Found a canteen from the battle of the bulge today in the forest

[Luxview]

Was on an Easter hike with my family close to Rambrouch in Luxembourg (not to go stir-crazy from staying at home). On the way along a creek, we visited a shrine, vowed during the battle of the bulge in the hope the US troops would arrive quickly enough to prevent the Germans to pass this little creek (the Dillebaach). I know this sounds absolutely unlikely but when continuing our trail, my wife discovered this rolled over canteen on the ground, still there after so many years and all of a sudden, the whole fighting became real again - A very touching moment for all of us.

[scottplen]

Wow crazy just laying there ! Neat find !

[Brig]

Very neat, and not unlikely at all. I once found a WWII US helmet on Camp Lejeune in the woods, only 20 or 30 feet from the road that had been lost for decades, despite the area being routinely used as a training area. Stuff has a funny way of turning up

 

Great find, I have always appreciated the true history that accompanies relics rather than the mint, unissued stuff that never left the warehouse

[kammo-man]

That’s cool

Probably driven over by some sort of afv

And covered with dirt

Owen

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Thor996]

Wow, cool find!

[olivedrab1970]

Camp Pendleton, CA. Back in the day was covered with discarded gear and ammunition at the training areas. I remember training in land navigation and finding all kinds of ordnance and miscellaneous gear. We where instructed to leave it where it was and "Don't F*#-in touch anything!" Great find, I have always thought there is so much still out there just lying around in the Bulge.

 

Robin-

[The Rooster]

Wow crazy just laying there ! Neat find !

That is incredible. Have you thought of metal detecting?

If I lived out there, thats all I'd do! But..... you would have to be very

careful I would imagine for unexploded ordinance, Live Grenades, dud rounds etc.,

Amazing find and I'l bet if you just walked around purposely looking you would find

more things just laying on the ground. Perfect time of year to do it before all the leaves come out.

Conratulations on your find. Incredible !!!

It does look as though it was driven over by something.

[Longhorn92]

Very cool. I have twice visited areas where my grandfather fought in Eastern France and SW Germany and found all kinds of things.

 

Live arty rounds, spent shell casings, live small arms rounds, barbed wire, pieces of all kinds of stuff.

[MT247]

Very cool find. One of my many dreams would be to metal detect an area like that. Hope one day to find something as good as you did. Thanks for sharing.

[doyler]

I obtained all of this from a local B-25 pilot who found this in Germany when he was on a trip thier in the mid 1970s.

 

He was on a guided tour and his guide was a German gentleman.They struck up a conversation and he told the guide he had been a B-24 pilot.The guide said he had been a Luftwaffe doctor and had taken care of many americans who were shot down.His hospital had been in this area.The guide offered to show him the area the next day.They met for breakfast the following day and proceeded to take in the area.The guide took him to an area and said one of you Liberators had crashed here.They walked the area and he told me he picked up these items scattered on the ground.There was a lot of debris he said.Also he mentioned how the area looked as there was a definate path cut by the aircraft.He said the German guide also mentioned "nothing grows here".

 

The silver foil is the "chaff" the bombers dropped for anti radar purposes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Doctorofwar]

As others have said, I echo that it is a great find! Makes you curious what else is out there waiting to be found- probably more than one can imagine...

[Pudgy (V)]

Too cool!! So needs to be displayed!!

[Simon Lerenfort]

Presumably lost by a member of 26th Infantry, a lucky find.

[sundance]

When you find something like that it must bring question after question to mind. Who's was it? Did he survive the war? What was going on when he lost it? ...and what flattened it?

[patches]

In May 1982 when I was in Alaska in the 4th Battalion 9th Infantry, we where on our big training field problem, called an Army Training Evaluation Program or ARTEP, a maneuver to judge the combat readiness of a unit. This was conducted on the Elemendorf Air Force Base at Anchorage (We were stated way north in Ft Wainwright by Fairbanks). So one day we move to a new location during the training and a sergeant in my platoon aong with his buddy dig a fighting position, would you believe in the exact spot they were digging they dug up an old M14 Rifle Magazine, it was down deep, so incredibly at this same exact spot sometime in the 1960s others dug in the same spot a foxhole, and dropped a magazine in it for whatever reason, accidentally perhaps, and here it is all these years later it's found.

[sundance]

I misspelled it - "whose" was it, rather than "who's" was it (I think).

[Fritz]

Pretty cool! Doesnt surprise me that stuff is still there, when I was in Germany for Reforger in 1990 the site we were stationed was where an US unit was based in 45, there were still blankets and jerry cans laying in the woods and you could still see engraving on the trees that the GIs had done

 

Fritz

[katieony]

What a neat find!