I live very close to a frugal coastal battery which was set up here during World War Two. There are a number of emplacements, ammunition bunkers, and an observation bunker which is located at the top of a hill overlooking our town. Unfortunately, the entrance to the observation bunker has been barred because of graffiti attacks.

There are also rumours of secret underground tunnels leading to the near-by Garden Island naval base (still active), something I want to look in to. Remnants of the billets for the gun crews exist.

Local historians have found .303 shell impacts scattered around nearby Shoalwater islands and there is evidence of live-ammunition being fired for tests.

Other than that, there is a 25 pounder field gun located at the town's memorial.

Chas

Currently I live a few minutes from Los Alamitos Joint Training Center. The base was originally a Naval airfield and dates back to WWII. It houses California National Guard and other units. Often the skies are filled with the sight and sound of an F/A-18 or C-17 on its final approach. Several NG helicopter units use the base as well as OC Fire Authority. So after 60+ years the base is still very active.

A few years ago while living in Yorba Linda - I found out I was living a stones throw from the Yorba Family Cemetery, one of the oldest in Southern California. Many of the gravestones date back to the early 1800’s. It is said on nights the ghostly specter of a woman can bee seen wandering the grounds of the cemetery. Although, I have not seen it, many have claimed this to be true.

Okay, currently sitting in "Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium" (better known as Cologne) where you can't plant potatos without digging up something roman or medival. Spending some time near Wesel (Operation Varsity) and both Arnheim and Remagen are within two hours driving time.

Old castles are a dozend a dime along the Rhine same for later fortresses like Ehrenbreitstein above Koblenz. Old Houses are even more common, even my family home dates back to the 30 years war

I was born in the middle between Rheine and Achmer Airfield, home of the Arado Jet-Bombers and ME262 Fighters of JG-44. The whole region still has bombs in the ground. Didn't help that a major chanell link (Mittelland to Dortmund-Ems) is nearby. Defused and concrete-filled WWII bombs can be found all around. Later we had the Jabo 36/Jabo72 "Westfalengeschwader" around.

My hometown played an important role in the development of german coal mining a few times (still the deepest one in germany)

Osnabrück-Kalkrieste, the most likely place where my forefathers kicked some Roman butts was also nearby and Osnabrück (old style Osnabrugga or Asenbrugga) was quite famous during the times of Charlemange/Karl der Grosse as one of the forward Cloisters. Osnabrück and Münster where also the place for the peace conference ending the 30 years war. (Westfalian Peace)

Munster and Koblenz have large museeums with old military equipment from the "Submaschine gun 10th political congress of the SED" to a german MBT70 and Saumur, Bovington, Imperial War Museeum or the Dutch Museum of the Resistance are all within a days travel by car as are the Maginot Forts.

Living in Alaska, not everything is exactly my "backyard."

I was in the city of Whittier for business a few weeks ago and saw this on Cannon Beach. It has obviously been sitting there a while... it has trees growing out of it.

I was out walking my dog behind my house in northeastern Connecticut and found corroded .50 cal round. I picked it up and forgot about it for a couple of years as it lay in an upstairs drawer. This summer I was talking with and elderly resident who talked about the army plane crashing in 1944.

I looked into it and on 29 Nov 1944 a P47D crashed not a quarter mile from my home. Newspaper stories say It burst into flames upon crashing and .50 cal rounds cooked off. The round I found had an intact primer on the outside and expended on the inside. 1943 is date stamped on it.

I'm just a few minutes away from Hill Air Force base and the museum there, one of the finest there is. Scattered around at various VFW posts and city parks there are a variety of AFVs and artillery peices. The internment camp for Americans of Japanese descent at Topaz is just a few hours south of me. The Golden Spike monument is a couple hours west. The Donner trail, Mormon trail, and California gold rush trails, as well as the pony express, all came through here. Down in Salt Lake there are a bunch of old pioneer homes that have been carefully restored, as well as the Mormon Tabernacle. The LDS church has a very large and well preserved museum of pioneer articles. Just a few hours to the east is Independence Rock which I climbed last summer. Devil's Gate, Martin's Cove, and Rocky Ridge are just west from there. Aside from the old west ghost towns, if you wander around out in the desert you can occasionally come across some old native American pueblo or settlement. Some of them date back 3000 years or more. Also to the east is the dinosaur quarry at Vernal. I don't know what is older than that. You have to do a bit of driving to see most things but out here that is normal.

In Vancouver, Canada, there is BC place stadium. There is the armoury for the BC regiment. Outside of the main building is a Ram Mk.II and a Sherman M4A3E8. There is also two cannons. (old ones). Also, in Port Moody I think the Golden spike was hammered in. There is a train museum in Port Moody and a military museum in Chilliwack.
M4A2Sherman

Where to start:

Here in Eastern Ontario, we have the birthplace of Upper Canada as it was known prior to Confederation. Cornwall is home to the first Loyalist landings after the American Revolution.
As well, it is home to one of the oldest courthouses in Canada; the local Armoury (SD&G Highlanders) has a Lync C&R and a C1 155mm gun outside. 20 miles west of us is the site of the Battle of Chryslers Farm, where a numerically inferior Brit/Canadian force defeated an army of 5000 Americans on a rainy November 11, 1813 (the first November 11 in Canadian history). 10 miles north-east is Williamstown, ON, home to the Johnson Manor House, built in 1777, after Sir John took his Loyalist followers to Canada from NYS. History abounds in Eastern Ontario, just 50 years ago we buried six villages and three hamlets to create the St Lawrence Seaway, and they are known worldwide as the Lost Villages, all in the name of progress.
I could ramble for hours, or even pages, but without our loyalist heritage here in Eastern ON, I don't think Canada would exist as we know it today.

Art Murray, UE.

(UE stands for United Empire, and those of us Loyalist descent are allowed to use it after our names).

Well, I have RAF Hendon nearby, an excellent museum and home to Bomber Command during WW2. Slightly further away are HMS Belfast, the Imperial War Museum, Cabinet War Rooms, Science Museum, Natural History Museum, The V and A and the British Museum.

i liv in northborough massachusetts, about a 30 minute drive from minute man national historical park (site of the start of the american revolution.) where my dad works as a park ranger. also, mamoth remains were dug up in my town and a p-36 crashed here in the 30s....at lesti think it was a 36...might have been a p-26. in nighboring hudson, thres a beatiflully restored krupp howitzer fromm ww1 on display as a war memorial. the elevaition controls still work!!! also,the wesson guy from smith and wesson used to live here in the 1800s. his estate still stands as a resteraunt.

Well here in South West New Mexico there is not much really just Where Billy The kid made his first Jail Break, Geronimo was born 40 Miles to the North, Fort Baird was a Cavalry Post During the Indian Wars that was home to the Buffalo Solders. Vittorio The Apache Leader was from just south of here. Mostly Cowboy and western stuff here OH yeah Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday hid out here for a bit after the Tombstone unpleasantness. There is a M42 Duster over at the National Guard HQ and an Old 3inch AA gun in front of the legion Hall

Like HellBent11 Sorry for no fist name, I also live in the FT. Riley area.

I think the one think I can say i have is a real German KR98 rifle. is was produced in 1941 in Austria. (still trying to find out more about it, like who and where it was used.)

But I think that is my prized artifact from WW2.

Mike