A great day digging at the British army dump permission last Sunday, with 12 people in attendance from the WW2 RRPG.
Things were going along quite normally for the first hour or two, when Karen uncovered some very strange brass divider strips and starter tabs. They looked like Vickers cloth belt strips and tabs, but were chunkier and bigger. It wasn't until David found one in immaculate condition that, after a quick bit of a spit and a rub, revealed the starter tabs to be Vickers .50cal tabs, dated 1941!!!!! We soon realised that the 'seam' of these was really quite substantial and we recovered a HUGE quantity of them. Not only that, but after we had all dived into Karen's hole to dig the seam out, (after suggesting the 'men' should dig the rest out), we discovered a huge stash of brass Long-Lee butt plates beneath the cloth belt bits.
Added to that the crazy awesome weapon parts that were coming out.........Lewis spade grips, Lewis trigger grips, P14 grenade discharger cup adapter, Lee-Enfield bits galore and loads of Flintlock 'locks' The list of awesome finds goes on.
50cal vickers cloth belt starter tabs.....rarer than rocking horse poop!
The cleaning of finds from Sunday's dig is well underway. I have also discovered I had one very unusual Vickers 303 cloth belt starter tab. Not seen one like this before. The Bren oil bottles have come up nicely, as have the Lee-Enfield butt discs. The three badly damaged oil bottles are all American made 'Noera' bottles. Not tracked the weapon they are from down yet. The butt plates are all from the Long Lee, and all are marked. Usually they are marked with the unit information, but one is very curiously named!! All the 50cal Vickers belt starter tabs are marked exactly the same, so all dated September 1941.
Video of the dig can be found here..........
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFLS5gQnUnE
Everything I recovered on the day.
And now after cleaning.....
Lee-Enfield butt ID discs
An unusual Vickers 303 cloth belt starter tab
Thompson oil bottles
More.........
Things were going along quite normally for the first hour or two, when Karen uncovered some very strange brass divider strips and starter tabs. They looked like Vickers cloth belt strips and tabs, but were chunkier and bigger. It wasn't until David found one in immaculate condition that, after a quick bit of a spit and a rub, revealed the starter tabs to be Vickers .50cal tabs, dated 1941!!!!! We soon realised that the 'seam' of these was really quite substantial and we recovered a HUGE quantity of them. Not only that, but after we had all dived into Karen's hole to dig the seam out, (after suggesting the 'men' should dig the rest out), we discovered a huge stash of brass Long-Lee butt plates beneath the cloth belt bits.
Added to that the crazy awesome weapon parts that were coming out.........Lewis spade grips, Lewis trigger grips, P14 grenade discharger cup adapter, Lee-Enfield bits galore and loads of Flintlock 'locks' The list of awesome finds goes on.
50cal vickers cloth belt starter tabs.....rarer than rocking horse poop!
The cleaning of finds from Sunday's dig is well underway. I have also discovered I had one very unusual Vickers 303 cloth belt starter tab. Not seen one like this before. The Bren oil bottles have come up nicely, as have the Lee-Enfield butt discs. The three badly damaged oil bottles are all American made 'Noera' bottles. Not tracked the weapon they are from down yet. The butt plates are all from the Long Lee, and all are marked. Usually they are marked with the unit information, but one is very curiously named!! All the 50cal Vickers belt starter tabs are marked exactly the same, so all dated September 1941.
Video of the dig can be found here..........
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFLS5gQnUnE
Everything I recovered on the day.
And now after cleaning.....
Lee-Enfield butt ID discs
An unusual Vickers 303 cloth belt starter tab
Thompson oil bottles
More.........
It was a very good day!