Battlefield dug relics

[Tom Morgan]

[attachmentid=37456]My main interest is in the Great War battlefields themselves - how they were, how they are today and what can still be seen there. I have a small collection of pick-up items, always taken with the permission of the land-owner. Where a found object is too "pyrotechnically volatile" to move, I just take photographs. Here's hoping that members will find this first batch of interest.

Tom

"Flying Pig" mortar projectile - Beaumont-Hamel, somme

Edited May 1, 2006 by Tom Morgan

[Tom Morgan]

German stick-grenade - Flers, Somme

[Tom Morgan]

British HE shell, 18 pdr - Le Sars, Somme

[Tom Morgan]

Mills Bomb - Courcelette, Somme

[Tom Morgan]

Silver pocket-watch key - Thiepval, Somme

Edited May 1, 2006 by Tom Morgan

[Tony]

I like them Tom, please show more.

I don't usually see much on the Somme, once at the fair in Sailly Sallisel my wife got bored and went for a walk. She came back 15 minutes later with a Lebel rifle, twisted and bent from the plough.

Tony

[Michael Johnson]

my wife got bored and went for a walk. She came back 15 minutes later with a Lebel rifle, twisted and bent from the plough.

Tony

Lucky! Some years ago my wife asked me to go into an antique store as they "had some badges". I came away with a Canadian Militia pith helmet (admittedly in rough shape) with a beautiful 1908 Star plate to the 31st Battalion.

For $35!

I just wish I'd bought the Gras bayonet as well.

[Tom Morgan]

cartridges and shrapnel balls. The cartridge on the left is German (there is iron content in the bullet itself hence the rusting). The others are British. The one on the right is still held in the rusted remnants of its charger clip.

[Tom Morgan]

Pickelhaube spike - Boesinge, near Ypres.

[Tom Morgan]

Machine-pressed aluminium strips from original British wooden cross grave markers - bonfire-site in field next to Delville Wood Cemetery, Longueval, Somme. The upper one says (if carefully unfolded) "Unknown British Sergeant." The lower one reads, "UNKNOWN B".

[Tom Morgan]

Transit-plugs for the threaded fuse aperture - British 2" Mortar rounds ("Plum Puddings" or "Toffee Apples.") Boesinge, near Ypres, Belgium.

[Tom Morgan]

Fragment of British rum-jar, with part of the "S. R. D." transfer - La Boisselle, Somme.

[Tom Morgan]

British friction-tube. When you see a gunnner firing a piece by pulling on a lanyard, this is what the other end of the lanyard was attached to. Pulling the lanyard pulled out a pin which was coated with material rather like that on a match. The resulting burn passed down the small tube and ingnited the charge.

[Chris Boonzaier]

Some nice stuff.... any problems bringing it home? I heard they once closed the channel tunnel because a collecter had a bomb in his car....