Stolen Mortar

[Private_collector]

Very pleased to hear it's been found.

Pity we don't have the same theft laws that some of the Muslem countries have, or the swines that stole it will be missing a hand once they get caught!

Reminds me of an episode of The Bill many years ago, where a thief accidentally severed a finger while breaking into a war veterans home. The victim brought the finger into the police station in case he was ever found, and wanted to 'keep it fresh' by adding vinegar into the bottle with the finger. When the police told him the vinegar had actually made the finger pickled and it couldn't be reattached, the old guy said "Oh dear, I hadn't thought of that" with a cheeky smile. CLASSIC!

[Little Jo]

Hi All

Further to my earlier report regarding the found stolen mortar. I have attached this mornings newspaper report.

Cheers

Tony

[Tony Smith]

Matt gave me a fright by linking to a Lithgow Mercury article, I thought "Not another local treasure".

Don't forget, we're still lookinfor the Rydal Maxim

[Dinty]

A small town in the Hunter Valley, Dungog, used to have an array of WW1 captured German weapons on display on the right as you come into Dungog from
Maitland, all of those weapons disappeared about 15 years ago, ?? where did they go. There is a WW1 ? trench mortar (German) the bore size would have to be 10" dia, it is slowly rusting away in a park beside Lake Macquarie NSW (Speers Point nr the swimming pool), it will most likely end up being taken away as some-one will dream up it constitutes a risk!!. I did read back about the Rydal gun missing, the memorial at Breeza has been relocated complete with gun, moved to the other side of the road and is being maintained, cheers Dennis

[David Dunlop]

The scope of the human contribution/sacrifice during World War One really hits home when you travel through 'small town' Canada. If the place is on the map, you are pretty much guaranteed to find a cenotaph dedicated to the local boys lost in The Great War.

Up until 40 years ago, most of these cenotaphs had at least one war artifact on display: typically a version of the Maxim, a German Field Gun or Trench Mortar. Then, for some reason, the machine guns all started to disappear. The last ones I have seen were in Douglas and another town East of Portage la Prairie and that was close to 10 years ago now. My suspicion is beaucrats have removed them, not trophy hunters or idiots.

[RHClarke]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

.. My suspicion is bureaucrats have removed them, not trophy hunters or idiots.

Pray tell, David. What is the difference?

[Marc Montgomery]

I wonder if someone wasn't trying to sell it to a scrap metal -breakers- yard? that happens a lot here. Many cenotaphs have been desecrated in Canada by thieves taking the bronze or brass original plaques.. This metal fetches a good price..and i can't say that Im aware of a lot, or any ethical breakers-scrap dealers

Lots of wire theft too for the copper.. recently someone broke into a transformer enclosure, broke some equipment to take the copper wire and left a couple thousand people in New Brunswick without power in the arctic cold...also a popular winter carnival had to be cancelled with no power.

Thieves care not a whit about historic, heritage, or respect for the fallen...

[rob love]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

The last ones I have seen were in Douglas and another town East of Portage la Prairie and that was close to 10 years ago now. My suspicion is beaucrats have removed them, not trophy hunters or idiots.

The MG08 and sledmount in Douglas was removed by a well meaning volunteer about 3 years ago for restoration. I got it from him back in August and had it sandblasted and coated in POR 15 by that weekend. A week later I cemented it back onto the memorial, and the townsfolk have since cleaned up the fence around the centaph.

There are still a few more hiding around Western MB that I have heard of, but at the same time a few more have disappeared. There were a pair of MG08-15s in front of the Holland MB legion, but the guy cutting the grass got tired of cutting around them and so off they went. That was around a decade back.