101 Things Found on a Battlefield

[Apache6]

Late entry

A baby and/or small child
A kitten or puppy
A bag of silver coins
A women who has been held as a slave
A box of fine china (looted from a house)
Unexploded 500 lb bomb
RPG round that was fired with the nose fuse cover on
A historic weapon of some time (matchlock musket for example)
The code book for the Soviet radio networks

[pmulcahy11b]

Catholes, urine patches (or the smell left over, if catholes are not used, or doo-doo left over if catholes are not used), and slit trenches, whether covered over or not. If you know what to look for, you can track an enemiy's movement with them.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Another weird one.


The PCs find a doorframe, complete with door. It's been erected in a small stand of trees and doesn't appear to have been part of any sort of building. It's as if someone just set up the door for no reason other than to mess with people's heads.


(Inspired by the claims of people finding staircases in the middle of woods in the USA. The staircases allegedly cause people to lose sense of time or sense of hearing.)

[WallShadow]

Another weird one.


The PCs find a doorframe, complete with door. It's been erected in a small stand of trees and doesn't appear to have been part of any sort of building. It's as if someone just set up the door for no reason other than to mess with people's heads.

Also a good way of sizing up a group as they mull over the anomaly. And if one knows the range to the door, and it's pre-registered, it makes it easier to dispose of potential problems at a distance.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

And if one knows the range to the door, and it's pre-registered, it makes it easier to dispose of potential problems at a distance.

Any obstacle should be covered by observation and fire...

[swaghauler]

Since we're adding to the list, here's a couple of more:

1. A lighter with enough fluid for 1D10 more ignitions.
2. A pack of Marlboro Reds with 1D10 cigarettes in it.
3. A laundry cord tied between two trees with a single sock laying below it.
4. An empty & damaged chicken or rabbit cage and a broken butcher knife.
5. A torn tarp, 20ft length of 3/8" chain (10K # load rating), wooden dunnage, and a ratchet binder unceremoniously dumped in a heap next to a bush.
6. A small steel flask that is now empty but smells like vodka or bourbon.
7. Two dead D-Cell batteries.
8. A garrison cap with a BIG bloody hole through it.
9. A shredded Super-Single off a 5-Ton truck.
10. A used glow stick.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

9. A shredded Super-Single off a 5-Ton truck.

I had to check what a Super-Single is
Now that I know it's a type of tyre I understand No.9

[unkated]

Since we're adding to the list, here's a couple of more:

2. A pack of Marlboro Reds with 1D10 cigarettes in it.

For extra, punch, it could be a pack of cigarettes that has no business being there, like...

• A pack of Gaulois in a pack of the woods of Poland.
• A pack of harsh Turkish cigarettes in an Alabama field.
• A meerschaum pipe, still smoking and warm on a path through an African jungle.
• A Cuban cigar on a chilly Alaskan beach.

Uncle Ted

[rcaf_777]

A wooden platform found up in the tree's (used for artillery observation)

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Inspired by rcaf_777 mention of observation posts.

A civilian light truck, used for electrical line maintenance. Has a cherry-picker (AKA aerial work platform, elevating work platform) that's been modified with some armour protection. Vehicle was parked behind some suitable protection such as a hill, berm or even a wrecked armoured vehicle. The platform itself has some spent bullet casings on its floor, along with some bloodstains.

Something "borrowed" from a museum and placed on the battlefield, a World War One fake tree.
These were used as observation posts in No Mans Land but also as sniper posts.
Check the following links for information but more importantly, for some images: -

http://blogs.iwm.org.uk/transforming-iwm-london/2014/01/the-british-camouflage-tree/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/fake-spy-trees-WWI-180962179/

http://www.eastsussexww1.org.uk/camouflage-trees/

https://historywithatwist.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/the-killer-trees-of-world-war-one/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2274260/The-Armys-special-branch-How-bizarre-fake-spy-trees-appeared-mans-land-WWI.html#axzz2K8hz8ZgZ

[pmulcahy11b]

A wooden platform found up in the tree's (used for artillery observation)

I don't know about other countries' armies, but in the US Army, use of these sort of platforms in trees is discouraged. As one of my Platoon Leaders, 2LT Brian Earl, said, "They are good die-in-place spots."

[ChalkLine]

I don't know about other countries' armies, but in the US Army, use of these sort of platforms in trees is discouraged. As one of my Platoon Leaders, 2LT Brian Earl, said, "They are good die-in-place spots."

There a picture in WW2 of an Australian soldier with a bren gun literally chopping a palm tree to bits to deal with a sniper.
Not much maneuverability when you're stuck up in a tree

[Targan]

There a picture in WW2 of an Australian soldier with a bren gun literally chopping a palm tree to bits to deal with a sniper.
Not much maneuverability when you're stuck up in a tree

The Japanese had a very different mindset though. They'd leave stay-behind guys literally roped into the tree tops. They weren't expected to survive very long, just take out a bunch of the enemy before death.

[pmulcahy11b]

The Japanese had a very different mindset though. They'd leave stay-behind guys literally roped into the tree tops. They weren't expected to survive very long, just take out a bunch of the enemy before death.

The Viet Cong had an "elite" group during the Vietnam War, called "Death Commandos." It's members were chained to trees in the face of an unstoppable US advance or to cover a withdrawal, and they were given hoards of ammo and usually a high-ROF, decent caliber weapon like an RPD, and just kept firing at any enemy troops they could see and kill as many of them as possible before they were killed. They were effective, but there were never many of them (I guess the VC were not insane either).

[mcchordsage]

All my 1960s work has got me casting back a few decades, but one of the scenarios I've been working on involves unexploded M55 rockets...

https://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m55.htm

http://ye-old-stompin-ground.com/places/places/forts/leonardwood/outside/album/slides/Multiple%20Rocket%20Launcher.html