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Speaking of ammunition: there's a huge Facebook post (under Allied Airmen of WW II, I think) about a UK gardener who just unearthed an intact U.S. .50 caliber round. CONSTERNATION! Comments range from DON'T TOUCH it to CALL THE AUTHORITIES in the UK to "What's the big deal?" Over Here. Evidently you can go away for having a live cartridge (distinct from "bullet" BTW) in the UK. Thing is: the round is not going to self-explode after 70 some years. Even if it did, even with heat applied, it'd be an open-air low-order detonation. There must be thousands of such items across Europe. Several years ago some German workers uncovered a Tallboy, as I recall...city blocks were evacuated until the ordies did their work.
The law in Germany is quite strict. You'll need a lot of permits if ammunition and or aviation fuel etc etc is suspected. Next to permits which allow you to have weapons. And of course permission of the landowner. And you just can't dig just like that whitout knowing if any aircrew remains are present within the wreck.
There are recovery groups active in Germany...easy to find on the internet. You could visit our collection...but that is in Holland, about 15 miles east of Arnhem...very near to the German border.
Cheers Sander
I like the idea that there are a few thousand plane wrecks in Europe left untouched for 75 years for people to look at.
Same in UK, if there was surface wreckage it was cleared almost immediately, the ones remaining need a digger to go down 3 or four meters. They are excavating a Hurricane at the moment and hope to get enough to rebuild it, this means getting the relevant frame number.Actually....the most a/c crashed during ww2 in Europe went down in the Netherlands. Almost 7500 a/c. And due to the type of soil almost half of that number still are laying deep underground here.
The most extreme depth we ever reached digging on a JG 77 Me109G-14 was 8 meters. But the average depth here is also 3 to 4 meters.Same in UK, if there was surface wreckage it was cleared almost immediately, the ones remaining need a digger to go down 3 or four meters. They are excavating a Hurricane at the moment and hope to get enough to rebuild it, this means getting the relevant frame number.
Some regions in UK like East Anglia are just like the Netherlands, they even look the same as far as some churches and buildings go because it was the Dutch that drained them.The most extreme depth we ever reached digging on a JG 77 Me109G-14 was 8 meters. But the average depth here is also 3 to 4 meters.
I'm visiting Ramstein AFB located in southwest Germany for an extended stayGive me some time to see which groups are out there. Which area of Germany are you visiting?
I'm visiting Ramstein AFB located in southwest Germany for an extended stay
Roger that...will search for active groups sometime next week...currently falling out of C130s...not having the best internet connection on the DZI'm visiting Ramstein AFB located in southwest Germany for an extended stay
Speaking of ammunition: there's a huge Facebook post (under Allied Airmen of WW II, I think) about a UK gardener who just unearthed an intact U.S. .50 caliber round. CONSTERNATION! Comments range from DON'T TOUCH it to CALL THE AUTHORITIES in the UK to "What's the big deal?" Over Here. Evidently you can go away for having a live cartridge (distinct from "bullet" BTW) in the UK. Thing is: the round is not going to self-explode after 70 some years. Even if it did, even with heat applied, it'd be an open-air low-order detonation. There must be thousands of such items across Europe. Several years ago some German workers uncovered a Tallboy, as I recall...city blocks were evacuated until the ordies did their work.
Any recommendations for recovery groups?