My newest somme battle field pick ups

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Crisco 1 said:
How do you guys view collecting items possibly looted from dead Germans by Canadian soldiers?
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Good question. I believe there are " trophies" and "souveniers". The vast majority of the guys who brought something home from the wars, earned the right to do so by just being there at that moment in time, and I will never take that away from them. Whereas anybody, regardless of actual involvement with any conflict and no emotional or physical attachment to the circumstances or environment, can obtain a souvenier with no real feeling for the object. There is a BIG difference.
 
An yet every year its plowed up,planted on,animals defecate and urinate on this hallowed ground. IMHO I'd rather see it in the hands of someone who'll respect what he finds and pass the experience on to the next generation.....cause God knows the Libs and Dippers won't. My wife has 2 relatives buried in France. One disappeared on the Regina Trench raid (she took the time to research it...and the other killed at Passendale. her Grandfather also Participated in Vimy. As for grave robbing...thats a long shot, most of Europes a grave yard and yet they build on it and lay rail line,sewer and so on........(this is how they recovered members of the Fort Garrey Horse who were listed as missing in action.)
 
Picking up someone's bones, one thing. Picking up a piece of exploded ordnance, another.

I keep thinking if it were me, or a family member, would I want it (button, wallet, etc) to remain in the ground? Nope, I would prefer an individual to appreciate it, to give it further "life" with a new owner.

It has been mentioned already on numerous threads, today's museums, don't really want a lot of the items we, as military enthusiasts, collect. So why not have them in private hands (also previously mentioned). If the items remain in the ground, they simply decay, rot, and will never serve any type of purpose again. If I were to die on a battlefield, I would appreciate the surroundings and items to be used in some sort of useful manner rather than just fade away to history.

I believe this argument can be had for many war memorials, medals, artifacts. If I had say a VC awarded to my father, how long should the family hold onto it? If it were my VC won in battle, I would appreciate it if some family member down the line could put the fairly large some of money put to use, ie. down payment on a house, etc. The medal/award will remain alive, and probably more so, as the new owner will cherish, research and value it, as much, if not more than some distant family member who never laid eyes on me.

If given to some museum, it will stay in a box in the basement, never to see the light of day again. Might as well left it in the ground to turn to dust.

Different strokes, different opinions I guess.
 
I visited The Somme, Vimy, and a few other spots. The battlefields are becoming lost to the realities of modern expansion.

Some areas are designated and protected, others, not so much.

I brought home a wire stake from the field where my Great Grand Uncle started the last day of his life near Hill 70.

I also left a set of my ribbons in the tunnel underground where he scrawled his name and service number on the wall the night before he died.

The fallen need to be respected, and remembered. That is the core of battlefield archaeology in my opinion.

NS
 
our nations museums sends thousands of firearms for destruction each year . its easier to take them ,than tell the veterans or there families that they all ready have to many in storage.
especially Lugers and P38s
 
Yeah, I would not support taking relics from a battlefield. My great-grandad didn't die in WW1, but he still fought there (have his trench maps from 1916, unsure what sector as I open the map as infrequently as possible) and I would respect the sacrifice he and other men made.

Also, Glock22Guy, don't bring Ontario into this please. It's about who you are, not where you live.
 
Every year French farmers plow up stuff from the battlefields. It is usualy piled on the side of the road for pickup and disposal. Of course once in a while they hit an unexploded shell with spectacular results
I have a No1Mk3 that was found in one such pile\ at the Somme. Wood is gone, Barrel bent at an angle, and I believe there is one up the spout as the saftey is on. That bolt is NEVER going to open. but the rounds in the magazine were removed. If it hasn't gone off since 1915 I am not going to worry about it.

Interesting fact; it is estimated there are still TEN TONS OF ORDNANCE still in the ground at Gettysburg. Of course you can't dig there:)
 
I would like to see some oversight when it comes to the recovery of artifacts to preserve and prevent the objects and the moment in time they represent from being lost. I'm a NAS (nautical archeological society) certified diver, haven taken courses through the ministry of culture and tourism. (Canada) I can speak first hand of good relics, 36 pounder carronade & 50 pounder motar balls being rejected by two local museums ... The one guy told me if they wanted to display the balls they would just make new ones ... I was shocked. Perhaps items such as these would be more widely viewed in a private collection. Had I left them at Stoney Creek Battlefield Park they would most probably have been scrapped.
 
The N.B. Museum had a fantastic gun collection right from the war of 1812 thru WW1 and 2. All of these weapons are no longer displayed. I wonder if they are rusting away in some wet basement or they have in fact been destroyed. Not fair to the families who donated them so they could be displayed.
 
Geee, what a bunch of dramatic outbursts on this thread! :( As far as I am concerned, it is better that some of these relics get preserved in collections, than left to decay in the ground. At least that way they can be shown, preserved, and will always remind people of the sacrifice during the Great War. I draw the line at bone fragments and such, but see no problem with shrapnel balls etc.

I remember years ago, Can-Am was selling musket balls from the War of 1812. I bought some, two of which had clearly impacted with soft tissue, and a couple had obviously hit hard things. He had several buckets full of them, dug up from an area which is now a parking lot. Had they not been saved, they would have been forever entombed in concrete. Was it wrong to have dug them up?
 
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