OT (Maybe) - What happened to the stuff left over from WWII?

We've all heard the rumours about Harley Davidsons dumped down mineshafts and Japanese Zero fighters left in caves in New Guinea, but does anyone here actually believe these fairy tales? If so, what evidence do you have? Rumours? Documents? A Harley Davidson WLA in the garage?

Just interested.

NSA

Well, at least for Europe I can say that 90% of the equipment is accounted for. A part of it was tranferred to the local forces, some other sold on civilian market, and the remain was sold as scrap and used to help restart the war-torn economy. Aircrafts supplied precious aluminium, while armour plates out of tanks or battleships supplied high-quality steel. It took more than a few years to eliminate all the material: when my father was a young lad, back in the '50s, he helped his father (my grampa) in the family workshop, converting military GMC and International trucks to civilian use, as well as cutting up armour plates left over. But not everything is accounted for. I've always heard tales about weapon caches hidden in the mountains by members of the Resistance, as well as tanks hidden in barns under the hay or sunk into the rivers by the retreating Germans. These rumours are partially true: some STENs and MP40s have turned out from time to time in the hands of terrorists or bank robbers (especially in the 60s), while I remember a German tank (a Panzer IVH) being fished out of a river and another one (a Panther) found in an old, decrepit barn. But I have not heard of "hidden stocks": most unwanted pieces of equipment were either sunk into the sea (like the British did with a consistent stock of Smith & Wesson carbines) or thrown straight into a furnace (like the Italian did with their bolt-action rifles).

That's what I thought too, but I keep hearing rumors about stuff in the Pacific Theater. I.e: An australian guy who's spent hundreds of thousands of dollars looking for stuff in the pacific, Rebels in the Solomons being found with bulk amounts of .50 cal ammo of WW2 manufacture. I know that we didn't bring all our stuff home with us at the end of the war in the Pacific.
NA P51D Mustang anyone?


Cheers,
NSA

Some of the unaccounted weapons from WWII wound up in IDF(Hagana) hands and with some countries in Europe banning weapons the guy who finds his grandpa's rifle in the attic isnt gonna be to willing to report it.

Sometimes people find bunkers with Handgrenades and K98 and other weapons in the woods. But they are rotting and very dangerous.
We have a special agencies dealing with that. They are detonating Bombs 8 hours a day and still have enough of them for at least 50 more years.
And at least once or twice a month a bomb is found by construction workers
This is the most common stuff you still find lying around.

www.rpda.de...

I have seen Pictures of Belgium and France where there are sometimes still wrecks in the deep woods. Russia is even worse. In the Area of Wolgograd(Stalingrad) you can find lot's of ww2 surplus without even digging. The Russians never bothered to clean it.

Verdun and the Somme battlefields of WWI are still littered with hundreds of tons of unexploded ordinance.

It is estimated that one in four rounds failed to detonate.

I don't know about hidden unrecovered stockpiles (why would the nazis bother with stockpiles anyway right?), but unexploded ordinance and such has been found, well, all over europe no?

There was a nazi plan for post war defeat was to organize a civilian resistance/insurgency. They'd do something like what the french partisans did after their defeat. They were supposed to be called 'werewolves', or or whatever the german equivalent is supposed to be. This was to mean that they'd be normal people on moment, brutal saboteurs and assasins the next.

Yes Werw�lfe oder Werewolves. But it did not work very well. The best thing those guys achieved here was to demolish the graves of the union people and foreigners that had been buried in front of the theatre.

Originally posted by Nygdan
I don't know about hidden unrecovered stockpiles (why would the nazis bother with stockpiles anyway right?), but unexploded ordinance and such has been found, well, all over europe no?

There was a nazi plan for post war defeat was to organize a civilian resistance/insurgency. They'd do something like what the french partisans did after their defeat. They were supposed to be called 'werewolves', or or whatever the german equivalent is supposed to be. This was to mean that they'd be normal people on moment, brutal saboteurs and assasins the next.

I am not sure if this is the purpose of the thread...... but the Russians learnt of the werewolf "resistance", and were absolutely paranoid, thanks to NKVD propaganda. Despite the fact that"Werewolf" attacks were almost non-existant. The existance of the werewolf program resulted in the needless deaths of German civilians.


As for the stuff left over from WWII..... many third-world nations got real bargains .

Well I am an amateur WWII historian yet have never heard any thing of the werwolves. Thanks for mentioning it, I'll check it out. All I know is that of the European theater mostly. Well my grandfather used to tell me stories of his involvement in the raids on Nazi organizations as an MP. Did you know that Hitler's favorite American movie was Cinderella! TY
PS What do you get when you cross a lemon and a Nazi?

SOURKRAUT!!!!!

I believe that many of you left out a important possibility here.

There were and still are a number of private organizations in the gun running market. I am certain that, where and when they could, they grabbed, stole, purchased as much of these materials as they could manage. Some of these groups, I also believe, did this with silent government backing...or in turning a blind eye to it. Theses governments too wanted these arms off the market.

THe German K98 is still an excellent bolt action rifle. I was very surprised to find that there were a number of crates of German Stg 44 assault rifles from WW2 turning up in Iraq. I also recall some of the older ...long barreled Lee Enfield/Lee Metford bolt action rifles turning up in Iraq too. Still working ..with ammunition. I will grant you now..that they have most certainly been eclipsed by more recent developments but they got there somehow. Iraq must have become a dumping ground for much of these surplus arms of all types. I imagine most of these are now in museums or private collections.

My father owns a German Mauser which he had a German Gunsmith convert to 30.06 caliber with double set triggers and a removable scope, Hand checkering on the stock and this was done after the war when German moneys were pretty much worthless. He told me it cost him about 25 Dollars American and two cartons of Luckys. The workmanship on this rifle is excellent.
As I recall him telling me ...Two cartons of Lucky Strikes..were pure gold to a German Citizen back then.
So you see it would have been easy for anyone with some kind of goods and or moneys to get the Germans to give up thier hidden arms for something more needed in daily life. Even basic staples and medicines.

Nonetheless ..the end of the war was a golden opportunity for gun runners to stock up for the next conflict at excellent prices.

Also to my recollection...huge stockpiles of Rifles and other goodies were left behind in Vietnam when we pulled out. What happened to these stockpiles?? I beliieve some of them turned up in the conflicts in Central and South America.

Someone also mentioned WW1 and ammunition turning up in fields. I was surpised too in first reading of this. Many farmers in Belgium overturn this stuff when plowing thier fields for the next crop. They often pile it up in a suitable location and someone comes along and picks it up. How many years has it been?? That is alot of ammo.. to still be plowing it up on occasion.

Also here locally in Virginia on the sea coast...the city occasionally puts new sand on the beachs. Again ..occasionally they find ordiniance in the sand. and must close off the beachs for awhile and go over them looking for more of such ordinance.

Fort Monroe is known to have much ordinance in the moat surrounding the origiinal fort....from the Civil war and before. Most of it has gone inert...but.....you dont want to stake your behind nor your familys behinds on this.

Thanks,
Orangetom



[edit on 31-7-2008 by orangetom1999]