WW2 Ground dug relics - Saving history

[RRPG]

Is there really that much WW2 history still to be recovered? There certainly is, as you can see from my little collection of what some refer to as 'rusty tat'. It isn't......it's WW2 history.

WW2 Relic Collection -Proof there Stephen Taylor WW2 Relic Hunter

2 by Stephen Taylor, on Flickr

[arcticap]

I became friends with a Polish historian.
He told me that the law in Poland is that there must be a search for artifacts before new highway construction can begin.
The firm that he was employed by performed the searches and would find ancient relics and burial grounds from many different eras in history.
Many of the items would end up in museums.
Of course they could also find live munitions left over from WW ll.
But that only represents a very small part of what they were searching for.
They would find relics dating all of the way back to the early middle ages.

Years ago, when a new building was being built in CT, some excavation workers uncovered a fossil bed that contained many dinosaur tracks.
A dome was built and the area containing the tracks was turned into a state park.--->>> http://www.dinosaurstatepark.org/

[emcon5]

All you need to do is search ebay. There is a thriving business in robbing war graves.

[Tidewater_Kid]

Amazing collection Stephen. I love they way you have things grouped and labeled.

[RRPG]

emcon5 - I find your comment on this thread most offensive. As I stated quite clearly in my blog, the vast majority of my collection is from the UK, a country that never saw any ground battles. I would appreciate it if you amended your comment to reflect the origin of the thread.

Tidewater_kid - Thanks. The labelling is important to me, otherwise it is just a collection of rusty stuff!

[emcon5]

I was referring to this question:

Is there really that much WW2 history still to be recovered?

I know where you find your stuff, and commented on how nice your collection is in the past. Doesn't change the fact that there are a lot of vultures out there who have no problem digging up old battlefields to pick over the remains and sell anything good on ebay.

A quick search shows there are currently over 40,000 items in the category: Collectibles > Militaria > WW II (1939-45) > Original Period Items > Germany. piking through what is available shows a lot of it appears to have been dug up. Digging a little deeper shows some sellers who seem to specialize in it.

This guy is in Latvia and is selling a lot of small German and Soviet personal items, including several German dog tags, all of which appear to be unbroken.

Here is another guy in Poland, selling all kinds of stuff, including a large selection of small uniform items, clasps, buttons, clips, etc.

There are a bunch of Youtube channels documenting digging up eastern front battlefields. Here is an example: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjs..._iW-89Q/videos Human remains seem to feature prominently in their videos.

These guys are looting war graves, and selling the what they find, and it is disgusting.

[eastbank]

if its legal there not much we can do about it, but it is disgusting if human remains are involved. unless it to id and return the remains. it seems the remains are just left and the equipment taken to sell.

[Erno86]

"A Warehouse of WWII Weapons Recovered in a (Russian?) Peat Bog"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FDN2KJhojA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5YB6cIW7pE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKZXN5feFlY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56MXOZVKKcU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Buq296p5FSY