This one was dug 2019, checked with EOD and he confirmed it had done its job and was safe. It is an igniter from a German Tellermine 29.
I'm a massive geek/anorak and it wasn't sitting right with me what this fuse was doing in Jersey. German records that I have seen are very thorough and they list no Tellermines 29 locally, only 35's and 42's, 29's were obsolete before WW2 although some turned up in France after D Day so I thought perhaps they had brought them back into service here too.
Whilst not keeping me awake at night (close though) I had to solve this, I chatted to EOD who confirmed a few had been found but he said similar to me that no 29's were used here to his knowledge.
I trawled Jersey Archive online and found lots of files and asked them to pull everything they had on mines/minefields.
On a Saturday morning I visited the Archive and started flicking through maps, lists, diagrams and then found an amazing report by British RE dated June 1945...1 month after Liberation day here in Jersey.
Thanks to the author Lt WH Lindsay R.E Coy 259 Fd Coy R.E he noted the ZDZ 29 were used locally not in the Tellermine 29 but in conjunction with a 27cm French shell as an anti landing obstacle on the beach called a Nutcracker! (see attached drawing he made) he wrote it was exclusively used in Jersey in this role!
Phew, I could now sleep soundly...the devil is in the detail!
I'm a massive geek/anorak and it wasn't sitting right with me what this fuse was doing in Jersey. German records that I have seen are very thorough and they list no Tellermines 29 locally, only 35's and 42's, 29's were obsolete before WW2 although some turned up in France after D Day so I thought perhaps they had brought them back into service here too.
Whilst not keeping me awake at night (close though) I had to solve this, I chatted to EOD who confirmed a few had been found but he said similar to me that no 29's were used here to his knowledge.
I trawled Jersey Archive online and found lots of files and asked them to pull everything they had on mines/minefields.
On a Saturday morning I visited the Archive and started flicking through maps, lists, diagrams and then found an amazing report by British RE dated June 1945...1 month after Liberation day here in Jersey.
Thanks to the author Lt WH Lindsay R.E Coy 259 Fd Coy R.E he noted the ZDZ 29 were used locally not in the Tellermine 29 but in conjunction with a 27cm French shell as an anti landing obstacle on the beach called a Nutcracker! (see attached drawing he made) he wrote it was exclusively used in Jersey in this role!
Phew, I could now sleep soundly...the devil is in the detail!