WW2 USAAF airfield - 7th October 2010 - Unexpected visit and finds

[Steve T]

Hi all

Well I had no plans for going out detecting this week but an opportunity arose so I took it Basically the Mrs was spending a day working from home which meant I couldn't so, rather than waste my time with housework or such like, I went to my airbase instead

There was one area in particular I had never spent much time at because of the lack of finds on previous trips. So, bearing in mind the success I had been having in areas I thought were clear, thought it worth giving this area a really good going over.

It was worth it

Although I have to say, I have never seen such a HUGE wood ant nest as the one I saw when detecting. It must have been 5 foot high and an area 10 metres around it was totally clear of leaf litter and CRAWLING with the biggest badest ants you've ever seen !

I digress.....onto the finds.

Before cleaning.........



And then after cleaning.....



A few oddments to begin with. Don't know what the cap is off or what the clamp was used for. Anyone got a clue please let me know.



Quite a few pieces of lock on this visit for some reason.



And a strange arm of some description. Could be off a lock ? It is made of solid brass and is quite heavy. No markings on it that I can see.



A small buckle and piece off webbing.



What looks like the remains of another harmonica, although I could be totally wrong!



Some nice bits of Toiletries. A Gibbs Dentifrice tin, a Shavallo jar, a couple of toothpaste tops and half a NAAFI mug with a nice dated stamp on the base



A couple of darts, a piece from a lock and a piece of brass that I can't ID



Now, would you believe it but I found another watch. No name on this one unfortunately BUT it has a face and you can make out the numbers



A nice Ha'penny and a couple of American coins that someone has had a really good and very CAREFUL go at. They've cut out the coin to leave just the head, then attached a couple of hoops to the top. Lucky charms perhaps ? Making something for his girl back home ? Don't suppose we'll ever definitely know but they are great ! 1942 dated



A nice RAF bage. Third one I've found at this site now. I wish I could find a USAAF cap badge to go with them.



Last but not least the usual cartridges. Firstly a couple of 303's, a very strange .30cal that has had something added to the base, a .380 that has been fired then had a bullet jammed back into it, a .30cal carbine bullet and a stripper clip.



A couple of pieces of cut through 20mm along with a cut through .50cal with a 'sleeve' added to it.



And the headstamps of the .50's. Note the strange object that has been pushed into the base of one of them. I relly wish I knew what they were doing things like this for !



Anyway that's it for this visit. Not bad for a spur of the moment trip

Cheers

Steve T

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

Nice finds. I wish I was close to a base here in the states.

[jimpy]

Steve

Your clamp looks like a vehicle battery lead clamp and a quick google search for the cap came up with Tri-Sure closures which would figure as it does remind me of a fuel drum closure.

Regards etc

Ian D

AKA: Jimpy

[Whitehunter]

Well done Mate, not another watch :P those coins are amazing i've only ever seen pictures of our Big pennys cut out like that. Like the capbadge aswel i hope to find one oneday although the other day at the carboot a brought a picture of a german soilder and the lady gave me one of those capbadges for free. She said she likes to see the younger collectors

[Walkwolf]

Nice finds, Steve ! The 'strips with slots' are definitely from a harmonica !

NAAFI cup shard is quite interesting as well.........!

[m3bobby]

The .5 and 20mm cases look as though someone was trying to make lighters out of them. Have you seen the amount of old cases that have been turned into lighters? I wouldn't be suprised if more that a few of these atempts failed and resulted in the waste being thrown into the grass.

[Steve T]

Thanks guys

Jimpy - Yeah.....my search quickly brought up tri-sure as well. Not tracked it down precisely yet though. Good call on the clamp. Could well be right. I found a head gasket not 2 feet away from the clamp.

Whitehunter - A free cap badge ! Nice one The coins are great ain't they

Walkwolf - Thanks for confirming the harmonica bits Shame the cup wasn't intact but it's nice non-the-less

M3 - I have now collected around 40 cut through .50's, with or without sleeves etc, and the same number of 20mm cartridges. I find at least one on every visit. Interestingly I have also found two 303's and 3 .30 cals that had their lighter conversion 'completed', and the remains of one 20mm that was completed as well

Cheers

Steve T

[381st digger]

Well done Steve, The coins are great!! You did well finding two of them.

[Steve T]

Well done Steve, The coins are great!! You did well finding two of them.

Super ain't they !

They were in the same hole more or less stuck together which is why I think they may have been intended as earings.

Cheers

Steve T