Finding ammo on Normandy Beaches

[ohl1972]

hi there, i have recently been to Normandy for a tour of the beaches, on our spare day off we decided to do a bit of beach combing. We stumbled across a section of beach that threw up 30 live rounds of 303 ammunition ....we rung the tour guide who was due to take us out the next day who didn't believe we'd actually found live rounds on the beach. When we met him the next day, he asked us to take him to the site...which we duly did and we found another 30 live rounds....he obviously kept them as we couldn't take them back home !!

But i wanted to ask if anyone had any knowledge of ammo finds on the beaches of late and if this is a common thing.

[lebus12]

In France, we know that we can't take sand from a beach, so ammunition? I don't know. Perhaps he thank it's was dangerous...

[Steve T]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Ammo is and will continue to be found on Normandy beaches. Given the volume of stores that came ashore, the amount lost in the run in to the beach, the amount dropped and fired on the beaches and the amount dumped by injured soldiers, this is hardly surprising.

The main thing here is not about what can still be found, but what you can do with the items you find. First off, all relics from WW2 are deemed property of the French state. Removal even from the surface is therefore theft and subject to hefty fines. Secondly, transportation of live ammo without the appropriate licence would be classed as trafficking. Take it across a border and you could be in serious trouble, having possession, public endangerment and other offences added to the initial offence.

All in all, ammo and the detritus of war will continue to surface for many many more years and it would be more surprising to NOT find something on a Normandy beach.

Steve T

[Steve T]

I've moved you thread to a more appropriate forum You will get better info in the archaeology forum

[ohl1972]

thx steve... i knew about the moving of them and property etc...but was just wondering if this was commonplace...thx for your swift reply

[billers]

Hi, I've a property near Omaha Beach and surface finds are pretty frequent. Stuff is still washed in from the holds of sunk vessels and the tides can reshape the beaches uncovering all sorts of stuff. I always try to be around for Spring tides for that reason. As Steve says though, caution!

[Datrus]

Remember that sand moves a lot, so you could have found an area that have not been searched very much. Maybe your guide know this. All of course depends on if your find was close to shore or on more permanently dry land.

Regards, Lars

[GIZMO8Z]

I'm kind of disappointed to hear that I can't take home a vial of sand from Omaha Beach...

[Ostm63]

I collected sand from all landing beaches in Normandie its no problem

[TonyE]

Hi - Did you not receive my answer to your e-mail about these rounds?

For everyone else, what the poster found were not .303 inch rounds (as the tour guide told him!) but 7.92x57mm rounds.

What was most interesting was that the example he photographed in close-up was a 1937 Czech round made at Brno and obviously seized when the Germans entered Czechoslovakia.

Obviously it was quite common for fortress troops and similar guarding the Atlantic Wall to be armed with captured weapons and munitions, but it was nice to see an example.

Regards
TonyE