Camping on former battlefield. Beware!

[Puchal]

Quite common problem in Poland.
Winds of 1st and 2nd WW, were sweeping through our country multiple times. There are places, where forests, meadows or farmers fields would glow in the dark, if the iron was luminous.

Friend of mine, once camped in the Rembertow woods.
For decades after the WW2, the whole area was large military training field. Nowadays, the military base and training filed covers smaller area, and part of the woods are opened for public.
So, when the poor chap worked on preparing the fire pit, he have noticed right in this spot rusty, metal cylinder-like object 50cm long is burred few centimeters below the ground surface....
After quick change of his underwear, he moved to another spot hundred meters away from this place...

And this is what I stumbled upon during this weekend walkabout in the woods near my place:

After few steps, another one:

According to the expert, these are M24 Stielhandgranate from WW2.

 

[JonathanD]

Slightly scarier than your average pine cone.

 

[sam_acw]

A forester in the Swietokrzyskie region once showed me his collection; German bayonets and helmets and even a Torah hidden in a tree from the holocaust. There are quite a few lost villages that where once predominately Jewish in some areas.

 

[Gill]

A forester in the Swietokrzyskie region once showed me his collection; German bayonets and helmets and even a Torah hidden in a tree from the holocaust. There are quite a few lost villages that where once predominately Jewish in some areas.

What is a Torah ?

 

[Bushwhacker]

Is that grenade unexploded?

 

[Puchal]

What is a Torah ?

Jewish Holly Book

 

[Melonfish]

WHY would you pick that UP!?! explosives can still work even from the 40's!
i'm serious i live on the site of a royal ordinance factory, the local moss we help look after (SSSI) had so many munitions dumped into it that we daren't dig in certain areas.
i know they've been out there for a long time but explosives are unpredictable when old.
there is a kewl factor of about 3 billion for those but damn i wouldnt go digging them up and picking em up
great finds but leave em be if you wish to retain your arms :yikes:

 

[Mojoracinguk]

Is that grenade unexploded?

If this is the state of them after they detonate....i don't know what all the fuss is about....

 

[JonathanD]

If this is the state of them after they detonate....i don't know what all the fuss is about....

classic

 

[craeg]

:yikes:

I have an old mate that is a RAF EOD bomb disposal guy and he is part of a team that have a project to clear UK of UXO, mines, etc and at its current rate, UK will not be cleared until 2070 of UXO. We weren't even invaded like Poland were, so can you imagine how long it would take to clear Poland?

General advice my mate said is definately not to handle anything that may be UXO as it can still be volitile/toxic for over 100 years, apparently, depending on it's components.

Facinating but very sad about the lost villages. I bet those forests are so totally primeval like nothing we have in the UK.

Craeg

 

[andybysea]

Good interesting pics and read,thanks for posting.

 

[ged]

WHY would you pick that UP!?!

He's right you know. They can still be dangerous after all this time. Leave them where they are and retire to a safe distance. It might be worth marking the spot with a flag and making a note of the location so that they can be found again and dealt with professionally.

 

[Bushwhacker]

If this is the state of them after they detonate....i don't know what all the fuss is about....

Errrrr, quite possibly one of the dumbest questions I've ever asked. :sulkoff:

 

[Melonfish]

He's right you know. They can still be dangerous after all this time. Leave them where they are and retire to a safe distance. It might be worth marking the spot with a flag and making a note of the location so that they can be found again and dealt with professionally.

however remember not to plant the flag TOO hard....

 

[MSkiba]

ooo a fragmentation anti personel head on the bottom picuture, a rare one.

 

[Puchal]

Update.
This is not german M24.
Finally grenades were identified as RGD-33 Stick Grenade, Defensive/Offensive
http://www.inert-ord.net/russ02i/rgd33/index.html
Second one, is equipped with removable outer fragmentation sleeve.

Regards
Regards

 

[Radix lecti]

Interesting story and pictures Puchal thanks for sharing.
Daz

 

[Tengu]

Yes, I think thats not a thing to be picked up.

And be glad your not in Vietnam...

 

[Melonfish]

Reminds me of when the last load of EOD lads were on the moss, some kid wandered into risley police station with his dog, his dog had found an odd rusty ball.
kid plonks it on the desk and says, "i've found this"
i think it was an old mk23 mills bomb. pretty much same condition you've found there, minus fuse but with casing and explosive in tact. (risley ROF was the explosives manufacturor and filler plant, they also fitted the detonators)

 

[Ray Britton]

Errrrr, quite possibly one of the dumbest questions I've ever asked.

Not necessarily. On the face of it, it clearly has not fragmented, but that does not mean that is has not been 'thrown'. It may have failed to explode, due to a couple of reasons. I am no expert on stuff this old, but it may have needed to have been primed before use, and wasn't. Either way, it may still be dangerous as explosives can sweat badly with time and become very unstable.
Most of the unexploded ordnance found in the UK on building sites are primed and ready to go, but just haven't yet Some are duds, and some are just waiting!

On the other hand, although the advice in the UK is always not to touch or pick up stuff like this, in Cambrai there is so much of it left from WW1 that when the local farmers find it, they just pick it up and leave it in piles beside the road for the bomb disposal gang to pick up at regular intervals. They can be plowing their field, run one over, and simply bung it in the back of the tractor, ready to dump at the road side. Its quite bizarre to watch them treat these things with as much caution as a sack of spuds.