USAAF airbase - Two NEW dumps discovered !

[381st digger]

Steve,
Iv just spotted the dog-tag chain in the 1st photo that is a sign you have great things to come!!!!

[Paul B]

Until you find the next one has a sink plug on the end...

[381st digger]

Until you find the next one has a sink plug on the end...

[Whitehunter]

Steve,
Iv just spotted the dog-tag chain in the 1st photo that is a sign you have great things to come!!!!

Time for Steve to get his sieve out

[Steve T]

381st - It was a good 3 feet down so it is definitely from the American airmen and that is exactly what I id'd it as. But now PB has mentioned it, it could be a plug chain Oh well, so long as the plug has a date and a WD arrow I'll be happy.

WH - Garden riddle time........just slows the process down but I suppose it's the only way to get all the finds.

Steve T

[Panzer 3]

Hi Steve,
As always you are finding the rusty gold, hope it works out for you and there are many more for us to see. thanks for showing them.
dave,

[dangermouse]

wow, very jealous again Steve... Love that toothbrush! Nice work

[bikerboyzx6r]

Hoping to get onto my closest site soon! Cant find the bloody land owner to get permission! Will keep trying

[Steve T]

Hi all

Due to some rather unforeseen circumstances, I've not be able to get out relic hunting for quite a few weeks.

However, everything is now back to normal and yesterday I returned to the dump site. Whilst I had been away, the landowner had had a bloody good go at the dump with the aid of a JCB. The spoil heaps were rather large to say the least and the majority of the dump turned over, however, as he is inexperienced in this kind of thing, he had left rather a lot of stuff 'undetected' in the spoil. There was also a section of the dump he had not yet got to so it was in these two places I concentrated on.

I have to say, it was a rather successful day !

Glass and crockery first.

Before cleaning......



Crockery after cleaning. There were huge quantities of broken plates, mugs, cups, bowls etc... and unfortunately nothing complete. I took some of the better marked pieces home.



Close up of the RAF marked plates.



Lots and lots of bottles, most of which I already have examples of so only took a few away with me. However, one of the best finds of the day was the Coke bottle and next to it, a Tizer bottle. The Americans used to re-cycle the Coke bottles so this is a rare find indeed, and even better to have a Tizer bottle to go with it.



Close up of the Coke and Tizer bottles.



Now onto the other items that I found, firstly before cleaning



I found a large number of old toiletry tubes, most of which were rolled up by the user to get as much product out as possible. This is great for us as, even after 65+ years in the ground, the rolling up of the tubes acts to preserve the paint ! Even so, the tubes are very brittle and about 30% of what I found crumbled when I tried to unravel them. These are the survivors.........a really nice spread of personal items !



Brylcream was used widely and the tubes survived well. I think the smaller tube on the right may well be Anti-gas ointment. I can just make out the end of the word 'ointment' and 'No. 3' on the grey band around the top.



Next up are all shaving creams. Some familiar names here and some I've never come across before.



This lot is especially for Whitehunter. Toothpastes. Only found one toothbrush though....'Colgates'. These I find really interesting as Magnesium Hydroxide appears to be an ingredient in them all. Far left is 'Kolynos' and the two half tubes next to the Milk-i-dent are Colgate 'Ribbon' toothpaste.



A few were stamped with this little shield, hopefully to help boost sales.



A close up of this tube as I really like it. 'Milk-i-dent' ! Made with milk of magnesia



Now onto the other items. Group shot first.



A Yale lock, a light fitting and what appears to be an American style socket. Not sure on what the other items are. Can you ID them ?



Another batch of items not fully ID'd. The toilet chain pull is especially for Paul B The brass item appears to be a nozzle of some description and the item far left is familiar. I have something like that on my router, used to fix the depth at which the bit goes. Can you help ?



Onto more solid ground now. A Merlin exhaust stub gasket, a piece of American O2 tubing and a buckle, similar to the ones from American helmet chin straps.



Now an item made of the same material the Merlin engine mounting pads are made of. Appears to be an asbestos compound of some description. Anyone help ID it ?



A small 1 D disc, probably from a vending machine.



I was really pleased finding the next two items as usually the lids are cut right out and discarded. Thankfully the lids stayed attached with these two. Tea Ration tins



A nice USAAF button. It was in a real state when I found it and I doubted if it was cleanable. As you can see.....it was



Two cartridges. The 50 cal was found split and empty, although the blast cap shows it is unfired. The 45cal is also unfired and has been inerted and re-formed. One has to wonder why they were throwing live ammo in the dump !



I came across two spoons and two forks. Unfortunately, one of each fell apart when I got them from the ground due to very advanced corrosion. However, these two survived. The spoon isn't marked, but the fork IS ! I am currently checking to make sure the 'Zawol' isn't one of the base personnel's names. Great to find a US marked bit of cutlery all the same



The last find and possibly the best. Two M1 carbine magazines. I have cleaned them as much as I dare as they are very badly corroded. One appears to be missing the internal pieces, the other appears whole. A great find !



Hope you like the stuff. I will hopefully get back there soon AND before the landowner totally clears it out !

Cheers

Steve T

[dangermouse]

Fantastic bits. Love the Coke and Tizer bottles, sadly the coke bottle is missing the lower portion, these were dated. I have a 44 dated bottle. Never seen an early Tizer bottle before, lovely!