wandering the battlefields

Say Dragos....are you from Sibiu?
'Couse there are a lot of locations around there where you can start looking for relics.

yea im from sibiu ..
say do u know any good locations around Sibiu where i can go dig for some.. relics>?
hey if you wanna come and help me out ur more then welcome to join me.

Dragos

Here are another two pictures with some things you can find on the ground, reminders of some fierce fightings.
A heavy piece of a shell, you can see the scale of it close to that sewing cap.


---and some lead srhapnell balls, one 6.5mm bullet and some 8mm bullets.

How the shrapnel were balls shot, they were in mortar rounds?

Here is the german 7.7 shrapnell shell, ww1 type, with the "doppelzunder" fuse.
(I found a part of such a fuse and I have posted the pic previously)
As you know these shells were very effective against infantry even in trenches or foxholes becouse they exploded in the air, pounding the ground with lead balls...


---the image is from www.westernfrontmuseum.nl

ANDI

This post has been edited by ANDI on November 16, 2005 07:18 am

As I said in the "Battlefields in the Ground" topic, I was in the same area (On the Giumalau mountain, near Rusca) and also saw ww1 trenches. They were only about half of meter deep, but some came with rusty barbed wire as well. We also stumbeled upon an ammo dump with the stacks of shells fused into one solid mass due to rust (we stayed well clear of it- if one shell is dangerously unstable, a lot are more so!) and the first top ones defused and spray painted red. I distictly rmember one of the shels as being filled with round shrapnel, and the general shape matched ANDI's post, so I assume them to be german 7.7s. At the time (I was 12) I wasn't interested in militaria, so I took no pictures of our finds or investigated furter (We were also afraid of mines, since we didn't know this was a WW1 and not a WW2 position) but I would like to revisit the area sometime.

About Feruginol and bayonets: Don't do it! I used it to clean up the first ever bayonet I aquired, (over 9 yers ago) and it only made the blade rust faster, as well as stain it and corroding all the markings. In the mean time I managed to get it cleaned up again (the markings are gone forever, though), but still I can't place in the scabbard because it will rust, so I have keep the blade cocooned in a tissue paper "shroud".

I've never tried to laquer my bayonets, most of the ones I have are in pretty good condition so they won't rust or anything- for the lesser fortunate ones, gun grease on the blade (or the type of oil used to lubricate old sewing machines) works better than anything else.

Here is a selection of my bayonets.
From top to bottom-

1) My first ever K98. You can see in the picture that the blade has been sharpened quite a few times over the years, although not by me. Afer I tried to clean it with "Feruginol", it ate away what was left of the markings on the blade, but I think it was stenciled 43ASW. The crome finish on the scabbard looks original, and it's marked 42ASW.

2)Anoter K98 that I aquired last year- Although its exterior is quite battered, the blade is in mint condition, still retaining its original lubrication and finish. The blueing on the scabbard has mostly worn off, but some of it is still visible in the places that would have been covered by leather. Both pieces are stenciled 44ASW, and the scabbard has had it's serial restamped to match the bayonet.

3)The pride of my collection: a VZ-24 with the original leather still attached! I got it from Sibiu in 2001 form an "Antique shop", and you can see that the blade has been sharpened, probably to fetch a better price. The button is also rusted solid, but other than that, it's in great shape.

If you ask me, the handle is totally wrong. I have an Austro-Hungarian WW1 entrenching tool of a diffrent pattern (See it below, it's marked "Loboncz-1915") but what you've got looks to me close to the German model, that had a straight handle:




The second picture is from http://www.nomanslandmilitaria.com/

This post has been edited by Wings_of_wrath on February 12, 2006 01:23 pm

The VZ-24 bayo is very nice except that it is from a Mannlicher m95(or m93 the differences are small).
Feruginol is cleaning the metal of any bluing so it should not be used on any bayonets scabbards and guns.

This is a good condition ZB bayonet and a scabbard damaged by feruginol.
All the bleing is original.

Aha. I always asumed this to be the VZ-24 because that's what the guy who sold it to me said it was. I can see the only notable difference between my M93 bayonet and your Zb is the shape of the pommel, so I was sattisfied with the superficial resemblance, and never looked into the details.
Well, you live and you learn- until now I only had a real interest in german bayonets, and this is my only other one.

This post has been edited by Wings_of_wrath on February 12, 2006 03:18 pm

hey any of you guys wanna sell one of your bayonets.
il give u a good price !

Thanks!

Sure,

Yes I will trade mine for an OT-810.

This post has been edited by mihnea on February 12, 2006 07:26 pm

I think that's an excellent deal...

Wings of Wrath, you said that one local kid showed you some helmets he had found in that area. Do you remember the type? I mean, were they ww1 or ww2? M16,17,18 or M35,40,42?
Thankx

sorry but i dont have an OT-810 lol..
but i have cash so what do u say

The kid had five helmets. At the time I was 12 and not at all interested in miltaria, but I do remeber some of the details. The helmets seemed to be German WW2, Probably 42s, but I'm not sure about that. One of them was clearly a WW1 type with the protruding rivets and taller dome, presumably an M16 or 18. All of them were just the shell, rusty, with no traces of paint remaining, and some of them showed battle-damage.
When I asked where he got them, he gestured vaguely in the direction of the mountian and replied "The forest".

Among other things, he showed me a well preserved MG belt full of spent cases. It was made out of metal links, with some black paint still showing, so I think it was of WW2 vintage.

He also had a sizable colection of shrapnels and pieces of shells, as well as a fragment of a grenade - It was the lower part of a "classic", "pinapple" style defensive grenade, but I don't know what type. Could it have been a MAN? Did the Russians recieve any American Mark I's during WW2 along with the Jeeps, Shermans and other equipment? The question remains.

This post has been edited by Wings_of_wrath on February 14, 2006 11:31 pm

Thanks for your answer!
In the Vatra Dornei area took place some fierce battles between the russian and austro-hungarian forces in ww1. Those mountains were heavily fortified (trenches, bunkers) and I also heard some stories about dug-outs in the middle of nowhere, in the deep of the forest.
Don't know about important actions in ww2 though.....
I also think that no local is going to tell you the exact location of their findings, as they are afraid and suspicious about your intentions.....