IndianaM
Greenie
- Apr 23, 2011
- 16
- 0
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab Explorer SE
Good day!
Now, you may have entered this thread expecting some amazing finds, perhaps a couple of gold coins or an old iron age axe - after all, I am posting in the "My Best Finds!" section!
I am sorry to disappoint you, but there are no amazing gold coins to be seen here, and I haven't even dug the items I will be showing you, but these items are still some of my best finds not because of their money value, but because of their history. 
During the past month I have been visited by both my grandfather on my father's side and my mother's side, and to my delight they both brought me some old gifts, and more importantly the history that goes with them.
My grandfather on my mother's side is named Heinz, and I will refer to him using that name. Heinz was born in Czechoslovakia in 1937. His family had a farm far north of the capital of Prague in a region known as the "Sudetenland". Al though a part of Czechoslovakia it was largely inhabited by Germans due to its close proximity to Germany, and Heinz family had actually moved in from Germany several generations earlier in the 1600s.
Following Hitler's "anschluss" with Austria in March 1938 Hitler had made it clear that he would not be satisfied until all ethnic Germans had been incorporated in the "Greater Germany". This sparked the "Sudeten crisis" in which Hitler demanded that Sudetenland would become part of Germany. Following the Munich Conference on the 28th of September 1938 Europe agreed to let Hitler soak up the Sudetenland, promising to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain that this would be his last demand, and "peace in our time". We all know how that went, and on the 1st of September 1939 Hitler invaded Poland, effectively starting the Second World War. You can see the piece on paper on which Hitler wrote this promise in this picture:
Now, Heinz's father had left the family when Heinz was still very young, so he was brought up by his grandfather (known to me as "Opa", which is german for "Grandpa"). "Opa" had fought in the First World War in the German cavalry on the eastern front. During one battle he was captured by the Russians and placed in a work camp who supplied labour to the building of Russian railroads. Prior to the Russian revolution in 1917 Opa had ben riding a construction train which followed the newly laid train track. Somehow someone had committed a fatal mistake and drawn the railroad over an area of soft, wet, low-lying land. As the train was traveling on the track the track suddenly started sinking through the mud, and soon the whole train train was sinking. Opa who was on the train managed to escape in the tumult which ensued, and he returned home to Czechoslovakia safely. With the start of the Second World War in 1939 Opa was once again drafted into the German army. This time however he was wounded and returned home early in the war.
My grandfather, Heinz, started school in 1942, and he has told me of how every morning they were made to stand up by their desks and sing "Die Fahne Hoch" ("The Flag Up High"), which was the anthem of the Nazi Party. As the tide of war turned in 1942-43 the Russians approached Czechoslovakia from the east and the German army retreated to the west, parts of it through Sudetenland. As they did so Heinz told me that they set fire to all ammunition they had to leave behind so that the Russians could not capture it. As of this day he says he has never seen anything comparable to the sound and sight of the sky above one of these depots they set on fire. In their retreat the Germans left behind huge amounts of war material, so the countryside was littered by broken down tanks, weapons and motorcycles.
Heinz told me how he found a motorcycle with a side cart, probably one of these...
...with punctured tires next to a road. The motorcycle had a pouch and in it he found a deck of cards, a knife and some other small things which he took and has kept till this very day. Many years later in the 60s when Heinz worked for BMW he met a man who was curious about Heinz's czech surname (It is Dlouhy). It turned out that this man had been part of the German army division that retreated through Heinz's village, and the man told Heinz that he had been forced to leave his motorcycle behind as they had no gasoline for it. The man was mesmerized when my grandfather was able to tell the man exactly what he had stored in his small side pouch when he left the motorcycle! Europe sure is a small place!
Back to 1944-45, Heinz told me how he used to stay up at night to watch the dogfights taking place in the night sky as allied aircrafts started bombing runs deeper into germany. One day they found a man sneaking around their farm wearing "non-german clothes". When they approached him they found out that he was a French pilot who had been shot down the previous night. Despite knowing of the risks involved Opa decided to try and hide the pilot from the German search parties which were bound to hit the area soon. My grandfather told me of how they hid the man (I don't know how or where), and that about an hour later a patrol of 4 or 5 German soldiers had approached their farm. They told Heinz and his mother and sister to leave while they questioned Opa. Apparently the German officer in charge did not trust Opa, as Heinz could see how the Officer got furious, took Opa by the arm and dragged him into the forrest. When the family heard a series of gunshots they were certain that Opa had been executed, so when he came walking back alone they were pleasantly surprised, to say the least...
Apparently the group of Germans had been ambushed by the Czech resistance when they were about to execute Opa, and seeing that he was no soldier himself they let him go. This was the last time German soldiers ever came to the farm. My guess would be that they were too occupied during the retreat to check what happened with the missing german patrol. The French pilot stayed with the family and helped out on the farm until the end of the war.
As the Russians approached their farm they hid everything of value in the forrest, and the day the Russians finally arrived Heinz's mother and sisters hid in the forrest, fearing the worst possible treatment from Russian soldiers seeking revenge. My grandfather told me that most of these things they hid were never retrieved, and a dream of mine is to one day metal detect the area trying to find some of these hidden items.
As the war ended in May 1945 the grateful French pilot left for France and the family hoped that things would return to normal. However, it never did. Their neighbors knew that Heinz's family was German, and this they told the new Russians in charge. As a result of this Heinz's family was told to pack their bags and be ready for departure within a weak. Realizing the severity of the situation, they managed to inform the French pilot of what had happened and asked if he could help them. He in turn contacted the French army and informed them of how Heinz's family had hid him during the war. As a result he managed to secure my grandfather's family a place on a train to Germany. They took this chance, leaving almost everything behind for a new life in Münich. Later my grandfather met my grandmother in Hamburg where they had three children, including my mother. They moved to Sweden at the end of the 1960s and in 1991 I was born, buyah!
The reasons I know this is because when Heinz visited me last week he had brought these coins for me:
The coins are from 1937 and 1938 and are made from silver. My grandfather could not recollect exactly how he had gotten hold of them, but he found them in a box together with the other things he had found in the stranded motorcycle back in 1945, so it is possible that he found them in the pouch on the motorcycle.
The side of the coins says "Gemeinnutz Geht Vor Eigennutz", roughly translating into "Public Need Before Private Greed". What a lot of people often forget is that Hitler was somewhat of a socialist, and many major companies in germany were nationalized by the Nazis.
That's the story of my grandfather Heinz and how he gave me these coins and a great history lesson.
-------
My grandfather on my fathers side was born in 1932 in Denmark, and his name is Oluf. He was also raised on a farm close to the german border, but this time it was the border between Germany and Denmark. This area had seen several disputes between Germany and Denmark, the last one prior to WW2 was the Second Schleswig War and took place in 1864 when Prussian soldiers invaded Denmark. As a kid my grandfather was digging around their plantation of fruit trees, and he found several Prussian and Danish military buttons which most likely originate from the Second Schleswig War. He also found this small piece of metal which he believes has been a part of some early hand grenade perhaps used during the Second Schleswig War:
As you can see on the first picture the piece of metal does have some letters and numbers of it, but it is really hard to read. Some of my candidates of what is says:
DIA47
DIA49
DIT47
DIT49
The D might even be a B...
Now that Oluf knows I am interested he told me that he would bring some of the army buttons next time so I will be able to show them to you.
Oluf's father did his military duty in 1923, and Oluf also gave me some ammunition which his father had kept from 1923:
The bullet on the left is marked HL 96, which means that it was produced at the Haerens Laboratorium (The Army Laboratory) in Denmark in 1896. It is a so called 8x58R type of ammunition, and it was used with the Gevaer 1889 (Rifle 1889) which was first put into production in 1889 and was produced by Krag-Jørgensen. Here's a picture of the Gevaer 1889 and a video of a person shooting an American edition of the same rifle:
[youtube=425,350]dSLJaUfkShc[/youtube]
The bullet on the right is also market HL so it was also made at The Army Laboratory but in 1906. The crown shows that it was made in Denmark. Since it is the same diameter I guess that it could be used by the same Gevaer 1889 rifle as above. However, I am not sure. Perhaps someone of you knows better?
Oluf was 8 years old when Germany invaded and occupied Denmark in April 1940. Oluf told me how he and his siblings woke up to the noise of aircrafts flying over in the morning of the 9th of April 1940. At first there were only lighter aircraft flying over into the heart of Denmark so Oluf's father told them that they were probably Danish aircrafts practicing. When they had eaten breakfast and were getting ready to walk to school much heavier planes flew over, this time bombers, and at this point Oluf's father knew that the planes were German since the Danish air force had no such large airplanes. Despite this my grandfather did go to school that day since they did not know what was happening. At school he was having a lesson, while suddenly his teacher stood up and walked over the the windows overlooking a road. The whole class was silent and looked at the teacher, as suddenly they could see tears running down his face. Outside German soldiers were marching past the school, and Oluf told me that while trying to hold back his tears the teacher told them that class was dismissed.
Surprisingly Oluf told me that he did not have many bad memories from the war. He said that he was at an age were most of it seemed like an adventure to him and his friends. Oluf's family had a German colonel living at their farmhouse. I think his name was Fritz. He was a priest and always treated them kindly. One day some soldiers were marching up to their house. It had just rained so their boots were all muddy, so when they stepped into the hallway of Oluf's house and saluted the colonel mud flew all over the place. Upon seeing this my grandfathers mother became furious and told the colonel that this was unacceptable! The colonel calmly said that "Frau Mathiasen (Mathiasen was their surname) does not have to worry, from now on I will make sure that they never set foot inside this house while wearing boots, you have my word!" and this promise he kept. The German soldiers stationed in Oluf's village often helped out, and when the family celebrated birthdays or confirmations the soldiers would always help out and act as attendants.
Of course not everything was as peaceful. Occasionally the Danish resistance would blow up a train or some german installation and if the perpetrators were caught they were hanged in public to deter others from doing the same things. But Oluf told me that this was very hard to grasp as a young boy, and it was much easier to see the exciting parts of war than reacting to the horrific sides.
In Oluf's village the Germans had set up a shooting range. At the beginning of the war projectiles were often made of led, but as the war went on led became scarce and the price of it shot through the roof! As a result Oluf and his friends would go the the shooting range and dig through the sand looking for shot pieces of led which they sold to the local junk dealer. Sometimes Oluf would take the projectiles and the casings which were laying around and then bring them to his father who would try to assemble them. That is how he got hold of these bullets which Oluf also gave to me:
The two on the left are the two danish bullets, and they were not found at the shooting range.
Bullet 3, 4, 5 and 6 are German bullets:
The bottom of the largest one of them reads "P490 IXw1 5 39". P490 is the makers code and it tells us that the bullet was made by Hugo Schneider A.G., at Werk (Factory) Altenburg. IX tell us that the steel comes from the steel mill August-Thyssen-Hütte A.G. at Franz-Lenze-Str. 3 in Duisburg-Hamborn. The small w tells us that the plating firm was Hugo Schneider A.G. Messingwerke at Hugo Schneider Straße 87 in Taucha-Leipzig, the 7 tells us exactly the mixture of metals in the casing, the number 5 is the batch number and 39 tells us that the bullet was produced in 1939. Is it only me or isn't the amount of information one can decipher from one of these amazing!? The bullet was used with one of these:
The bottom of the one next to the largest one reads P C 43, and this tells us that it was made in 1943, but I have not managed to find out what the P C tells us. Hence I don't know what weapon it was once used with. Any ideas?
The two smallest ones are interesting:
These are 9mm "Parabellum" produced at two different factories (dnh and oxo). Quoting wikipedia: "To conserve lead during World War II in Germany, the lead core was replaced by an iron core encased with lead. This bullet, identified by a black bullet jacket, was designated as the 08 mE (mit Eisenkern—"with iron core")." At this time the 9mm Parabellum was used with the MP40, and the Luger! Let's hope it was shot using a Luger.
The remaining bullets:
The one on the bottom is American made, REM-UMC, no date. The one in the middle is made in Canada in 43, and was probably shot by some allied soldier after the war. (Oluf and his friends continued to dig at the shooting range).
The bottom of the top one reads KYNOCH which apparently is a British company (Kynoch Factories, Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd., Birmingham, England), it also says 7.65 but no date.
After the war my grandfather, Oluf, became a painter and moved to Sweden where he met my grandmother. This is also how my mom and dad came to meet each other a long long time ago.
It is my hope that some of you may have found this reading interesting. Feel free to leave a comment or question!
Until next time, safe detecting!
Now, you may have entered this thread expecting some amazing finds, perhaps a couple of gold coins or an old iron age axe - after all, I am posting in the "My Best Finds!" section!
I am sorry to disappoint you, but there are no amazing gold coins to be seen here, and I haven't even dug the items I will be showing you, but these items are still some of my best finds not because of their money value, but because of their history. During the past month I have been visited by both my grandfather on my father's side and my mother's side, and to my delight they both brought me some old gifts, and more importantly the history that goes with them.
My grandfather on my mother's side is named Heinz, and I will refer to him using that name. Heinz was born in Czechoslovakia in 1937. His family had a farm far north of the capital of Prague in a region known as the "Sudetenland". Al though a part of Czechoslovakia it was largely inhabited by Germans due to its close proximity to Germany, and Heinz family had actually moved in from Germany several generations earlier in the 1600s.
Following Hitler's "anschluss" with Austria in March 1938 Hitler had made it clear that he would not be satisfied until all ethnic Germans had been incorporated in the "Greater Germany". This sparked the "Sudeten crisis" in which Hitler demanded that Sudetenland would become part of Germany. Following the Munich Conference on the 28th of September 1938 Europe agreed to let Hitler soak up the Sudetenland, promising to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain that this would be his last demand, and "peace in our time". We all know how that went, and on the 1st of September 1939 Hitler invaded Poland, effectively starting the Second World War. You can see the piece on paper on which Hitler wrote this promise in this picture:
Now, Heinz's father had left the family when Heinz was still very young, so he was brought up by his grandfather (known to me as "Opa", which is german for "Grandpa"). "Opa" had fought in the First World War in the German cavalry on the eastern front. During one battle he was captured by the Russians and placed in a work camp who supplied labour to the building of Russian railroads. Prior to the Russian revolution in 1917 Opa had ben riding a construction train which followed the newly laid train track. Somehow someone had committed a fatal mistake and drawn the railroad over an area of soft, wet, low-lying land. As the train was traveling on the track the track suddenly started sinking through the mud, and soon the whole train train was sinking. Opa who was on the train managed to escape in the tumult which ensued, and he returned home to Czechoslovakia safely. With the start of the Second World War in 1939 Opa was once again drafted into the German army. This time however he was wounded and returned home early in the war.
My grandfather, Heinz, started school in 1942, and he has told me of how every morning they were made to stand up by their desks and sing "Die Fahne Hoch" ("The Flag Up High"), which was the anthem of the Nazi Party. As the tide of war turned in 1942-43 the Russians approached Czechoslovakia from the east and the German army retreated to the west, parts of it through Sudetenland. As they did so Heinz told me that they set fire to all ammunition they had to leave behind so that the Russians could not capture it. As of this day he says he has never seen anything comparable to the sound and sight of the sky above one of these depots they set on fire. In their retreat the Germans left behind huge amounts of war material, so the countryside was littered by broken down tanks, weapons and motorcycles.
Heinz told me how he found a motorcycle with a side cart, probably one of these...
...with punctured tires next to a road. The motorcycle had a pouch and in it he found a deck of cards, a knife and some other small things which he took and has kept till this very day. Many years later in the 60s when Heinz worked for BMW he met a man who was curious about Heinz's czech surname (It is Dlouhy). It turned out that this man had been part of the German army division that retreated through Heinz's village, and the man told Heinz that he had been forced to leave his motorcycle behind as they had no gasoline for it. The man was mesmerized when my grandfather was able to tell the man exactly what he had stored in his small side pouch when he left the motorcycle! Europe sure is a small place!
Back to 1944-45, Heinz told me how he used to stay up at night to watch the dogfights taking place in the night sky as allied aircrafts started bombing runs deeper into germany. One day they found a man sneaking around their farm wearing "non-german clothes". When they approached him they found out that he was a French pilot who had been shot down the previous night. Despite knowing of the risks involved Opa decided to try and hide the pilot from the German search parties which were bound to hit the area soon. My grandfather told me of how they hid the man (I don't know how or where), and that about an hour later a patrol of 4 or 5 German soldiers had approached their farm. They told Heinz and his mother and sister to leave while they questioned Opa. Apparently the German officer in charge did not trust Opa, as Heinz could see how the Officer got furious, took Opa by the arm and dragged him into the forrest. When the family heard a series of gunshots they were certain that Opa had been executed, so when he came walking back alone they were pleasantly surprised, to say the least...
Apparently the group of Germans had been ambushed by the Czech resistance when they were about to execute Opa, and seeing that he was no soldier himself they let him go. This was the last time German soldiers ever came to the farm. My guess would be that they were too occupied during the retreat to check what happened with the missing german patrol. The French pilot stayed with the family and helped out on the farm until the end of the war.As the Russians approached their farm they hid everything of value in the forrest, and the day the Russians finally arrived Heinz's mother and sisters hid in the forrest, fearing the worst possible treatment from Russian soldiers seeking revenge. My grandfather told me that most of these things they hid were never retrieved, and a dream of mine is to one day metal detect the area trying to find some of these hidden items.
As the war ended in May 1945 the grateful French pilot left for France and the family hoped that things would return to normal. However, it never did. Their neighbors knew that Heinz's family was German, and this they told the new Russians in charge. As a result of this Heinz's family was told to pack their bags and be ready for departure within a weak. Realizing the severity of the situation, they managed to inform the French pilot of what had happened and asked if he could help them. He in turn contacted the French army and informed them of how Heinz's family had hid him during the war. As a result he managed to secure my grandfather's family a place on a train to Germany. They took this chance, leaving almost everything behind for a new life in Münich. Later my grandfather met my grandmother in Hamburg where they had three children, including my mother. They moved to Sweden at the end of the 1960s and in 1991 I was born, buyah!
The reasons I know this is because when Heinz visited me last week he had brought these coins for me:
The coins are from 1937 and 1938 and are made from silver. My grandfather could not recollect exactly how he had gotten hold of them, but he found them in a box together with the other things he had found in the stranded motorcycle back in 1945, so it is possible that he found them in the pouch on the motorcycle.
The side of the coins says "Gemeinnutz Geht Vor Eigennutz", roughly translating into "Public Need Before Private Greed". What a lot of people often forget is that Hitler was somewhat of a socialist, and many major companies in germany were nationalized by the Nazis.
That's the story of my grandfather Heinz and how he gave me these coins and a great history lesson.
-------
My grandfather on my fathers side was born in 1932 in Denmark, and his name is Oluf. He was also raised on a farm close to the german border, but this time it was the border between Germany and Denmark. This area had seen several disputes between Germany and Denmark, the last one prior to WW2 was the Second Schleswig War and took place in 1864 when Prussian soldiers invaded Denmark. As a kid my grandfather was digging around their plantation of fruit trees, and he found several Prussian and Danish military buttons which most likely originate from the Second Schleswig War. He also found this small piece of metal which he believes has been a part of some early hand grenade perhaps used during the Second Schleswig War:
As you can see on the first picture the piece of metal does have some letters and numbers of it, but it is really hard to read. Some of my candidates of what is says:
DIA47
DIA49
DIT47
DIT49
The D might even be a B...
Now that Oluf knows I am interested he told me that he would bring some of the army buttons next time so I will be able to show them to you.
Oluf's father did his military duty in 1923, and Oluf also gave me some ammunition which his father had kept from 1923:
The bullet on the left is marked HL 96, which means that it was produced at the Haerens Laboratorium (The Army Laboratory) in Denmark in 1896. It is a so called 8x58R type of ammunition, and it was used with the Gevaer 1889 (Rifle 1889) which was first put into production in 1889 and was produced by Krag-Jørgensen. Here's a picture of the Gevaer 1889 and a video of a person shooting an American edition of the same rifle:
[youtube=425,350]dSLJaUfkShc[/youtube]
The bullet on the right is also market HL so it was also made at The Army Laboratory but in 1906. The crown shows that it was made in Denmark. Since it is the same diameter I guess that it could be used by the same Gevaer 1889 rifle as above. However, I am not sure. Perhaps someone of you knows better?
Oluf was 8 years old when Germany invaded and occupied Denmark in April 1940. Oluf told me how he and his siblings woke up to the noise of aircrafts flying over in the morning of the 9th of April 1940. At first there were only lighter aircraft flying over into the heart of Denmark so Oluf's father told them that they were probably Danish aircrafts practicing. When they had eaten breakfast and were getting ready to walk to school much heavier planes flew over, this time bombers, and at this point Oluf's father knew that the planes were German since the Danish air force had no such large airplanes. Despite this my grandfather did go to school that day since they did not know what was happening. At school he was having a lesson, while suddenly his teacher stood up and walked over the the windows overlooking a road. The whole class was silent and looked at the teacher, as suddenly they could see tears running down his face. Outside German soldiers were marching past the school, and Oluf told me that while trying to hold back his tears the teacher told them that class was dismissed.
Surprisingly Oluf told me that he did not have many bad memories from the war. He said that he was at an age were most of it seemed like an adventure to him and his friends. Oluf's family had a German colonel living at their farmhouse. I think his name was Fritz. He was a priest and always treated them kindly. One day some soldiers were marching up to their house. It had just rained so their boots were all muddy, so when they stepped into the hallway of Oluf's house and saluted the colonel mud flew all over the place. Upon seeing this my grandfathers mother became furious and told the colonel that this was unacceptable! The colonel calmly said that "Frau Mathiasen (Mathiasen was their surname) does not have to worry, from now on I will make sure that they never set foot inside this house while wearing boots, you have my word!" and this promise he kept. The German soldiers stationed in Oluf's village often helped out, and when the family celebrated birthdays or confirmations the soldiers would always help out and act as attendants.
Of course not everything was as peaceful. Occasionally the Danish resistance would blow up a train or some german installation and if the perpetrators were caught they were hanged in public to deter others from doing the same things. But Oluf told me that this was very hard to grasp as a young boy, and it was much easier to see the exciting parts of war than reacting to the horrific sides.
In Oluf's village the Germans had set up a shooting range. At the beginning of the war projectiles were often made of led, but as the war went on led became scarce and the price of it shot through the roof! As a result Oluf and his friends would go the the shooting range and dig through the sand looking for shot pieces of led which they sold to the local junk dealer. Sometimes Oluf would take the projectiles and the casings which were laying around and then bring them to his father who would try to assemble them. That is how he got hold of these bullets which Oluf also gave to me:
The two on the left are the two danish bullets, and they were not found at the shooting range.
Bullet 3, 4, 5 and 6 are German bullets:
The bottom of the largest one of them reads "P490 IXw1 5 39". P490 is the makers code and it tells us that the bullet was made by Hugo Schneider A.G., at Werk (Factory) Altenburg. IX tell us that the steel comes from the steel mill August-Thyssen-Hütte A.G. at Franz-Lenze-Str. 3 in Duisburg-Hamborn. The small w tells us that the plating firm was Hugo Schneider A.G. Messingwerke at Hugo Schneider Straße 87 in Taucha-Leipzig, the 7 tells us exactly the mixture of metals in the casing, the number 5 is the batch number and 39 tells us that the bullet was produced in 1939. Is it only me or isn't the amount of information one can decipher from one of these amazing!?
The bullet was used with one of these:
The bottom of the one next to the largest one reads P C 43, and this tells us that it was made in 1943, but I have not managed to find out what the P C tells us. Hence I don't know what weapon it was once used with. Any ideas?
The two smallest ones are interesting:
These are 9mm "Parabellum" produced at two different factories (dnh and oxo). Quoting wikipedia: "To conserve lead during World War II in Germany, the lead core was replaced by an iron core encased with lead. This bullet, identified by a black bullet jacket, was designated as the 08 mE (mit Eisenkern—"with iron core")." At this time the 9mm Parabellum was used with the MP40, and the Luger! Let's hope it was shot using a Luger.
The remaining bullets:
The one on the bottom is American made, REM-UMC, no date. The one in the middle is made in Canada in 43, and was probably shot by some allied soldier after the war. (Oluf and his friends continued to dig at the shooting range).
The bottom of the top one reads KYNOCH which apparently is a British company (Kynoch Factories, Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd., Birmingham, England), it also says 7.65 but no date.
After the war my grandfather, Oluf, became a painter and moved to Sweden where he met my grandmother. This is also how my mom and dad came to meet each other a long long time ago.
It is my hope that some of you may have found this reading interesting.
Feel free to leave a comment or question!Until next time, safe detecting!
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