Posted on 05/08/2019 4:44:52 AM PDT by vannrox
A selection of World War 2 guns that stayed in the ground for tens of years and now being dug out by Russian enthusiasts. The search for the old guns became very popular in Russia lately, so popular that a law was passed that abolished such kind of searches in Russian forests. Now if you going to be caught with a metal detector you can face charges. Still people go on this treasure hunt as the stock of the metal laying down in the ground since WW2 is immense. Photos and videos are here:
And a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTKz8BRTpxU
On picture #19, the first with other gear, did anyone notice the hole in the helmet dead center?
I think there was something else alongside (inside) that helmet originally. (semi sarc)
I’ve watched several metal detector guys dig up all kinds of stuff—all over Europe and Russia. Its amazing what’s buried. Guns, tons of live ammo, mines, medals, etc. Even soldiers.
“On picture #19, the first with other gear, did anyone notice the hole in the helmet dead center?
A friend visited Ukraine & brought back a German helmet from a battlefield there.
It has one small hole above head level from from back to front. However, it has another small hole in the front at forehead level and a very big hole in the back of it that split the helmet vertically in two for a short distance.
He also brought back a beautiful Ukranian wife.
There are places I’d like to vacation just to do metal detecting! This is cool.
Hmmmn. Several Lugers obviously.
Several Russia makes.
Looks like several 1911 (Lend - Lease almost certainly.)
But the “Red Star” 1911: Cloned? (The Russians, after all, did copy three B-29 bombers that landed in their territory to create their first bomber fleet for post-war fighting. That fuselage “grew up” into the Tupelov long-range bomber with turbo-prop engines.)
Sobering to see the helmets with bullet holes.
Great post!
...if you going to be caught with a metal detector you can face charges.
That seems a little harsh, eh? A few years ago WWII-era military burials were being dug to find such weapons, I'd guess that's part of the reason for such a law. Thanks vannrox.
The ones in cosmoline and wrapped in paper seem to have
survived in a usable condition, not bad.
“The guns lay in the ground, not laid in the ground.”
I’m sure the guns are old enough to decide where to get laid.
Maybe to prevent them from digging up mines/artillery shells and blowing themselves up. My sister visited Verdun back in the '70s and was told farmers were still getting blown up when they'd hit a shell with their plows.
It would be neat to search for stuff like that, but IMO, far too risky.
The Annual Iron Harvest of Unexploded Shells from the WWI battlefieldsCan you imagine ONE TON per ten square feet and 2/3 is unexploded?
Nov 11, 2016. By Ian Harvey."According to some estimates, one ton of explosive material was fired for every square meter of the West French front’s territory. Two thirds of these explosives ended up un-detonated and laid there, later being buried in the chaos of the war."
"In Ypres alone, an estimated 300 MILLION explosives belonging to German and British forces were buried, most were duds and have not yet been discovered. As recently as 2013 a total of 160 tons of munitions, including 15-inch naval gun shells, were meticulously unearthed from the regions around Ypres.
I believe Russians buried guns in case they were ever needed since gun control was so harsh in the USSR
One can always use a spare tank
Very cool
It’s almost impossible to comprehend the number of resources that went into Barbarossa, on both sides. They’ll be finding stuff hundreds of years from now.
Back in the '70s I attended a speech given by some talking head about the nuclear confrontation we had with Russia.
One person asked him what about China setting off a nuclear explosion on either side in order to start a war between Russia and the U.S.
The guy stunned everyone in the audience (some gasped), when he said "The first bomb is free." WTF????
He said both sides were aware of tactics like that, or even of accident, and had basically come to that conclusion. The Russians pointed to a situation outside of Stalingrad, where rebuilding was going on, and a bulldozer uncovered an abandoned German ammo dump. They said it was the equivalent explosive power of the Hiroshima bomb and had the bulldozer hit a shell the wrong way, over 20K tons of high explosives would have gone up.
I was glad to see that cool heads prevailed.
“The first is free”
Wow. I guess, on the bright side, it wasn’t “Buy one, get one free.”
I’m sure they cached a lot of things ahead of the German advance for partisans to use.
The Germans did the same when the front came back their way.
An awful lot of stuff was just lost in the confusion of battle, too.
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