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Nineteen Kilo
Senior Member
Yes I would definitely say you've found a piece of it.
von Marwitz
Forum Guru
I *think* I came acrosss the other piece (i.e. the Sherman) a while back. But can't remember where.
von Marwitz
von Marwitz
R Hooks
Smoke Break brb
in the cellar across the street from your house maybe?...:stirthepot:
von Marwitz
Forum Guru
Hehe, that was funny...
Well, probably no tanks on offer. But there is a spot less than a mile of, where artillery (I think) ammo has been dumped into a lake. Two miles off, you are not supposed to leave paths in the woods, because a score of storage bunkers (partly full of ammo) have been blown up at the end of the war. The worst it could theoretically get is coming across some 1000 lbs aerial bombs in my backyard. The immediate surroundings have been bombed, but before an area is built up, it is usually searched for WW2 relics of this sort.
That said, tanks would be preferrable...
von Marwitz
Rock SgtDan
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Tanks for the memories.
Nineteen Kilo
Senior Member
Amazing 70 years on and still clearing bombs. Do you know if there was a specific target in your neighborhood or just the town itself?
While vM may have a better answer, it could have been 50 miles from the intended target. Early 'strategic' bombing was abysmally inaccurate. One of the earliest if not the earliest raids that caused significant German civilian casualties was done by the Luftwaffe in daylight! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Freiburg_on_10_May_1940) They were supposed to bomb France. The first bombing of London was accidental which in turn led to a retaliatory raid on Berlin which in its turn led to the London Blitz which eased the pressure on Fighter Command.
For the first few years of Bomber Command's night campaign most of the forces couldn't hit the right city, never mind a proper target like a factory complex. The Butt Report (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butt_Report) on early Bomber Command raids had as its conclusion "only about five per cent of bombers setting out bombed within five miles of their target". The introduction of the Gee and Oboe navigation system by 1942 did improve the hit rate and the later H2S provided crews with a radar 'map' of where they were. Those might have significantly brought accuracy up, maybe at times to daylight levels but even daylight bombing had its limitations. You could be reasonably sure of hitting the right city but eliminating industrial complexes still required massive raids to ensure their destruction and surrounding areas also got well hammered. The difficulty of hitting targets led to the simpler solution of wiping out the whole city à la Hamburg and Tokyo (where more died than in either of the nuclear attacks).
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lionelc62
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I am not surprised. In France each year we are still finding a lot of shells dating from world war I (900 tonnes / year around Verdun, for example) and some forests remain banned because of unexploded munitions!
Lionel
Justiciar
Elder Member
This must help explain why some mushrooms in the forest are hazardous as well....
Proff3RTR
Elder Member
Not really, as an example, Mamayev Kurgan in Volgagrad/Stalingrad still yearly turns up a veritable truck load of relics, from simple belt buckels to whole sections worth of bones! places were fighting or the effects of fighting took place will always turn up stuff, WW1 trenches lines are a classic.
Also look to a program called Tank overhual, a Panther had lain hidden in a deep stream since late 44 early 45 in Poland untill it was discovered in the mid 90's and bought by a British Multi millionare who restored old Tanks for a hobby, she was brought back to the UK and stripped down and rebuilt to running order!
Most of the old BAOR barracks in Germany were ex Whermacht/ Waffen SS Barracks, 2nd Royal Tank Regiments Barracks in Fallingbostel used to belong to the Liebstandartes Tiger Kompanie before they shipped out to Russia in early 43, Our SQMS found absolute loads of stuff, knifes & forks with the LAH monograme on them, shells, helmets, even found a Stick grenade carry case full of rotting Stick grenades between two of the Buildings.
Also remember Germany was hammered beyond belief from the air, so the main populace areas are bound to have thier fiar share of ordnance laying here and there.
Cheers
Perry
Proff3RTR
Elder Member
only if you make tea out of them or fry them and eat them in a bacon sandwhich.........or so they say
von Marwitz
Forum Guru
These were aimed at the town but were off target as my best guess. As for specific targets: This area here was part of the Wesel bridgehead.
von Marwitz