What in earth did they find??

[Feuerbach]

I was looking at some old pictures this morning somebody has sent me. It shows Dutch Marine demining a bomb, or drop container in the Dutch - Belgian border area, but what is it? Never seen anything like this before. It looks to me like a sort of bomb made up from a few 88's. Could it be a sea mine of any kind? Don't think the German ever dropped shells in containers like this!
Anybody have a clue? On the other pics it shows them opening a sea mine in the same field.
What ever it is, these are some interesting pictures, and I dont think they are deminig these days as they did than!

[KradSpam]

Maybe some kind of ammo storage from a tank?

[Feuerbach]

Looking closer at the pictures my best shot is that these are German sea mines, dropped from a plane and this one landed in somebody's garden. I know for a fact the German did drop mines in that area during operation Switchback, and this picture seems to be taken very close to the Breskens pocket (South of Holland). Anybody that can confirm the use of shells inside a sea mine??

[Feuerbach]

Maybe some kind of ammo storage from a tank?

Nah, don't think so. Looking at the two lugs on top of the container I'm thinking they were dropped from a parachute as a sort of sea mine. But why didn't this one detonate when it hit the ground? On the other pictures it shows the same marines opening a German ball-mine, so maybe the farm was used to stock the mines, and they were not dropped.

[HVK]

I do not think it is a mine.

I mean using old grenades as explosives is a good idea - and is being used around the world today by e.g. Taliban.

But the germans would have removed the the casing with the gunpowder as this would have no effect on the explosion. But it takes up about 60-70% of the space. The Germans would never do that - it would be waste of material.... And it would be fairly easy to remove the shells from the casings.

Could they not be storage for placing on the deck of a submarine ? And the round shape to be easier to handle through the man hole ???

[GasMasksUK]

I'm thinking that its some sort of container for transporting 88mm rounds, the two handles on the top would just be there for ease of handling by the tank/gun crews.

Thanks

Danny

[Walkwolf]

Just a thought - Could it be a container used to air drop
munitions by parachute.........?

[Paul D]

Never seen German rounds transported in anything like this !!

[m3bobby]

What is the hole that the 2 guys in the top left of the last photo are digging out. Has that container just been removed from there?

[Feuerbach]

I think m3bobby is right; the container with the 88's has just been removed from the round German naval mine! On some pics we can just see the disc lid of the mine opened on the ground, and by judging the size it looks to me like the container would fit perfectly inside the naval mine. Like I said; I know for fact the Germans dropped
loads of naval mines in that area to prevent the alied ships taking the port of Antwerp in '44.
When the tide is low one can still see the remains of HMS Valentine today. Only a few sailors survived the attack. Some years ago my father traced down the only living surviver living today, how lives in England. My father organised a memorial on sea in memory of the fallen British navy soldiers of the Valentine. It was bombed with a torpedo by a German plane when she was on her way to the port of Antwerp. She has never been moved, still vissible today, but every year she sinks deeper away in the mud.