Riddle of the sands

[Resurgam]

                     Talacre sands off the coast of North East Wales is one great big three dimensional jigsaw puzzle and it can be rewarding but at the same time very frustrating. The beach is littered with the leftovers from being a WWII air to ground target range for the RAF and the USAF. Fortunately the old mine fields were cleared in 1945 but .303, .30, .50, and 20mm projectiles still litter large areas of the beach and one has to work patiently to get at the goodies that are hidden between the shrapnel and the bullets.

                     I have worked the sands with a CS4PI and also a Garrett Euro Ace. Since upgrading to a MineLab Safari in January, slowing down my sweep speed, keeping the coils as close to the sand as possible, and improving my research of the area; the beach has slowly begun to give up more coins both new and old.

                    The fact that two WWII fighter planes bounced the crest of the dunes, collided with the anti invasion poles and then disintegrated killing both pilots; explains some of the strange items and live rounds that are occasionally recovered by detectorists there. The copper maritime nails that I have recovered also give witness to the many old shipwrecks that litter the Dee estuary and Liverpool Bay.  



                    

[dingdong]

You certainly seem to be getting to grips with the "SAFARI" well they say that persistents pays!!
Nice bit of history about the ww 2 aircraft crash,do you happen to know what type of aircraft they were?
A good selection of finds too,well found,well done.👍

[Resurgam]

                         One of the aircraft was a USAF Mustang and the other was an RAF Spitfire. I think it was the Mustang that misjudged his angle of attack and crashed through the target situated on top of the dunes and then collided with the anti-invasion poles. The Spitfire pilot committed a similar error and his aircraft was also demolished by the anti-invasion poles. Both pilots were killed. If you are interested, I can dig out the pilots names, dates of the crashes, and a few other details.

                         If you pm me your email address, I can email you a copy of an old WWII map for the area that shows the WWII defences and minefields. I could also email you some links for information about shipwrecks in the area.

                        Some of the clues that I am presently working with are a little like Chinese Whispers, but I keep it all on record until I can obtain more accurate information. The MOD confirmed that the area was mined and provided me with map references for the mine fields but due to the condition of their Microfiche records were unable to inform me as to what models of land mine were used or if they were all accounted for when the fields were cleared. A metal detectorist, that has a caravan on the same site as us, did find a live WWII hand-grenade in the area.

                       From the Point of Ayr to Presthaven is approximately two mile and from the high water line to the low is about half a mile; so there is a good two square miles of sand to go at, but it takes a great deal of patience and determination to work ones way through the WWII scrap. Just like a jigsaw; the pieces are slowly fitting together to give a better picture. Parking at Talacre was always free but this year they are installing pay machines and charging for parking.

                       I'm going to give it a go this coming Sunday and see if I can sniff out some Victorian coins and some 20 mm brass cartridge cases. As for the Safari; it seems to like the beach and as long as I keep resetting the noise cancel and am prepared to pop the sensitivity on manual occasionally I have very few problems with it. It's a great beach machine.