Camping on former battlefield. Beware!

[ged]

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

I was thinking of hanging it in a tree or something...

 

[lub0]

That's not a russian grenade. The RDG was not in use until around WW2. It must be a German army stick grenade aka potato masher. They used those removable frag sleeves on them, too.

 

[sam_acw]

It could easily be from WW2.

 

[Melonfish]

shape and size its defo the russian grenade, the german grenade was much different.
this link shows german grenades:
http://www.inert-ord.net/ger03a/gerhgr/stck/index.html
this shows russian:
http://www.inert-ord.net/russ02i/rgd33/index.html

 

[MSkiba]

shape and size its defo the russian grenade, the german grenade was much different.
this link shows german grenades:
http://www.inert-ord.net/ger03a/gerhgr/stck/index.html
this shows russian:
http://www.inert-ord.net/russ02i/rgd33/index.html

I agree.

just look how the potatoe masher wooden handle was attached to the head, the pictures in the original post do not match that design.

Also, during WW2 the russian's did invade poland.. oops, i ment they "liberated" poland.

 

[m.durston]

i remember reading a story about a fella who had a deactivated grenade which he used as a doorstop in his front porch. went out shopping one day and when he came back his porch was in pieces in his front garden! apparently it wasnt deactivated after all...

 

[MSkiba]

i remember reading a story about a fella who had a deactivated grenade which he used as a doorstop in his front porch. went out shopping one day and when he came back his porch was in pieces in his front garden! apparently it wasnt deactivated after all...

Not only was it not deactivated, but faulty! Unless his pet cat pulled the pin out

 

[Melonfish]

no really they can be that unstable, sat still even they can go off. its all about decay rates i belive.
there's been a few instances of people using live ammo as a doorstop, there was that chap who had a 50mm mortar training round that had never been fired. he's been using it for years.
got to say it is exciting to find old ordinance (as long as its spent) or if your into that thing i guess if its live, so you can blow it up for real.
one thing i remember reading about an old ww2 battlefield was band of brothers. ambrose had maj winters in a field where they'd made a major assault and winters points to a spot and says "we set up the 30.cal there" at which point ambroses wife who was stood in that spot kicks over some of the freshly tilled earth and pulls out a 30.cal round american issue.

 

[Tengu]

Im trying to remember that account of an airbase near Lincoln(?) which had a Lancaster as a gate guard.

And a dummy blockbuster.

When they removed the plane in the late 50s they found the blockbuster was not a dummy.

It was calculated that had it gone off, there would not have been much of Lincoln left.

 

[Radix lecti]

I have two old mills Grenades i use as paperweights/ornaments on my desk, one a No23 Mk2(converted to a money box) and the other a No36 Mk1,both i can safely say are inert. Mind you they did cause a stir with the Mother-in-law when she spotted them.

Daz

 

[ged]

...got to say it is exciting to find...

Got to say I'm not that keen. These are examples of the sort of thing that my wife and I came across while walking in north western Egypt. I was quick enough to stop my wife from stepping on the grenade in the picture and we went elsewhere. You commonly see tourists holding unexploded ordnance in both hands, arms outstretched, to have their photographs taken. Fortunately while we were there everyone seemed to get away with it but I half expected hear a loud bang and see a bloody mess at any moment. Heavy rainfall will often wash these things from the rocky hills into drainage gulleys and they tend to clump together in little piles at the sides of the roads. Every now and again some poor kid or a road sweeper finds himself less fortunate than the sightseers.

The major problem is that with over 20 million of these things still kicking around from WWII, about one-fifth of Egypt is still effectively a no-go area:

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76510

They didn't even get to vote on it.

 

[Suffolksteve]

Reading through this thread reminds me of something I read on the darwins awards website,

http://darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2010-05.html

 

[JohnC]

Im trying to remember that account of an airbase near Lincoln(?) which had a Lancaster as a gate guard.

And a dummy blockbuster.

When they removed the plane in the late 50s they found the blockbuster was not a dummy.

It was calculated that had it gone off, there would not have been much of Lincoln left.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Scampton mentions this

http://www.gunnies.pac.com.au/gallery/grand_slam.htm more info...

 

[Puchal]

Another thrilling photos ....
This time from the woods around Rembertow city (part of Warsaw aglomeration)
http://maps.google.pl/maps?q=rembertow&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Rembert%C3%B3w+Warszawa,+Mazowieckie&gl=pl&ei=fiS8TIDSLc7MswaXgsXMDQ&ved=0CBgQ8gEwAA&ll=52.293625,21.24876&spn=0.042836,0.109863&t=h&z=14


If you look closer, you will notice "friendly" cigar-like shape in the mud. Size: 1m in length:

Swamps in Remberetow woods are filled with shells like this like a pie with rosins.
Friend of mine, who explores these regions frequently, told me, that when crossing the swamps, one have to be careful when to put the feed.
Miraculously, there are (so fa) no records of anyone hurt by exlplosion of such "sleeping cigars)
Regards

 

[Tengu]

Thas the one, johnC

Im glad I dont live in such areas, its always my instinct to investigate any odd thing I spot, it may be useful.

 

[hog]

I found an old unexploded mortar bomb once.