British army dump - HUGE haul of WW2 relics - PIC HEAVY!

R

RRPG

Regular
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Location
England
Hi All

Early last week my wife asked me what I wanted to do on my birthday...... 'DIGGING!' I replied......to which she shook her head, smiled, and said 'What a surprise!'. She's a good ol' girl.... :)

Anyway, I did indeed go for a dig at a favorite site of mine. This British army dump site has produced some amazing finds over the years, but the dig on my birthday was one of the best ever. Not only because of the kind of thing coming out, but also the sheer quantity of relics I recovered.

Apologies for the number of pictures, but it really was a superb day.

If you don't want to look through the pics and prefer video, here is a link to a video of the dig....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHerT-ufJbM



If you do want to see the pictures, here we go!

Everything before cleaning......







And now after cleaning.....

Lee-Enfield and Sten oil bottles along with Vickers cloth belt starter tabs....











The Vickers starter tabs were fairly standard, and joined the 200 or so I already have. However, 2 were very unusual....



The reason they were unusual? They appear to be unit marked. Never seen them unit marked before.







Bren oil bottle



Bakelite spike bayonet scabbards, including some nice No 4 'Victory' scabbards.





K98 butt plates, trigger and mag housing and a Luger magazine.....from a British army dump in the UK! Amazing....





Tripod mounting bracket for an MG



Slide from a Browning M1910/22



Very small pieces of barrel from both a No 4 and No 1 Lee-Enfield



Rear sights from, of all things, a Vetterli Vitali rifle





Another rear sight, (not tracked the weapon down yet....)



Lee-Enfield No 1 Nose caps. Note the length of the bayonet lug on the top one. We believe this is for an Arisaka bayonet.



Lewis spade grips



Lee-Enfield and Long Lee butt plates



And the best find of the day?

Has to be these two items.

Trigger & mag housing from a Lee-Enfield training rifle along with a practice bolt from the same thing!




A truly remarkable day and I am still cleaning the 30 kg of Vickers 50cal cloth belt starter tabs and brass strips I recovered, along with a bucket of other miscellaneous buckles and clips!

:)

RRPG
 
Dyspnea - They are all cleaned, preserved and added to my private museum. I also regularly display at military shows and schools around the UK :)

englishman_ca - Marvellous. Thanks :)
 
Makes you wonder how old some historical artifacts are given how decayed some of these enfield parts are after only approx 80 years. To think medieval and earlier swords etc have survived all this time.
 
All depends on the soil really. Some areas of the dump are quite thick with clay, and the relics don't survive too well in those areas. Constantly 'wet' so the corrosion is considerable.

However, in other areas, especially where the dump was burnt, the soil is actually more like sand. The large amount of ask in some areas makes the soil very free flowing with regards water, so the relics survive a lot better.

Lastly, one area of the dump is full of metal ammo cans and large sheets of metal. In between the ammo cans and metal sheets you can find some relics that almost look brand new. Almost...... :)
 
What would be a cool way to display your ground dug treasures would be to mount the found LE bits and pieces to a nice piece of wood as a "exploded" lay out, maybe even paint or router in a over sized LE shape to give reference.
 
XRCD011 - I went one step further about 2 years ago. Bought some LE wood and mounted all the bits on it :)

lmar - I would, but it would be a BIG post! 20 years of digging results in an awful lot of very unusual and rare relics.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom