Remains from Polish Para Camp in England

[Tom2]

OK nice finds then, I enjoy reading about these sort of digs. This might be a naive question from a beginner, but what do you do if you come across live ord? Some of that stuff might make me a bit nervous until it is determined exactly what the status is.

[Gary J]

Well .. obvious large live material I leave be (but this tends to be a rare discovery ) ... and report it if it's in an obviously dangerous position in relation to the public.
Generally though on small arm camp sites there's little major ordnance around, as it's not really like a battlefield site.
.. unspent small arms rounds get "oiled" out to make inert or normally handed in for disposal.

G.

OK nice finds then, I enjoy reading about these sort of digs. This might be a naive question from a beginner, but what do you do if you come across live ord? Some of that stuff might make me a bit nervous until it is determined exactly what the status is.

[Tom2]

I can see that small arms ammo etc. might not be too dangerous. I have a can full of old steel cased 8MM ammo that someone gave me. Unfortunately it was stored in damp. Some rounds were salvageable as display pieces. Most all have bullets that can be pulled out for whatever they may be used for. But most are rusty and since there are so many, I have no idea how to dispose of them. I guess I could spend a day sorting to see if any can be made into nice inert display rounds, where the laquer has survived. I can pull bullets with a kinetic bullet puller I have and flush the powder. Even if no heavy ordnance around your site, I would think that mortars, grenades, etc. might turn up and be worrisome. I am reminded of an old tele. programme, I think it was called Danger, UXO. Poor blokes that had to disarm German bombs and the like. Rather morbid bits in the show, as I recall. Sometimes live ord. shows up in odd places that used to be US Army training areas and is now public recreation areas. And have even heard old stories of dug US civil war shells bursting when heated by ignorant relic hunters, etc. Maybe just tall tales.

[matteo]

Interesting finds!

[steve123]

Can you please tell me what the smaller of the buckles on the third photo is from (the one with the small opening on the right side.) I have recently found the exact buckle close to a ww2 hurricane crash side, although mine is slightly bent.

regards
Steve.

[Gary J]

Steve,
The small square shape buckle is a pretty much standard buckle used on P37 British webbing, and webbing straps.
You can find this on P37 small packs, the top of P37 grenade pouches etc.

Regards

Gary J.

Can you please tell me what the smaller of the buckles on the third photo is from (the one with the small opening on the right side.) I have recently found the exact buckle close to a ww2 hurricane crash side, although mine is slightly bent.

regards
Steve.

[Sam11]

some of those bullets are 45 ?

[steve123]

Cheers Polski.

Would these buckles be used by the RAF. I have found several pieces of a hurricane in the immidiate area (will post as soon as i get a better camera). The buckle i have would suggest that thewebbing had been ripped out with great force bending the opened end wide open.

Regards Steve.

[Gary J]

Yep ... 45's for either the Thompson or Colt.

some of those bullets are 45 ?

[Gary J]

Steve,
I would suspect that there might have been some straps of some type in the cockpit to hold oxygen bottles etc ... and no doubt there is a good chance that webbing type straps and buckles were used to secure such items.

Gary J.

Cheers Polski.

Would these buckles be used by the RAF. I have found several pieces of a hurricane in the immidiate area (will post as soon as i get a better camera). The buckle i have would suggest that thewebbing had been ripped out with great force bending the opened end wide open.

Regards Steve.