Battlefield Salvage.

[von Poop]

Just read the interesting article on WW1 battlefield salvage in that new 'Britain at War' magazine and was wondering how this was approached in WW2, if at all?

The Canadians, and to a lesser extent the British, using pioneers and 'resting' troops in organised parties that were part of the main offensives planning from the off seem to have recovered a remarkable amount of usable materiel from around Vimy in 1917.
Some samples from the Canadian list: 122,478 Mills grenades, 2002 pairs of ankle boots, 5949 Very lights, more than 10 million rounds of Small arms ammunition... and the list goes on and on, alongside photographs of huge depots in Kent recycling heaps of every imaginable thing from oil to clothing.

Quick shufti on Google reveals little and I don't think I've ever seen a serious mention of such official activity for ww2 other than the organised recovery of usable tanks which isn't really the same thing. It's also a different area to the 'pots and pans' for the war effort on the civilian side.

Perhaps 20 years later the activity had become more streamlined and a system was in place that was more efficient and less visible? Does anyone know any more about it regarding the second war?

Cheers,
Adam.

[Owen]

I don't know if this is quite the same but Art Bridge emailed me to say once he'd left the A & SH of Canada with battle exhaustion in October 44 he was sent to a "..work company with a bunch of similar casualties and spent the rest of the war as a labourer digging graves and trenches, moving artillery shells and general flunky work including a stint with a mobile bath unit..."
I take it other such work units would have gone and tidied up the area.
I'm sure I've seen some photos on the IWM site of salvaged kit.

[Owen]

IWM photos, BU 12043 BU 12042 BU 11687 for starters.
Loads of info there about Base Salvage Units.

No.9 Base Salvage Depot, Vilvorde, Belgium

No.8 Base Salvage Depot, Boom, Belgium,

for instance.

[von Poop]

Once again, I should have looked there first, nice one.
Definitely some evidence of the activity going on during and after the war. Lots more on there under 'battlefield salvage' too, with some reference to 'where' which is handy, Cheers.:

GERMANY UNDER ALLIED OCCUPATION
A huge dump of salvaged tyres at No.12 Field Salvage Unit Depot, Hanover, which will either be re-issued or used as raw material in the manufacture of new tyres.

BATTLEFIELD SALVAGE FOR RAW MATERIALS
The process of salvaging lead from German small arms ammunition: At No.9 Base Salvage Depot, Vilvorde, Belgium, German prisoners of war use a revolving sifter which sorts out the cartridge cases from the lead bullets after the ammunition has been exploded.

GERMANY UNDER ALLIED OCCUPATION
A huge salvage dump of wings from German aircraft at No.12 Field Salvage Unit Depot, Hanover. All useful materials, especially metals were removed and sorted ready for re-use. Much of the salvaged material was shipped to the United Kingdom

[von Poop]

More from the IWM:

A worker in this large warehouse of a shoe factory somewhere in Somerset, stands on a huge pile of worn army boots. This mountain of footwear is sorted and selected for re-building. About 24% are unsuitable for army re-use and will be repaired and distributed to prisoners of war instead.

At a long trestle table in this shoe factory in Somerset, Corporal Salvi (originally from Framingham, Massachusetts) and his civilian colleagues sort through piles of worn boots sent to the factory from all over Britain. Three quarters of the boots and shoes will be rebuilt and the rest will be repaired and distributed to prisoners of war. More sacks of boots are stacked up behind them, waiting to be sorted.

[Kyt]

I'd have thought this would have you salivating:

Photograph No.: BU 12305

Old 17 pounder anti-tank guns awaiting shipment back to the UK from Antwerp docks.

[Paul Reed]

Some interesting material there gents - once again, shows much we know, but yet don't know, about WW2.

[Bodston]

Originally Posted by Kyt

I'd have thought this would have you salivating:

Photograph No.: BU 12305

Never trust the captions. Those are six pounders not 17's

[Owen]

ONE at the back is.

[Owen]

From The Tiger Kills HMSO 1944, page 158.

The 4th Indian Divison , lighty engaged at Alamein, watched the pursuit with mixed feeelings...
..The task assigned , of picking up scrap on the Alamein battlefield , was something less than the men of the Red Eagle Division felt they deserved; so they gave vent to their feeling by turning in 1,500 tons of salvage daily against an assigned quota of 250 tons.

Kyt has lent me A Roll Of Honour Maj-Gen Elliott.
It says roughly the same on page 207.

..the division's troop-carrying transport was handed over to the Greeks, and with 44th and 50th Divisoins it was set to clearing up the battlefield....turning in 1,500 tons daily of salvage-six times their assigned quota -in the hope of completing the job quickly and of catching up with the war.

From Monty's Northern Legions by Patrick Delaforce page 31 re: 50th Div at Alamein.

On 12th November the mobile column returned and was reunited with 151 Brigade. They spent the next two weeks clearing the huge battle area and collecting the spoils of war and still more thousands of Italian prisoners abandoned by Rommel's retreat..