Hürtgen Forest dec 2009

[Bart]

A month ago me, john647 and some other friends went to the Hürtgen Forest to an old spot were earlier one of my friends found an MG42 barrel.



Most of the guys stayed back while I wanted to check out a strategic crossroads deeper in the forest. I found a few foxholes alongside it so at least my guess was right. After a few casings it seemed this place was already checked out. But then I got a somewhat static signal in one of the foxholes. It might have been scrap but to my positive surprise it was a complete K98k bajonet.



I called out for John who was a few hundred feet away to show him my find. He had already found a few German mortartails and an empty US 60mm mortar.



Sweeping once more over the foxhole, it gave me a good beep so I decided to completely dig it out. After shoveling twice a these Garandclips emerged, rot as always...



John was searching nearby and pretty quickly found a buttplate for a K98k.



After a short break, I thought it was better if everyone would come our direction and I was curious about what they had found. One of my friends had found a 12cm mortar tail and an empty pineapple handgrenade, the hadn't found much except for a few casings, buttons etc. Me and my friend continued on digging out the foxhole while the rest searched the surroundings. Quickly some M1943 eyeshields emerged and an American civilian spoon.



The guy who found the empty pineapple found another one. This one was still active.



Together


After examing them I went back to the foxhole. On my way I spotted a piece of plate. Later it was dated between 1914 and 1939.





From the foxhole, some radiogear emerged. First a large folding antenna.



Then some rotten battery packs, later followed by this field radio battery and a piece of US headphones.



Also a leather palm glove in great shape. Pictures in the field failed but here is one back home.



It was getting pretty dark. John had already left a few hours ago so we decided to head back. Last but not least my other friend found the remains of a German gasmask.

[bikerboyzx6r]

Nice one!
It was a little hard underfoot when we went Where did you stay & how did you get there? We had fun getting there

[STG44]

great looking relic, Thanks for posting.

[Andrew]

i think it would be great to dig like that, like christmas with a shovel lol. a russian frend of mine tells me about a troop of german soldiers caught in an snow avalanch in the caucasus mountains. they are still frozen in ice he told me , back in 2001. i cant tell you how torn that thought makes me. on one hand what a find! on the other. we just went trout fishing in the causasus instead. i should have atleast gone to look. he told me the germans built the roads through the mountains, still used today. we were on it.
the ground dug stuff is pretty cool. i'm just not sure how i'd feel finding more than i hoped for.
keep looking but man the morters and other explosives !! be really carefull. we want you around to post new finds.
andrew

[Bart]

Nice one!
It was a little hard underfoot when we went Where did you stay & how did you get there? We had fun getting there

I live only an one hour drive from the Hürtgen so it was easy to get there and I just stayed at home .

@Andrew: Don't worry, I've handled many different explosives and I allways do this with enough care.

[alfrie]

haye bart nice finds your lucky to have a realy good place like that to explore i envay you man

[theduke635]

My Grandpa was in the Hurtgan forest in 1944 i would love to go visit and dig up some relics!

[coloursergeant]

Fantastic finds and photos! Thanks for posting them. It must be great to be close enough to go explore like this whenever you like!

[Pompa Mike]

These types of recoveries are so very interesting to me. History frozen in time. Thanks for sharing the photos and the stories,

Mike

[Nordland/Danmark]

very nice relics you guys found there.