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Urban legend?????

Article about: I remember my grand-dad regularly wearing his old greatcoat well into the 1960's, it ended up as a blanket for the family dog! And when I was clearing out the house and garage when my gran d

  1. #51

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    Another variation of this story about the motorbike is the bloke that purchased a crate and found a jeep inside it, complete with spare engine. Someone I know claims to know a person who has a map which shows where everything was buried after the war, the burying of stuff just happens to be true though. A long ditch was dug by the side of the main runway - now the M62 motorway, and all kinds was piled in.

    I live just across the road from where the boiler house used to be, and when I moved here in 1977 it was still very much an active base. The Americans began to wind it down after much of the equipment stored there was sent out during the first Gulf war. After the closure of the base, and when the ground was cleared for the building of Chapelford urban village, all kinds of relics were brought out of the ground. When the foundations for the 'Seven Woods' pub were dug out, two large boxes were uncovered, each of which contained a Browning .50 cal in extremely fine condition. There are a few other Browning guns - which had their barrels partly chopped before burial - which are now on display in the Burtonwood air base museum located by the side of Gullivers World theme park. They also have other items on display which were also uncovered. There was a very well known scrapyard not far from the hospital, which up to the 1960's, had a B17 fuselage in the yard, and even up to the 70's and well beyond, there were other aircraft parts stored there. At one time there were Lightning aircraft stored in 40ft containers.

    The problem with the stories surrounding Burtonwood base is that the urban myths are believed by some people, while the genuine stories - often reported in the local press - are also dismissed as urban myths. Just ask yourself though... would you really find a Harley Davidson in a crate big enough to be used as a garden shed?

    Cheers,
    Steve
    Last edited by HARRY THE MOLE; 01-18-2021 at 08:52 PM.

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  3. #52

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    My Grandfather started in the Army Air Force. He would go on to do aircraft maintenance in his spare time and my Aunt has a picture (I hope she still has it) of him with the Enola Gay. He said (and still living) that they put 14 Radio and radar sets in her and they never would stay calibrated, even though she was cleared of radiation. He said after the bombing she stayed at the end of the runway and you weren't allowed near it. It was looked over by a group testing it daily (his recall).
    Anyway After the war he married an Army Nurse, my grandma and they lived in an apartment above the garage of his parents house. When they moved out Great Grandma cleaned out the apartment, she took his duffel bag with his uniforms and souvenirs and his foot locker and threw them into the creek when it would rain so it would wash down. She at that time also threw away the case to great grandpa's Browning A5 shotgun that he bought October 1st 1929. We still hunt with the A5. My great grandpa Hasten would still get mad when he talked about it. Grandpa did keep all his khakis and I remember being like 6 or 7 in 1991 him still wearing them when tending the garden or corn patch. They eventually fell apart (all the pants had been turned into shorts at that point) and he tossed them. When they moved in 93' he gave his dog tags to someone and can't remember who. We still haven't found them. None of his kids nor any of the grandkids has them.

  4. #53

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    Quote by Fwiesel View Post
    Indeed! Although it's a Dutch company now at the former site of "Bacon and Eggs"������
    't is nie mier wa da 't was!
    ....changes of time...
    Chances are we have mutual friends...
    Always looking for Belgian Congo stuff!
    http://out-of-congo.eklablog.com/

    cheers
    |<ris

  5. #54

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    Many, many years ago, when I first started work, we had a older chap who used to clean/tidy up the garage where I worked.

    Getting to know him over a small period of time, we were told he was a former merchant seaman during WW2.

    He told us of his time at sea, losing friends to U-Boat/Lufwaffe attacks on different ships.

    He told us of his time in Montevideo, and a souvenir he brought back home..

    It was a cap from The ADMIRAL GRAF SPEE.

    It was given to him by a German crew member, the day before the ship was scuttled.

    I almost fell over.. did he stilll have it?

    "No" he said, my missus threw it out with the rubbish

    "Jeezus christ" I said "do you know how much it would be worth now?"

    Well he has passed away now, a good few years ago.

    I cried like a baby when I found that it had been thrown out.

    A great piece of history lost for ever.

  6. #55

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    Such happenings were commonplace in the late 1950's and the early 1960's... and even later. My uncle Frank was one of the Desert Rats, and when I used to go up to Gorton and visit him when I was a kid, he used to bring out all his photographs from his time in the desert and show me. When he died, and his wife had a clear out, his medals and photographs went on the coal fire. I was more fortunate with my uncle Arthur. Years after his death, and after his sister died, his medals were thrown out - along with a large photo of him and also his paybook. I went up to help clear my aunts flat and I ended up going through the bags of rubbish. That's when I found his medals and other bits.

    Cheers,
    Steve

  7. #56

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    When my grandfather came back from the Far East (FEPOW), he got a job at the local RAF base as a policeman and told me a story about his first night shift. He was told that when he was to go out on night patrol, not to go past a certain building as it would stop his watch (the old wind-up type). Anyway, he forgot, and it did just that. He never knew what was in the building as it was top secret. I have since asked serving RAF personnel and even they don't know what it might have been. Personally, I suspect that it was something giving off a poweful electro-magnetic signal. If anybody knows what it might have been in the 40's or 50's, please speak.

  8. #57
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    When my great-grandfather was serving in the ETO he acquired 2 German MP40's. Having to move forward he left them with the company cooks to watch them for him until he could return and mail them home. However, when he was gone the fellows he entrusted to watch them decided to take them apart and inspect them, only they couldn't figure out how to put them back together and threw the pieces into the Rhine...

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