As we have had a great series of personal items lately, and more will follow, the thought has grown in me. I would like to show these bits and pieces that were left on the battlefield, often buried by incessant explosions and coming to light after decades in the earth… The owners fates are lost and unknown. That I always find thought provoking. I hope the owners survived or at the very least were found and identified, but chances are they are still there, possibly so destroyed by the bombardments that they will never be found or even identified as humans. Therefore my feelings about battlefield relics is divided: These are the items that most definitely were there! At the same time they were carried by living people who possibly were killed and never returned from that battlefield…
These relics are from various battlefields. The Austro-Hungarian helmet was found in Pskov, Russia. The German helmet is from the vicinity of Riga, Latvia. The British trench club, buttons and buckles, the wire cutters and several of the bayonets are from the Somme, France. A few bayonets from Verdun.
The sawback bayonet is one of those that really gets me. It has obviously been torn from a rifle by a high explosive shell. The mortise and quite a bit of the pommel has been broken off. It is a clean break, no bending, so the forces at work must have been immense.
Also the British trench club, really a medieval style weapon, so primitive and brutal. It is made of hardwood, but testament to the long time in the ground is that the hardwood has been eroded so it is quite light and brittle, though the wood grain clearly shows what it is. It was dug in a trench on the Somme.
The buttons and buckles are from a first aid station, and were dug in a fire pit, where the uniforms cut off the bodies of the wounded were burned.
Every single one of these objects have been carried into battle by living humans, and most of them probably made the ultimate sacrifice, many disappearing from this world without a trace. Stepping out of time forever, leaving those at home to forever wonder where they went, where they are, whether they suffered or died quickly…?
So, that is why I like having these items, the last remnants of forgotten men. At the same time I treat these items with enormous respect, as each item contains a story of immense horrors, death and bereavement. These men deserve to be remembered, even if they will forever remain nameless.