laststandonzombieisland

The Latvian-based Legenda relic hunter group found five sealed artillery powder cans while poking around the forests. When unearthed the munitions found inside led the group to conclude it was a WWII-era cache for saboteurs left behind by the Germans for individuals unknown.

Sure, all the stuff could just be planted for the photo op, but that seems pretty elaborate so we’d like to wish that the magic of it being buried for the better part of a century is the real deal.

The Latvians had no love lost for towards the Soviets (still don’t) and many signed up for the Waffen SS in mass and as auxiliaries to the German military and field police. A lot of that hearkened back to the fact that the remnants of Kaiser Willy’s forces helped keep the Reds out back in 1918-19, earning the country independence and once Uncle Joe rushed back in 1940 with a heavy hand, things kinda soured from there.

So whether the cache was meant for “stay behind” forces when the Germans left in 1945, or was assembled by the Soviets as a deniable supply for partisans of their own, is up to interpretation.

As the contents are absent on German weapons (though contains some commercial German made blaster’s tools), they contain French munitions dated to 1934 (which the Soviets wouldn’t have had access to but the Nazis captured in bulk in 1940) as well as Polish and Soviet made grenades made pre-1939 that also fell into German hands in quantity during the Blitzkrieg years– all kinda verifying the logic behind the relic hunters.

Of course, they could also be a CIA supplied cache for resistance groups fighting the Soviets in the forests in the 1950s made to be deniable as a German-WWII era set, as there is not a single U.S.-made or post-1945 item in the lot…just saying…

For a detailed break down and more images, go to my column at Guns.com