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buried and abandoned tanks


eddy8men

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It is surprising what good publicity and the right people asking for permission can achieve. The Military has all the resources (EOD techs , heavy recovery gear and trained operators) , Wounded/disabled Veterans are the perfect group to ask permission and participate in the dig , for starters the Military owe them big , the publicity is all positive , a small part of the training area gets cleared of dangerous material and some history gets retrieved. Ex Service men will no doubt be more interested in digging up tanks than bits of Roman pottery. everybody wins !

Agreed the rehabilitation is a good point, need some one with good archeologically experience in case we find the last known remains of xxxxxxx.

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i met the historian dan snow at the chalke valley history weekend a few months back and he has a mate called richard something that heads the army archeology rehab unit. if we can narrow down any search areas i'll pass them on to him

 

Operation Nightingale is the army's archeological initiative, it is listed on the British Army website, but no contact details maybe someone on here knows someone who is involved with it.

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The leading energy behind Operation Nightingale is Dr Diarmaid Walshe (serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps) who is a Project Manager within the Defence Archeological Group, also working closely with the Wessex Archeology.

LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/diarmaid-walshe-19b92918

walshe.jpgUK00003149733.jpg

I have his current work contact details. PM me.

 

I believe the 'Richard' who is mentioned is Richard Osgood, Senior Historic Adviser to the MOD's Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO).

LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/richard-osgood-492b9552

Richard-Osgood-Cpl-Steve-Blake-Crown-Copyright-150x150.jpg

 

Dare say we can track Richard down if needed.

Edited by TankNutUK
Added LinkedIn links and Richard Osgood's details.
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i have his contact details as there was talk of bringing them in on the covenanter recovery but to be honest the less guys involved with that one then the sooner we'll have it out

 

Agree with you regards " too many cooks "....but could you please try and find room for someone half decent with a video camera so we armchair enthusiasts who are following your progress with great interest can see how you get on please? Not expecting a documentary but it would really great to see how it goes on site and would be good for the record. ;)

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  • 3 weeks later...
the vineyard are commissioning a short documentary on the recover and restoration so don't worry there will be some evidence of my crimes :)

 

Make sure you have a Chief Petty Officer Pertwee with you who always had "14 witnesses to say he was in 3 other places when whatever happened happened"

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been messed about by an archeology guy from a local uni who offered to help and then after xmas has dropped off the radar and doesn't reply to emails or texts, i don't know if he had a reason but a simple reply would have helped.

anyway i've arranged to hire a proton magnetometer and i'm going down on saturday with my labourers to do the survey and maybe dig a testpit over the covenanter

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been messed about by an archeology guy from a local uni who offered to help and then after xmas has dropped off the radar and doesn't reply to emails or texts, i don't know if he had a reason but a simple reply would have helped.

anyway i've arranged to hire a proton magnetometer and i'm going down on saturday with my labourers to do the survey and maybe dig a testpit over the covenanter

 

 

 

 

Good luck with that !!! remember.... pictures please !!!! :cool2:

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been messed about by an archeology guy from a local uni who offered to help and then after xmas has dropped off the radar and doesn't reply to emails or texts, i don't know if he had a reason but a simple reply would have helped.

anyway i've arranged to hire a proton magnetometer and i'm going down on saturday with my labourers to do the survey and maybe dig a testpit over the covenanter

 

having worked with academics, they always in my opinion thought they know best, have you copied a request regarding help to the principle, especially as there seems to be TV interest.

Yes I have a nasty mind and have had an Professor trying to brow beat me, he didn't win, his attitude was that only he knew how universities were run, unfortunately for him I used to work for universities and know how to work with them.

Do you have the department head who may also be interested in the sudden lack of response.

Edited by Surveyor
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i try to farm out as much as i can but it always ends up coming back onto my shoulders anyway so from now on i'll just do my own thing. it's simpler that way.

me and the lads will set off tonight after work and should get to the vineyard sometime after midnight. will do a quick recce and get some kip, then one of us will do the survey while the other two dig the testpit with my mini digger. i hope the tank is not more than 5ft down as that's as far as it will reach ! after that i'll start digging by hand with a spade and a big pole (his name is marek) :)

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i try to farm out as much as i can but it always ends up coming back onto my shoulders anyway so from now on i'll just do my own thing. it's simpler that way.

me and the lads will set off tonight after work and should get to the vineyard sometime after midnight. will do a quick recce and get some kip, then one of us will do the survey while the other two dig the testpit with my mini digger. i hope the tank is not more than 5ft down as that's as far as it will reach ! after that i'll start digging by hand with a spade and a big pole (his name is marek) :)

 

All the best, hope you find them

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no news is good news :)

 

and the news is good we found it with the first test pit, dug down and hit the rad louvres then dug back to the turret ring and off to the side to the drivers hatch. it all looks quite good. i'll put some pics up later.

we also had a big mag hit in the lower field and was going to dig it when the landowner came up to tell us about the 30" water main that ran through there, probably best to leave it alone :)

we'll do the rest of the geophys when we recover the covenanter. because we had a good day and were leaving early i decided to stop off on the way home at the rickmansworth cromwell site and do a bit of surveying and right over the spot i was told contained the tank we got a big mag reading, bigger than the covenanter so it looks like the story was true.

2 tanks and a water main in one day :)

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wow, congratulations, both on finding the Tank and NOT finding the water main :-D

 

and the news is good we found it with the first test pit, dug down and hit the rad louvres then dug back to the turret ring and off to the side to the drivers hatch.
turret ring? as in no turret present?

how deep did you have to go btw?

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