WW2 Gunnery range - 2 inch mortar harvest

Hi all

Well, today I returned to the gunnery range I 'found' last year. I was damn lucky as the farmer informed me he had just harvested and ploughed the fields so I had free reign over the whole area.

Initially I concentrated on the aiming point for the 2 inch mortars, which I had pinpointed last year. I didn't do any detecting, just walked the field. After an hour I had to go back to the car as I couldn't carry any more stuff !!! Once back, I decided to head back to the area, (also pinpointed last year), where they were firing the 2 inch mortars from. I was getting a little disheartened as, after an hour of detecting, I had just a handful of smashed up 303s. Then I found a 2inch safety cap........and another.......and another. I slowed my walk and 'grid patterned' the little area to make sure I covered every spot. Quite a nice result in the end and confirmation of it being the firing point.

Having cleared out that area, I went to search a field I had never detected before. First thing I found was a 2 inch para illum case in damn good nick, with even some paintwork still in place. A short distance away I got a No 36m base plug.......and another......and another........and soon realised I may have stumbled on the grenade practice area as well.

Not a bad 4 hours digging at all.

Take a look at the video of the dig.......

Gunnery range - 2 inch mortar harvest - YouTube



Here are the finds before any cleaning. I'll post more pictures once cleaned. I did give the base plugs a quick scrub to reveal the dates, (all 1943), along with 2 of the safety caps and the para illum round.

 

Wow! That's some harvest.

 

Nice work man. Sounds like a good days fun. ..2 inch mortars. How effective compared to the Japanese knee mortar were they? 'Cause I'm thinkin' the Japaneses' was prolly a better weapon. http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blogs/the-japanese-knee-mortar-of-world-war-ii

 

Nice find indeed!

 

Thanks guys