Normandy - Just Helmets...

[martynv4]

I even used C4 to heat my C-rations a few times.

I used to love seeing new recruits faces when we did that infront of them! Evil....

Loving the pictures of the helmets even more so!

Martyn.

[jimpy]

I used to love seeing new recruits faces when we did that infront of them! Evil....

Martyn.

Happy days Martyn, I remember them also.

This is what it does and now this is what you can REALLY use it for!

Or making up improvised "grenades" from 7.62 belt boxes, load of gravel in the can, 7 riflemen all striking Thunderflashes at the same time and 1 "volunteer" to throw! (My JNCO's course in 1982 and guess who was the volunteer?)

Course Director threatened to jail the lot of us for that stunt. I wonder why?

Like I said.........happy days

Regards etc

Ian D

AKA: Jimpy

[Steve83]

Too much lantern swinging going on in here!

[martynv4]

Too much lantern swinging going on in here!

Yeah! Steve, just show us your helmets!

Hi Jimpy. Improvised claymores

Martyn.

[Steve83]

Will load up a few more pics at the weekend!

Thunderflashe under a four tonner full of sleeping bods used to upset people as well!!!

[panzerjaeger44]

lobbing a practice grenade was good too as was the newbie when we said omg the rounds been fired once alreay with the 105s lol u never seen a paler face when theres grooves on a drive band

[Steve83]

An M1 Helmet we dug up a couple of months ago in the Auxais area, 2nd Bn 329th Infantry Regiment, mid-July 1944. It took a while to remove the liner, sat it in hot water for a few hours and scraped away the mud and loose rust.

There is a hole about 1/2" wide at the front of the helmet, a small piece of grenade or mortar shrapnel pierced the shell and got wedged between the shell and the liner!

Enjoy the photos!

Steve

[Steve83]

April 2009, we found a small orchard where a detachment of 321st Glider Field Artillery Battalion (101st Ab) were dug in two days after D-Day, there were Germans in the surrounding farms and the fighting was very close....

[Auvers]

Gents: if I may ask, how are you deciding where to dig if not with a metal detector? Do you look for depressions in the ground, or along a hedgerow line and just decide to go for it?

I ask as I metal detect American Civil War stuff in Virginia every chance I get, but by and large we diggers would be lost without detectors.

I also had the privilege to spend a week outside Carentan earlier this summer and loved it. Had my eyes to the ground the whole time but didnt eyeball any relics. If life lasts long enough, I want to get back there and do some digging. - jc

[Steve83]

I always have a metal detector with me if I'm searching the battlefields, rarely do we find anything on the surface, a few occasions I've found items on the surface but not often.

Normandy is a huge area, 5 departments, a 3 month long battle involving hundreds of thousands of troops, you need to pick an area or a unit and read about it in depth, visit the area and do some research, use the archives for photos and maps, read veteran's accounts or better still talk to veterans who were there.

It is about research, a lot of planning, understanding the battle area and understanding the ground.

You can of course just go pot luck and dive into a field around Carentan/Ste Mere Eglise/ Caen or wherever, often you'll find cartridge cases and shrapnel, but to find the battle lines/defence and areas where troops were dug in or where there were field hospitals you need to do some serious research!

All the best,

Steve