2017 Battlefield Tour Page 21

Battlefield finds...the rounds are British .303, they don't have rifling marks so don't look to have been fired. There must be millions of rounds lying around the battlefield that were not fired. Either in ammo boxes in bunkers that were blown up or discarded in clips by the dead or wounded....... the buttons are General Service (GS) buttons made by Player Bros of Birmingham. The professional soldiers of the BEF, the Territorials and the first wave of reinforcements went overseas wearing Regimental buttons. Mass conscription brought vast numbers of soldiers into the war and the majority of these wore GS buttons. They have the Royal Cypher in the middle with a lion and unicorn either side, the King's crown and lion on top with Dieu Et Mon Droit underneath.....the shrapnel balls from artillery shells were designed as anti-personnel but the British used them also to cut barbed wire. This was a difficult skill as the timer for the air burst had to be accurate. The marks on one of them looks like it has hit wire though......the barbed wire is from Hill 62 trench system in Flanders......the big lump of metal at first looked like a fuzed percussion cap from an artillery shell but I don't think it is. The nose cap and timing ring are missing. I will clean it up and have a look, it will probably be part of some plumbing system or water pipe or a pump on a Bosch washing machine.

Whilst overlooking the Lochnagar crater on the Somme I was approached by a French farmer and asked would I like a souvenir from my visit. He then handed me this shell fuze. It turns out to be German…. (Question) Should I clean it?....... Or leave it just as it is?