over has puncture holes caused by small shrapnel hits.



It was nice to find this detached Bazooka fin which offers us a not too often seen view of looking through the venturi nozzle from the inside out.





The remains of a tail from an US M43 A1 81mm mortar showing the effects of it's explosion, the two remaining fins are bent outward and only held on by the bottom welds.



Unusually this is quite a large peice of surviving casing from an exploded US M43 A81mm mortar, imagine the damage this could have caused when it exploded sending it scything through the air



This image of an 81mm round plots the position where this shrapnel came from.



Digging this with it covered in mud at first I thought I was onto something good here, ie could it be a US dog tag?



But then I noticed there was no nick in the side and turning it over I was confronted with this?, a Saint who appears to have Russian writing around the head so Im assuming it's probably just a civilian talisman loss .



The final relic is the thickest peice of shrapnel Ive found here obviously from a larger calibre shell, perhaps even a 25 pounder which sort of ties in with the 25 pounder fuse cover I found and posted previously.

Thats it for now thank you for looking.
LUCKYSTRIKE