26.06.2009, 16:29
Hi Holy Grail,
Used to do a lot of that as a kid, roaming through the forests and around old bunkers and the like near where I grew up. Never found anything, though. Probably for the best. My dad was luckier in that regard, if you can call it lucky. He was nine years old in 1945. After the war, his dad (my grandfather) took him to the forest to search for abandond Panzerfaeuste (hand held anti tank weapons). My granpa had been trained in the Volkssturm and knew how to fire those things, but not how to disable them without firing. However, he needed the long tubes or barrels of these weapons to put them together to make a table for a table saw. With a table saw, he could cut wood for other people in exchange for food during those lean years, as there was a lot of construction going on, but not much to eat.
So, my dad and his dad used to collect panzerfaeuste and used them to knock down trees. "Quite exciting," my dad used to say.
Earlier, just after the Americans had captured his hometown, my father had an even more exciting adventure. Playing in the forest on a high hill with his friends, the boys found a quadruple 20 mm anti aircraft gun. With the three seats on this thing and the swivel mount, it looked just like a caroussell or a merry-go-round. So they all enthusiastically sat on those seats and started spinning the gun around. All was fun and games, until one of them found this strange pedal, not knowing that it was the trigger of the gun. The kid pressed it (don't if it was my dad, or another kid) and the whole thing went "thunck," "thunck," "thunck," thunck," "thunck." The ikds were all scared out of their wits and shortly after, a bunch of jeeps and halftracks full of US soldiers showed up, fully expecting having to take out one of the last fanatical holdouts. Finding only a few scared little kids with wet pants, they distributed rounds of chocolate, took the kids back home, and blew up the AA gun. End of story.
So, I guess the moral of this long rant is, be careful what you wish for. There is still plenty of unexploded munitons around in areas of Europe. Who knows what you might find.
Regards,
RB
Used to do a lot of that as a kid, roaming through the forests and around old bunkers and the like near where I grew up. Never found anything, though. Probably for the best. My dad was luckier in that regard, if you can call it lucky. He was nine years old in 1945. After the war, his dad (my grandfather) took him to the forest to search for abandond Panzerfaeuste (hand held anti tank weapons). My granpa had been trained in the Volkssturm and knew how to fire those things, but not how to disable them without firing. However, he needed the long tubes or barrels of these weapons to put them together to make a table for a table saw. With a table saw, he could cut wood for other people in exchange for food during those lean years, as there was a lot of construction going on, but not much to eat.
So, my dad and his dad used to collect panzerfaeuste and used them to knock down trees. "Quite exciting," my dad used to say.
Earlier, just after the Americans had captured his hometown, my father had an even more exciting adventure. Playing in the forest on a high hill with his friends, the boys found a quadruple 20 mm anti aircraft gun. With the three seats on this thing and the swivel mount, it looked just like a caroussell or a merry-go-round. So they all enthusiastically sat on those seats and started spinning the gun around. All was fun and games, until one of them found this strange pedal, not knowing that it was the trigger of the gun. The kid pressed it (don't if it was my dad, or another kid) and the whole thing went "thunck," "thunck," "thunck," thunck," "thunck." The ikds were all scared out of their wits and shortly after, a bunch of jeeps and halftracks full of US soldiers showed up, fully expecting having to take out one of the last fanatical holdouts. Finding only a few scared little kids with wet pants, they distributed rounds of chocolate, took the kids back home, and blew up the AA gun. End of story.
So, I guess the moral of this long rant is, be careful what you wish for. There is still plenty of unexploded munitons around in areas of Europe. Who knows what you might find.
Regards,
RB