Battlefield Salvage.

Sadly Drew, they went on to blot their copybooks so far as abandoning material is concerned !

Who's going to find that house on Google then ?

 

Plenty on salvage on the Great War Forum

 

Sadly Drew, they went on to blot their copybooks so far as abandoning material is concerned !

Who's going to find that house on Google then ?


Just outside Arleux heading to the railhead.

 

I want to have a look in those sheds !

 

I wonder if any of out veterans know what arrangements were made for salvage of weapons from the battlefield. I know many captured German and Italian small-arms and ammunition were dropped to resistance organisations, I'm aware of the SOE arrangements - but what went on with the 'real' army to gather and store this equipment??

 

Jedburgh
in many cases after a battle - after a couple of days rest -many units were sent back to clear up in order to keep them and their minds occupied - but in the main it was the Pioneers and RASC who did most of the clearing -if they were not too busy..
Cheers

 

I believe that it was through becoming a Scrap Merchant and gathering all the metal that was lying about that the Dutch gentleman who started the Overloon Museum made his fortune and as such was able to create the museum.

 

Interesting topic. Another part of WWII history I think many people would never consider. The pics on the first page are very interesting. Particularly like the shot of the German POW's sorting out the lead from small arms ammo.

Always knew tanks, heavy equipment, firearms, etc were salvaged but never gave a second thought to the more mundane military eqipment.

 

I have read that jerry cans became an important item of salvage in NW Europe - because most fuel was supplied in them and because emptys were usually discarded - a special drive had to be made to recover them. I believe this included cash rewards to civilians.

Noel

 

From WO167/192

 

I've just come across this in the 'History of the RAOC'

Ammunition Empties and Salvage.

The recovery of material from expended ammunition increased in importance as the war continued. Metal packages were a valuable source of raw material for industry and in the Middle East an organization was developed for receiving these 'empties', sorting them and despatching them to South Africa...Equally important were the valuable metals obtained from returned ammunition which was no longer required...The arrangements made by the RAOC for the...recovery of brass and other metals, reached a high level of efficiency in the Middle East and contributed to the war effort and to the needs of industry in the period of scarcity which immediately followed the war.

Jules.

 

Something which I have only ever given a passing thought to - the huge mountain of wrecked and surplus materials which littered postwar Europe .
A very good subject , thank you gents.

 

A few pictures here giving a better idea of volume, I can remember as a kid going to Pride and Clarkes in Brixton and seeing para bikes piled high for £1- ten shillings each , WW2 motorbikes for £25, they have all gone now, so has Pride and Clarke, and so has Brixton compared to how it used to be in Violet Szabo"s time, (she lived and worked there) regards lofty

 

A short article on the New Zealand Divisional Salvage Unit that served in Egypt, Libya and Syria in 1941-42https://wp.me/p4YOZp-49V

 

A personal recollection by Doug Dawes of 364 Battery 139 (Army) Field Regiment, in action near Petegem during the Battle for the Escaut, 21 May 1940, in support of 6 Queens & 2 Buffs:

We returned to the gun position. They were just running out of shells. The order came to pack up and get out. The Germans were over the river in strength and the position was not supported on the left or right. We packed up, guns were limbered up and ready to go.

Then there was a remarkable order - originated I bet from someone in an office far away. No shell cases - brass of course - were to be left behind, the Germans were short of non-ferrous metal. The place was littered in shell cases. Panic; threw them into the Scammels which towed the guns and carried the gun crews and into any other vehicle including my 15cwt. We checked that no one was left behind and there was much amusement when some appeared from the slit trench which we had fitted up with a plank as a bog. We were off!

My front seat in the 15cwt had been appropriated by a senior N.C.O. and I flung myself in the back onto the jumble of shell cases. It was absolute agony. We had to stop after a mile or two and I had a chance to clear a space behind the cab and settle more comfortably. I don’t remember what happened to the shell cases. Well, like many others, I was 19 and growing up fast.​

 

On a related subject, there is the ongoing controversy of using "disarmed forces who had surrendered unconditionally", otherwise known as German POW's, to clear minefields in the former occupied countries, after the war had ended. As many as 1,500 may have been killed in France alone while performing this work.



https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2817&context=cisr-journal

Scandal of PoWs sent to deaths on minefields