The UK's Channel 4 screened a 'Time Team Special' last night centred on the Dorset Regiment's attack of June 6 1944.

I'm not a great fan of 'Time Teams' instant archaeology format and , to me, the presenter is deeply irritating. Maybe it's just me, but the programme - which I'd been looking forward to - really seemed to offer no new insights at all other than the 'revelation' that the Germans had been constructing new concrete defences in the Westwall which weren't completed on June 6th. Big deal. As for artefacts found, I think that JP44 and I did rather better at Falaise with our bare hands than Time Team with their high-tech equipment and diggers.

The only saving grace was the Dorset Regt veteran who was splendid, and the current Dorsets officer who at least knew his stuff......

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

Was that a repeat?
I saw something similar awhile back, where they dug up a former German Pak gun position and supporting trenches.
EDIT, It was shown in 2004 wasn't it?
channel4.com - Time Team - D-Day - text only

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You are right Wessex, it was indeed a repeat.

I agree with Martin, they used thousands of pounds worth of hi-tech equipment which yielded only a few rounds and other small items including the base of a stick grenade !

You can't beat my 'stooped over looking at the floor' technique or Martin's 'Mk1 Eyeball' when it comes to finding relics...

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Regards
John

"It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see" - Winston Churchill

I like the title of this thread.
I've often thought Tony Robinson and a large lump of C4 would be an acceptable combination .

Cheers,
Adam.

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"Wars cannot be fought with dream stuff" - Sir Percy Hobart.

Saw it first time round and wasn't really impressed. The trouble with TT is that they're out of their depth the minute they hit anything more modern than 1900. I can't really fault the rest of their stuff though.

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Regards,

Gordon
http://www.freewebs.com/thehistoryvault/
http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y20/Historian/

Sorry everyone - didn't realise it was a repeat. That makes it even worse - I'd have thought they'd have wanted to 'bury' this one along with the backfill.....

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

Recorded it the other night and wished i hadn't bothered , can only concur with everyone, the more i watched them bouncing around the screen with thier Geofizz the more obviuos it became that they know very little about modern military history and battefield archaeology,

They should have got in the No Mans Land group,the Diggers from Belgium or some of the French locals from Falaise to give them a hand and show them what it's all about.

Certainly not one of the better programmes made for the 60th anniversary,

Regards

Paul

For me, the problem with Time Team is when they look at 20th Century 'digs', they seem to have little or no interest and therefore the archeologist's put very little effort into discovering anything. I suppose if my area of expertise was the 8th Century and I was asked to dig a mid 20th Century battlefield, my motivation would not be high

Maybe C4 should change the archaeologists for this type of work for those who are experts in modern archaeology. The only Time Team program which was quite good was on the London Blitz but the target audience was children

I watched a Time Team program a few years back where they dug up (or at least parts of) a B-17 aircraft.If my memory serves me right, I think it crashed during approach to it's base in England.

One of the few interesting Time Team digs....

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Regards
John

"It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see" - Winston Churchill

They did do a good one, I thought, awhile back,
channel4.com - Time Team - 20th Century

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Yes - it was two B-17s which collided on their landing approach. It was quite good, but as usual the 'tonight for the first time we reveal...' was rather bogus ; the story had been deduced by a local aviation museum years beforehand.....

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson