’Resistance’ Cache Uncovered in the Netherlands

 

A collection of wartime weapons has been found during construction work in the Netherlands. An excavator inadvertently exhumed the cache when the machine pulled open a large metal box containing the small arms. A second, similar, container was also recovered.

The store was discovered on the edge of a forest, behind a garden centre and highway, just outside Malden, Nijmegen, at a location that was a farm during wartime. It is thought to have been buried by SOE or OSS operatives or by members of the Dutch Resistance.

THE UNCOVERED CACHE.
(POLITIE HEUMEN)

The unusual time capsule contained a British Mk.III Sten submachine gun and a German-issue Kar 98k rifle, with around 1,000 rounds of ammunition loaded into 13 Sten magazines and dozens of Mauser stripper clips. Also recovered were the remains of two American-built weapons; a double-barrel rifle or shotgun, and what was possibly a M1 Carbine with a handful of filled magazines. The Sten and K98k are said to have been in a good, albeit heavily rusted, condition.

Local police described the arms cache as a “quite unique” find, and confirmed EOD personnel defused the ammunition. Speculators believe more caches probably lay nearby..