Other Post Free Wwii Harley Davidsons For All Members

ENGINEER

Mi Staff Sergeant
MI.Net Member
Joined
Sep 7, 2010
Messages
165
Points
163
You didn't really think it was true did you? But living near the Forest of Dean and having also been a Forest caver the rumours abound regarding vast amounts of US Army equipment dumped down old mines. I even heard one of our Free Miner members say he had seen crates at pit bottom containing said equipment. I think he was pulling a few plonkers because it was an evening in the Butchers Arms in Clearwell. Needless to say it is all around even now.

Forest of Dean WWII memories recalled after explosives found in Cinderford Posted: June 11, 2015
Ruspidge Road was shut down on Thursday afternoon after workmen discovered 17 mortars, believed to be from the Second World War.
None of this is any surprise to Derek Bluett, 86, however.
As a young lad, like generations of Foresters before him, the Forest was his playground and he saw first hand vast swathes of the area cordoned of for wartime ordnance storage.
"The whole of the Forest on the left hand side opposite the Dilke Hospital, and a long long way down into the woods, was full of ornaments," said Derek.
"It was ready for the anticipated invasion and they had every type of ordance from rifle bullets to 105mm shells."
The areas were strictly no limits and soldiers were on guard to prevent civilians entering the restricted zones.
But they were ineffective in stopping a group of 10-year-olds playing around.
"We were born in the Forest and played there from a young age. We knew more about the area than the Americans did," said Mr Bluett.
"Mustard gas was stored there too and the containers storing it used to leak."
As a result, to this day there are areas of the Forest where nothing grows "because the soil has been destroyed".
"Dad always said if the Germans had known about the area and bombed it, then Cinderford would have no longer exist," said Derek, whose parents ran the Miners Hall in the town.
American Soldiers were regulars there and the front of the bar was painted with a profile of New York to remind them of home.
Long after the war the remains of huts and steel girders are still visible.
"Two or three times a week at 3am, we would regularly hear an engine pulling itself to pieces with the weight it was hauling on its way up to the tunnels near Drybrook. Naval mines and torpedoes were stored during the war," said Derek.
Dave Bowkett, 71, from Cinderford remembered hearing an old timer, long since passed away, talking about the munitions and ordnance in the woods.
"This old guy also said that after the Americans left, that they quickly dumped all sorts of equipment rather than transport back to the USA," he said.
Dave was told first hand by the same gentleman that new Harley Davidson motorbikes, wrapped in greaseproof linings, were dumped in the Devil's Chimney mine shaft.
"I wouldn't mind having a look one day," said Dave.
Jason Dickerson-Scriven, landlord at the White Hart near to the bomb scare on Wednesday, had to close for business safety reasons yesterday.
Tales of US Second World War remnants in the woods are not new to him either.
"Just come in here of an evening and you would be amazed about the tales these old guys have," he said.
"The mines around here are full of wartime paraphernalia, allegedly."

I haven't heard of anyone finding a single Harley or anything that wasn't scrap, and anyway I figure that if stuff did go down a 300 ft mine shaft it is going to be not so good condition in spite of the layers of greasy paper. Tell me if any such stories have ever materialised into truth.

http://www.gloucestershirelive.co.u...d-explosives/story-26681075-detail/story.html
 
Damn it!, thought it was my lucky day mate :)
I would think that anything abandoned from WW2 would be pretty useless now but who knows.
I remember during the first Gulf War that many of us buried some useless kit in the sand, if your looking for British cold war gear that would be the place to look, in particular the Saudi areas where we trained before the move up north.
 

Similar threads

G
Replies
50
Views
4K
guest0001
G
Back
Top