Daily Mail - Prisoner of War camp unearthed.
Discussion
Another pearl of wisdom from the Wail.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1309440/WW...
I've only just managed to stop laughing to post this.
'The grenade was a complete shock too, I spotted it in the ground and didn't realise what it was, it didn't look like the ones you see in films at all.
'I tried to defuse it a couple of times myself but I couldn't get the screws off the top. It's a good job because the RAF said it was very unstable.
'They weren't very happy with me when I told them I'd been holding it next to my ear and listening to see if it would go bang.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1309440/WW...
I've only just managed to stop laughing to post this.
'The grenade was a complete shock too, I spotted it in the ground and didn't realise what it was, it didn't look like the ones you see in films at all.
'I tried to defuse it a couple of times myself but I couldn't get the screws off the top. It's a good job because the RAF said it was very unstable.
'They weren't very happy with me when I told them I'd been holding it next to my ear and listening to see if it would go bang.'
Langweilig said:
I'd been holding it next to my ear and listening to see if it would go bang.'
Shouldn't have to listen too hard! Perhaps he thinks it's like cartoon time where the grenade explodes and our hero emerges covered in soot but otherwise completely intact. Can't see why the bomb disposal types were cross with him - if it had gone off it would have saved them a job and provided a candidate for a Darwin Award. Well, some of a candidate anyway.
Strange story.
He tried to defuse a grenade by undoing the two screws on top of a grenade?
What two screws on the top of a grenade?
I don’t remember there being two screws on top of a grenade. You put the fuse in through the hole in the bottom. It undid with a tool a bit like a surface spanner. The one screw on the outside was on the side, near the top to fill the casting with explosive at the factory.
Then there is the photo of the dog tags he found. Why would German prisoners have tags marked ‘Stalag XII B’?
That was a German camp at Frankenthal from 1940-42 for captured British Other Ranks. How would a German POW camp guard get captured and end up as a POW in England? If it had been a camp at the end of the war and he had been captured when the camp was liberated in 1945 then maybe I could understand it. Guards at that camp would have been redeployed to other units after 1942, so what is that dog tag doing there?
He tried to defuse a grenade by undoing the two screws on top of a grenade?
What two screws on the top of a grenade?
I don’t remember there being two screws on top of a grenade. You put the fuse in through the hole in the bottom. It undid with a tool a bit like a surface spanner. The one screw on the outside was on the side, near the top to fill the casting with explosive at the factory.
Then there is the photo of the dog tags he found. Why would German prisoners have tags marked ‘Stalag XII B’?
That was a German camp at Frankenthal from 1940-42 for captured British Other Ranks. How would a German POW camp guard get captured and end up as a POW in England? If it had been a camp at the end of the war and he had been captured when the camp was liberated in 1945 then maybe I could understand it. Guards at that camp would have been redeployed to other units after 1942, so what is that dog tag doing there?
Uncle Fester said:
Strange story.
He tried to defuse a grenade by undoing the two screws on top of a grenade?
What two screws on the top of a grenade?
I don’t remember there being two screws on top of a grenade. You put the fuse in through the hole in the bottom. It undid with a tool a bit like a surface spanner. The one screw on the outside was on the side, near the top to fill the casting with explosive at the factory.
Then there is the photo of the dog tags he found. Why would German prisoners have tags marked ‘Stalag XII B’?
That was a German camp at Frankenthal from 1940-42 for captured British Other Ranks. How would a German POW camp guard get captured and end up as a POW in England? If it had been a camp at the end of the war and he had been captured when the camp was liberated in 1945 then maybe I could understand it. Guards at that camp would have been redeployed to other units after 1942, so what is that dog tag doing there?
Does not quite add up for me either. Why would there even be grenades at a low security POW camp? In the picture of all his finds there are dozens of spent bullet casings...was this minimum security camp site also a concentration camp?!?He tried to defuse a grenade by undoing the two screws on top of a grenade?
What two screws on the top of a grenade?
I don’t remember there being two screws on top of a grenade. You put the fuse in through the hole in the bottom. It undid with a tool a bit like a surface spanner. The one screw on the outside was on the side, near the top to fill the casting with explosive at the factory.
Then there is the photo of the dog tags he found. Why would German prisoners have tags marked ‘Stalag XII B’?
That was a German camp at Frankenthal from 1940-42 for captured British Other Ranks. How would a German POW camp guard get captured and end up as a POW in England? If it had been a camp at the end of the war and he had been captured when the camp was liberated in 1945 then maybe I could understand it. Guards at that camp would have been redeployed to other units after 1942, so what is that dog tag doing there?
He was on the radio this morning.
What he actually said was:
It was not a grenade that looks like the 'film' pineapple. It looked just like a plastic jam jar. It was only when he started rubbing the dirt off it (after t
tting it with his spade digging it up), that he saw the X symbol, and at this point figured out it was a grenade. He then went on to comment that he put it too his ear, as if it was unstable it you could hear fizzing sounds. It was not, so he 'assumed' it was safe and put it to one side.
Later the navy (I think) came out and let him blow it up..
What he actually said was:
It was not a grenade that looks like the 'film' pineapple. It looked just like a plastic jam jar. It was only when he started rubbing the dirt off it (after t
tting it with his spade digging it up), that he saw the X symbol, and at this point figured out it was a grenade. He then went on to comment that he put it too his ear, as if it was unstable it you could hear fizzing sounds. It was not, so he 'assumed' it was safe and put it to one side. Later the navy (I think) came out and let him blow it up..
Curiouser and curiouser.
That sounds like a post-war grenade. If the camp was closed 1950's and the houses built then the houses predate the grenade.
Dog tags for combat troups never give unit details, which is useful to the enemy.
You give Name, Rank and Serial number only.
I suspect that Stalag tag is one issued by the Germans to a British POW.
They would want means to identify each prisoner and their camp.
That sounds like a post-war grenade. If the camp was closed 1950's and the houses built then the houses predate the grenade.
Dog tags for combat troups never give unit details, which is useful to the enemy.
You give Name, Rank and Serial number only.
I suspect that Stalag tag is one issued by the Germans to a British POW.
They would want means to identify each prisoner and their camp.
pugwash4x4 said:
joe_90 said:
Later the navy (I think) came out and let him blow it up..
really? can't see them letting him blow it up, with with modern HSE requirements- will go and ask a friend in the "know"You place an explosive charge next to the grenade and connect a long wire.
All they did was let him push a button on the end at a safe distance.
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