Pics : An Ardennes Barn.
As we've all heard those stories ( 'Got that Panther engine from a farmer in the Ardennes' 'That MP44 came from a barn in the Ardennes - been there for 70 years' etc) I just thought it may be amusing for members to see what an honest-to-gosh Ardennes barn actually looks like these days.
i should say that there are relatively few run-down barns left there ; the Ardennes ( at least, the picturesque bits ) is very much a 'second home/holiday home' area for businessmen so a lot of money is being spent renovating old buildings while old outbuildings are bulldozed. But last weekend my wife and I were walking near Stavelot ( we were over there for the La Gleize Show ) and actually found a real one.....
As we walked past the tumbledown shed in the middlle, I noticed shelves of old junk. The farm and its' dogs didn't look too welcoming, so I peered through my zoom lens and spotted the German kiste top left, either a GrW34 or 7.92 ammo box......
Anyhow, I was amused to actually see something there from WWII. OK, the perfect ending would be me buying the box off a grateful old farmer for 1 Euro and then an invitation to look at the Panzer IV buried deep in the woods, but......
..didn't happen !
I had to wait for the next day at La Gleize to buy some bits.
.
"In all my years as a soldier, I have never seen men fight so hard." - SS Obergruppenfuhrer Wilhelm Bittrich - Arnhem
by Woolgar
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