Hey everyone!
I have been a member of this forum for a little bit of time and love the idea of recovering lost artifacts from battles in World War II.
I'm an active duty U.S. Marine and I'm currently "deployed" to Okinawa, Japan which was the bloodiest battle in the Pacific during the war. I jumped to the idea of doing my own research and talking with past diggers who know this area extensively. I chose Wana Ridge as my first place to go as it is a park and remains fairly intact compared to surrounding hills that were fought for during the battle.
To make a long story short, we found what appeared to be a cave opening and jumped in. I stayed back inside sifting through some of the coral rocks while a few of my good friends went ahead to see how extensive the cave was. After moving a few rocks it caught my eye, a .45 ACP casing just laying there. I immediately picked it up and told everyone who seemed a bit jealous of my find but were definitely happy that someone found something.
At first I was skeptical because it seemed in somewhat decent shape for sitting on a tropical island for 70 years. There was a "42" below the primer and a barely visible "W" on the top. After coming back to my room I did some research and low and behold the "42" stands for the year it was produced and the "W" is "WCC" for Western Cartridge Company.
I am very confident this round was fired during the taking of Wana Ridge in 1945, and that is ABSOLUTELY AWESOME. I have a piece of history, a casing (as small as it is) has a very unique and deep history to it and one can only imagine where that round went that was fired from it. I think that is incredible.
Anyways just wanted to share with you guys! We plan to head back again with some better prepared equipment.
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