Dugout dumps (where to look?)

What is it and why look for it?

A person inexperienced in military coping will probably be perplexed, not without reason. Yes, I am going to describe what treasures an ordinary garbage pit can contain and what considerations should be used to find it. Let me clarify — we are talking about dugout trash cans of German troops in the Second World War (Great Patriotic War).

No matter what anyone says, the German soldier in that war had a much more extensive scarp and, when standing in positions for a long time, became overgrown with garbage pits, where literally everything was thrown out, which was not necessary at that moment. It’s worth putting in a good word for the German Ordnung here. If it were not for the pedantry and cleanliness in which the dugouts were usually kept, the descendants would have inherited much fewer such «cache». Here it is a classic dugout, even with the remains of logs.

Where to look?

As you might guess, you should look for garbage dumps in former German dugout towns and in long-term positions, in places where the front line was stationary for a long time. Following a simple logical connection, the longer the soldiers lived in the dugout, the more garbage was thrown out and accumulated at the bottom of the pit.

Usually the trash can was located in close proximity to the dugout. It was convenient; you didn’t have to walk far. To accurately detect a garbage dump, you must first find the entrance to the dugout. There should be a trash bin two or three meters away from it. As a rule, it will be on the right side of the communication path if you are leaving the dugout. If it’s not there, look nearby.

What the trash can contain? (see photo above)

In the trash pit you can find anything, from cans to weapon parts. One day I happened to stumble upon a whole junkyard, in which there was a huge amount of German gas masks, backpacks filled with scarp, drum magazines for machine guns and many different parts from carts, trucks and God knows what else… The garbage dump was discovered in a German field camp far from the front line.

You are probably familiar with the situation when there are a lot of dugouts around, but there is nothing, they are all empty. Think about it, probably because they are empty because everything was collected in one place? 😉

You yourself had to dig garbage dumps? What interesting things were found there?

Read more tips for a cop!