Messerschmitt Tailwheel

Vintage WW II Messerschmitt B f Tail Wheel on Wooden Plaque

“The German wheel was bought from Duxford from a German man”

Now provenance like that is priceless! :rolleyes:

Have you seen those you tube videos of those metal detector enthuisasts digging in Belgium in the forests and there bringing up clean as “new” bullets & then there is the twisted and corroded weapons, plenty of helmets etc.

IIRC a couple of those detectorists went to jail a few months ago! Even putting aside the very strict rules on detecting they have in most European countries, being caught in possession of live military ordnance or even a single relic armour piercing bullet is, I believe, a serious and often custodial offence.

As for aircraft weapons – I am not going to go into detail, other than to say all such finds – even parts of such guns – are classed as section 5 weapons – carrying a 5 years custodial sentence I believe for unauthorised possession. Relic condition are treated just the same – yes the proof houses do now have the authority to declare a dug up weapon as deactivated due to its condition – but they never have done so yet to my knowledge and I was told flatly that they never would be prepared to do this, as the law is so badly termed, it could leave them wide open to future problems.

I used to have a good working relationship with our local police firearms inspection team and have reported ALL such finds I have made and had several weapons inspected and declared (in writing) as being outside the terms of the act due to there condition – Also have had several others deactivated on police advice – But now all the qualified inspectors have gone due to cuts and they simply have no expertise or interest in dealing with such matters now.

The attitude of many of the “diggers” I have seen on other forums who seem to think whatever they find is OK if it is incomplete or “rusted solid” is IMO treading on thin ice

Think that sums it up perfectly Tony – is it OK to use the same text please.

Well, as with everything my crate is half full, rather than half empty 🙂

The romantic in me loves the idea of buried treasure, and hope they find something worthwhile. At least Mr Cundall has the cojones to have a go and to be honest I wish I was standing next to him with a shovel!

Might all be to nothing but that’s the fun bit – chase the dream. It’s easy to sit at a PC and make pronouncements but someone has gone for it for real, and for that for me is a good reason to wish him luck and hope he is successful.

Have to agree John – we will all have to wait & see – but wouldn’t be fantastic if he is right – “If you never try you’ll never know” and at least he is trying – I also wish him luck 🙂

“Raiders of The Lost Aircraft”…!!

Its avoiding all those booby-trap spears, deadly snakes and spiders and big rolling stone balls that will be the tricky bit.

That’s if they don’t get trampled by all those elephants first! 😀

From the evidence we have it is unforgivable, inexcusable, wrong!

Moggy

Moggy – I have to say I am coming around to the same conclusions – this is rapidly looking about as bad as it can get 🙁

The thing that really saddens me is that it now leaves a situation that is unlikely to ever be resolved satisfactorily. I can’t see any official organisations stepping in to re-excavate to search for any human remains and even if this was done, I would think individual identification is probably now impossible?

All in all an I feel this is absolutely appalling and the situation now facing any relatives seeing these reports is unforgivable 🙁

This whole situation stinks. Story then counter story and more counter story. Suddenly everyone involved in this dig was trying to do the right thing except the guy who organised it all. It was all his fault and the people who he invited along to help had absolutely no idea there had been any previous digs or that large amounts of personal effects and flying clothing were already laid out on tables in his barn. Really?

Hi Nachtjagd – I really hope you are not including my post as a “counter story” here? I was simply trying to add a little balance to the thread in view of the rather one-sided direction it was going – However, the more information that seems to be reavealed it is becoming pretty obvious that this dig and previous digs were at best very badly managed or at worst there was a deliberate cover up in order to continue to recover relics for purposes unknown.

As Moggy says, it does seem pretty unlikely that this is the explanation in this instance. To the best of my knowledge the MREU teams (if they investigated this site, which seems unlikely) recovered all items such as clothing, effects etc when they worked on cases like this but I doubt very much (although I don’t know) that the site was ever formally investigated before the recent series of excavations. If they had found these items in any immediate post war investigation they would not have thrown them back, and that’s for certain.

Andy – My example was a single seat fighter, so I suppose identity was not at issue – with a little more thought, I realise that a bomber recovery where several individuals require identification, would be a totally different matter and I see your point. Knowing the area quite well I find it hard to believe that there was absolutely no official investigation of this site in the immediate post war period – it seems obvious that plenty of local people knew about it, surely someone reported it? What about the American unit said to have arrived on the scene? was it normal practice for them to then forget about it once they found it was not one of theirs?

The last from ‘Dyson’, here, refers:

http://triggertimeforum.yuku.com/topic/11020/Lancaster-Bomber-wreckage-discovered-in-Normandy

At last a coherent account from someone actually on the dig – and what a mess it seems to have been – For someone clearly interested enough in the acquisition of relics to organise what was apparently their second or third dig on the site and then ignore recognizable turret remains seems very odd – I suppose the inference is that they were knowledgeable enough to realise what could very well be inside? Though if that was the case I would have thought acting in the way described would have risked scattering remains in full view of everyone concerned?

Yes Nachtjagd the whole thing stinks IMO too, but sadly I cannot see any authorities picking it up from here and doing any proper investigation 🙁

Looks really good and look forward to seeing it soon – it was beginning to look a bit sorry for itself. Only niggle is that it is a shame no photos seem to have emerged of the restoration – I was really looking forward to identifying a few of my Defiant bits 🙁

Hi ajw – Yes sorry – should have said in my post – I have a bit of an issue about selling artifacts from crash sites – I feel it is a matter of respect – this cartridge will stay in the breech of the .303.