*** Finds In My Normandy Garden ***

[General Apathy]

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I don't metal detect, these are finds made while gardening at the rear of my house. My house was occupied by the Germans during WWII, from the upper floor it looks out across the low fields which were flooded during the airborne attack in June 44.  I have the remains of several bullet holes in stonework around the front door, and a .50 calibre head remaining in interior stonework at the top of the stairs.  Whilst gardening I have found several pieces of U.S. and German origin. 

 

 

 

 

regards lewis

 

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[manayunkman]

Ken,

 

What I find interesting here is the history of your house during the war.

 

Do you know more?

 

Peter

[Marshallj]

Looks like the fellows stopped for a meal in your garden and left their P38 openers as well as a key to open a tin of some sort.

[General Apathy]

6 minutes ago, manayunkman said:

Ken,

 

What I find interesting here is the history of your house during the war.

 

Do you know more?

 

Peter

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Hi Peter, 

 

sadly not, one of my previous friends I recently re-met in June when visiting the area asked me if I had any pre-war photos, I said `I didn't and that there were no cameras in 1750 🤣.  

 

All of the exterior walls have been repointed and most of the interior walls have been plastered since WWII, so little else is to be seen.  The bullet damage around the front door is breaking apart due to frosts and expanding ice in the cracks during winter,  and there's just one .50 calibre head lodged in the stonework at the top of the stairs.  Any locals that would have been old enough during the end of the war have since passed away now and maybe any village photographs they may have had disappeared as well. 

 

One elderly villager told me sometime after I arrived that he was a teenager during the invasion and that he and another friend gathered up some pistols and buried them beside a large tree in the field behind my house !!!!!  The tree has long since gone post-war and so has he, once he was hospitalised due to cancer it was too late to pursue the story. 

 

 

 

regards lewis.

 

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[General Apathy]

14 minutes ago, Marshallj said:

Looks like the fellows stopped for a meal in your garden and left their P38 openers as well as a key to open a tin of some sort.

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Hi Marshallj,

 

My village was attacked and relieved  by elements of the 325th Glider Infantry regiment commanded by Colonel Harry Lewis, who died several months later from cancer and didn't survive the war.  Various descendant's of wartime villagers have mementoes that their parents gathered once the fighting ceased.  One of my farming neighbours has half a glider tow rope and his brother the other half, their father cut it in two so they each had a piece. !!!!  Anther farmer has a complete camo parachute canopy, but his father had cut away the harness as he perceived there was no use for it. 

 

here's a couple of finds in an elderly neighbours garden when I volunteered to help him with jobs he couldn't do anymore. He gave me the plaque but I didn't want to hang on to the grenade body.

 

 

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,  August  21  2O25. 

 

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[katieony]

Very interesting finds...thank you for sharing them!

[manayunkman]

Ken,

 

It’s time to put a glass case over the front door and preserve that damage. 😃

 

 And get a metal detector to go look for the buried pistols.

 

Kind of half joking but all that aside, it’s amazing the things you find, no joke.

 

P

[mikie]

👍

Great thread here Ken! 
I’ll add some proper LIKEs when I get resupplied. 

mikie

[General Apathy]

3 hours ago, katieony said:

Very interesting finds...thank you for sharing them!

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Hi katieony,

 

thank you, I do have some other garden finds to post,  however here is a Utah beach find walking the shore line after heavy storms, items turn up on the sands with incoming tides.

This is part of a C-47 paratroop aircraft, several pieces came ashore my neighbour kept a piece with a stainless steel bracket embossed ' Load Adjuster ', a similar load adjuster example is shown below. 

 

 

 

 

regards lewis

[P-59A]

Ummm, why do you not have a metal detector?, I do not understand.

[General Apathy]

4 hours ago, P-59A said:

Ummm, why do you not have a metal detector?, I do not understand.

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Hi P-59,

 

Technically it is illegal to metal detect, everything in the ground belongs to the state, should people metal detect it is necessary to get written permission of the land owner first. I think the law was written well before WWII as many people buried their wealth in gardens or hidden in houses etc, this was seen as avoiding paying taxes as it was not declared and banked.  There are plenty enough pieces to be found without detecting. 

 

I have little time or interest in actually detecting many pieces can be found by simply observing, a case in point  my house was originally a farm built in the mid 1700's fifteen feet from my front door is a small barn and orchard which once many years ago was part of this farms property., but was sold off when my house discontinued being a farm. Back in 2018 I watched the current owner of the field and barn use his tractor to pull out a sapling growing against the wall of the barn and the branches becoming a problem for the roof tiles.  After he drove away I walked across to see what might possibly be seen in the disturbed soil.  Immediately obvious were three pieces from WWII, a WWII U.S. meat can, a piece of U.S. camouflaged parachute and a medical bottle all of which I removed.  Note how clean the meat can appeared as it was brought to the surface and how blackened it became once exposed to Oxygen.  There were also a few fired off cartridge cases. 

 

A p.s. to this post,  about ten / twelve years ago an entire family were murdered, the police investigation revelled that a builder in Brittany had discovered a trove of buried gold and removed it without declaring it to the state and shared it within his own family.  It was found that he hadn't shared any of it with his own brother,  who in revenge murdered his brother's entire family. !!!!

 

 

 

 

 

regards lewis.

 

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[General Apathy]

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Another find without a metal detector.

 

In 2010 walking the sands at Utah beach we spotted this unexploded 500 Lbs U.S. aircraft bomb, it had been hidden under the sand since WWII but with the wind and tides swirling the sands around it became exposed.  I reported it to the Gendarmes who arrived to do a GPS location for it and then recovered it for a further three days until the demolition crews arrived and removed it, I recovered the circular collar that had supported the tail fins which they had left behind in the sands. 

 

Note the bomb bottom right of the third photo below a very well known Utah beach construction, that same searchlight construction in a 1974 photo taken during a Normandy tour with our military vehicles. 

 

 

 

 

 

regards lewis.

 

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[P-59A]

"Technically it is illegal to metal detect" I forgot about that. Someone posted about the small museums being raided and items confiscated. Did you see what I found at Blythe AAB?

 

Metal detectors make it easy to find things....just saying.   : P

[General Apathy]

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Another find without a metal detector.

 

Back in 2014 myself and several friends had a walking visit to the area of the Falaise pocket, walking the edge of an empty crop field bordering the road several of us made finds, a friend found a section of exploded tank armour with the remains of Zimmerit coating on it.  

I found the bolt of a German MG42 machine gun.

 

 

 

regards lewis 

 

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[General Apathy]

14 minutes ago, P-59A said:

"Technically it is illegal to metal detect" I forgot about that. Someone posted about the small museums being raided and items confiscated. Did you see what I found at Blythe AAB?

 

Metal detectors make it easy to find things....just saying.   : P

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Hi P-59,

 

Sadly sharing information now on the internet sometimes opens Pandora's box, especially if names and locations are given.   There has been a recent case over here where someone placed a wartime enamelled sign into an auction, the town became aware of this and sent the Gendarmes in to reclaim the sign as ' Stolen Property ' and that's after eighty years had passed by. 

A few years ago a museum near the beach were re-modelling the outside surrounds of the museum, they had used mechanical diggers to extract sand from the beach and dumped it in a pile ready for spreading out around the museum bunkers.  A tour guide spotted portions of a cartridge belt in the pile of sand and removed it.  Someone else mentioned it inside the museum and the word was spread about amongst the tour guides that unless they returned the pieces of belt to the museum that the Gendarmes would be called in to deal with it.  

It's all become a sticky subject one I am happy not to be involved with.

 

Myself and friends are more into our wartime vehicle collections and the time is taken up attending local shows and events. 

 

regards lewis 

 

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[manayunkman]

Even if you detect on your own property?

[General Apathy]

6 minutes ago, manayunkman said:

Even if you detect on your own property?

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Hi Peter,

 

I suspect  the government aren't too concerned about rusty pieces of metal, but if you were to uncover a long forgotten pot of gold then THAT would attract their attention.  

 

Anyway I have enough problems getting enough chores done in the amount of hours there are in a day., I was considering that we ballot the government to extend how many hours there are in a day and how many days in a week. I said to a friend this morning ' God forbid that I died in the night and neighbours or friends found me laying amongst all the unfinished chores in the house, garden and garage '.

 

cheers lewis.

 

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[General Apathy]

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More Finds Without a Detector .

 

There were several finds during my first Normandy trip in 1973.  Such as this one where the US Army had simply abandoned equipment where it lay. eventually cleared up by local scrap metal collectors.   All this would be solid gold find now to Jeep collectors, and sadly lost in the history of post-war events. 

 

 

 

regards lewis.

 

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[katieony]

Again, some really great finds!  Thanks for sharing them!

 

Michael

[General Apathy]

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A local friend's recent barn finds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

regards lewis.

 

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[General Apathy]

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One of my early finds in 2010.

 

A .50 Calibre armoured shield used on landing craft, and a museum restored one.

 

 

 

regards lewis

 

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[manayunkman]

Love the boxes and armored shield.

[General Apathy]

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Normandy Find GMC 353 Truck.

 

My Normandy find GMC grille garden decoration, it has been over-sprayed with water repellent for protection.  Around 1980 I found a closed cab GMC 353 truck in France and had it shipped to the UK and rebuilt it.  I no longer have the truck just the grille garden decoration.  

 

( note the Dodge Carryall body in the rear of the GMC painted undercoat grey during total restoration )

 

 

 

regards lewis 

 

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[General Apathy]

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Normandy Find Dodge Carryall.

 

My Normandy find Dodge grille garden decoration, it has been over-sprayed with water repellent for protection.  Around 1980 I found this Dodge Carryall at a garage in France being used as a break-down truck and had it shipped to the UK and rebuilt it.  I no longer have the Carryall now just the grille garden decoration.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regards lewis.

 

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[General Apathy]

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Normandy Find Willys 1/4 Ton Truck Grille.

 

My Normandy find Willys grille garden decoration, it has been over-sprayed with water repellent for protection.  Also a second Normandy find a portion of a blown-up Jeep grille this is indoors as wall decoration in the house.

 

 

 

regards lewis

 

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