Rare metal detector find in Peenemünde

Hey, diggers.

When I was planning a holiday with my family by the Baltic Sea, I was worried about leaving my beloved locations in the Czech Republic, where my favourite farmer had just ploughed pretty deep. Anyway, so it was the sea, but I took my detector with me to stop in Halbe on the way home, where I had already found a few things.

I got to Usedom and the next day went into the forest. There's no such mess even here. The Germans can carry their sardine pixels to the middle of the forest. So the result is zero. I started making plans where to go to make sense. The choice fell on Peenemünde, which was half an hour's drive away.

I got to Peenemünde and found I had no shoes. Have you ever looked in flip-flops too? Well, no mistake :)).

In the first forest I immediately recognized the trenches and the old foundations of the former barracks. Half an hour later I hit a mercenary under a root without swords and that's when I knew I was going to be right. That day only one winterhilf and a thousand mosquito stings had fallen. I went to the hotel.

The next day I loaded up the family, dumped them on the beach in Peenemünde, and immediately dropped into the same forest. The spray from the Vietnamese rather attracted the mosquitoes and I didn't know where to run from them anymore. Only movement helped. So I kept swinging. After about an hour of digging zinc roofing behind the roofs and now and then some tubes, I had a signal at the edge of the forest path. Pretty deep. I'm digging and I can't see anything. Then the instrument said it was outside. I take the dirt in my hand and I'm looking for a round shape. And then I just sat down and got stung by the mosquito netting.

Jaccob promised to write up more information about the badge, and I'm glad to have the stuff from the place he writes about in his books.

From the Baltic, BEAX sends you greetings and best wishes for success.

Entrance Badge to the Third Reich Secret Weapons Research and Test Centre

War Merit Cross II. Class without swords (War Meritorious Cross of the Second Class without swords)

Winterhilfe (Winterhilfe)

After cleaning

Reverse side

Just before leaving, one more walking piece

Entrance badge to the research and testing centre for secret weapons of the Third Reich.

(text:jaccob)

Although I'm not a hardened warrior, I have to admit that given the history of this place and the connection to future US space research, this badge intrigued me and made me try to track down some information about it.

The description of the badge is: HEERESVERSUCHSSTELLE Peenemünde, a./U - ARMY TEST CENTER Peenemünde, a./U number of this particular piece: 20780

Which, assuming that the badges are numbered from 0, would demonstrate the considerable size of this research centre if it actually employed more than 20,000 people. (the Peenemünde Museum lists facilities for up to 12,000 people, so it's quite possible that more than 20,000 people rotated here over the years - so the badge number is realistic)

I was also able to find that there were several color variations that placed badge wearers into different stages of development and testing.

I was also able to track down the following colour variations: the colour markings on this type of badge correspond to the following areas:

• Yellow/yellow - secret development workshops including Test Stand VII (V2 launch complex)
• White/Red - Main Development Workshops/Offices (contractor)
• White/Blue - Main Development Workshops/Offices (Administration/Office)

There are also variants for which I could not find the exact assignment e.g. White/Yellow

I managed to find this piece in an auction with a starting price of 1200 Euro. There will probably be other colour variants

Peenemünde Research Centre

This was a secret research centre of the Third Reich where a number of secret weapons were developed, probably the most famous being the (Vergeltungswaffe) so-called retaliation weapons V1 and V2 rockets. These missiles were then used from September 1943 onwards in the attacks on London in particular.

The technical director of the research was the elite scientist Werher vonBraun, who after the war, together with other elitescientists managed to get the Americans to join their space program where he continued his research and helped with the Juno 1 rocket, for example. Later, he and his team built the Saturn V rocket that helped the Americans conquer the moon.

The number of V2 rockets fired at individual targets

• United Kingdom London 1,358
• Norwich and Ipswich 44
• Belgium Antwerp 1 610
• Lutych 27
• Hasselt 13
• Tournai 9
• Mons 3
• Diest 2
• France Lille 25
• Paris 22
• Tourcoing 19
• Arras 6
• Cambrai 4
• Netherlands Maastricht 19
• Germany Remagen 11
• Total V-2s fired 3,172

V2 launch

Wernher von Braun

If you would like to know more about Peenemünde, another interesting article worth reading is published here by ja.runa. The secret factory of Peenemünde

Today there is a museum on this site commemorating the secret development of German weapons, you can find more information on the official website of the museum: Museum Peenemünde

If you are interested in the topic, you can take a look at the more than 20,000 thousand classified WWII finds in the Treasure Hunters - History Hunters - WWII section