Nature versus war: Photos from the russian front.

Hawkshadow

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Nature versus war: How helmets, grenades and guns discarded during World War II have been swallowed up by tree trunks in Russia

A neat article showing some recent pictures taken in Russia, near an "...area of the Neva Bridgehead, known as Nevsky Pyatachok, which was the site of one of the most crucial campaigns during the devastating Siege of Leningrad that lasted from September 1941 to May 1943."


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2602084/Nature-war-How-helmets-grenades-guns-discarded-world-wars-enmeshed-tree-trunks-Russia.html
 
At least some of those shots are fake. A heavy metal item like a grenade, rifle or she'll don't just grow into a sapling, think about it. See many rocks in trees?
T
 
Rifle on the first picture is barreled action of Austro-Hungarian Steyr Mannlicher M1888-90 me thinks,not Carcano 91.

That would make it WW1 relic from southern Poland today.I heard of large number of those relics still in the ground near Przemyśl fortress and south of it.

During WW2 Soviets did some very heavy fighting near it as well.
 
I agree with donor, that rifle looks like an 1888 or 1888-90, how on earth it got there is a true mystery. Perhaps captured by the Russians in ww1 and somehow reissued during ww2 ? What a story it could tell.
 
Nabs said:
I agree with donor, that rifle looks like an 1888 or 1888-90, how on earth it got there is a true mystery. Perhaps captured by the Russians in ww1 and somehow reissued during ww2 ? What a story it could tell.
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very true....if only those weapons could talk , what a tale they could tell . Some historians have claimed that Russia Troops were very short on equipment during WW2 , even to the extent that some soldiers did not even have a rifle , but were told to follow their fellow soldiers into battle unarmed , and pick up a rifle from another wounded or dieing soldier as they advanced.......if it is true that rifles were in that short of supply , it would make sense that they would be using WW1 surplus rifles.....
 
^ I was thinking the same thing. The grenade could have be set there one night while the troops bedded down. Got up early the next morning and forgot to pick it up.
 
I have a section of tree from our family farm that my grandfather gave me that has a horeshoe grown into the tree. It almost went through his sawmill but he caught it just in time. The horse shoe has a little saw blade nibble out of it! I believe those are real photos.
 
Helping a friend cut some old maples down around his place we had a rough go with one old tree. 3 chains and a bar later we wrapped a chain around the trunk to snap off what we could not cut through . Seems the tree had grown around an old steel fence post.
 
577/450 said:
Nothing fishy When I get back to the farm where I grew up I will take picks of several tools embedded in trees. They were left hanging in a crotch of a branch and the trees just grow around them.
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Point taken, I guess it's possible it was left or hung in some nook. Maybe even placed there shortly after the war?

Some of the helmets seem really strange. Especially the one halfway up a tree! I guess it's possible, I'm no arboriculturist :)

-Steve
 
A tree will grow around just about anything. Rocks and grenades included. Read an article long ago that described a guy finding a rusted Winchester sticking out of a tree. And trees will grow through houses. So trees growing through/around all that stuff isn't really unusual. Helmets are eerie for sure.
 
In parts of eastern Finland, in particular around Suomissalmi where much of the Winter War was bitterly fought, there is no forestry activity possible. None of the trees can be cut down because of the imbedded bullets and shell fragments remaining in them from the fighting.

tac
 
Nabs said:
I agree with donor, that rifle looks like an 1888 or 1888-90, how on earth it got there is a true mystery. Perhaps captured by the Russians in ww1 and somehow reissued during ww2 ? What a story it could tell.
Click to expand...

Gunexpert007 said:
very true....if only those weapons could talk , what a tale they could tell . Some historians have claimed that Russia Troops were very short on equipment during WW2 , even to the extent that some soldiers did not even have a rifle , but were told to follow their fellow soldiers into battle unarmed , and pick up a rifle from another wounded or dieing soldier as they advanced.......if it is true that rifles were in that short of supply , it would make sense that they would be using WW1 surplus rifles.....
Click to expand...

The Austrians and Hungarians who invaded Russia alongside the Germans were commonly issued Steyr-Mannlicher rifles.



http://ww2db.com/images/weapon_steyrmannlicher_2.jpg

Even Germany issued some, probably 2nd line troops:

ww2_german_soldiers_armed_with_wwi_era_austrian_m95s.jpg
 
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