Łubu-dubu: "Battlefield Recovery" (Nazi War Diggers) Supporters and Leningrad Sock Puppets

Amy likes metal detectorists

After some pretty negative press, in the name of presenting a balanced view, it should be pointed out that the fictionalised deathporn reality show "Battlefield Recovery" has its supporters. Let's have a look at some of them.

The first to attract this bloggers attention was an "Amy". This seems to be musician Amy J. Clark who is also a photographer (probably from Buckinghamshire or thereabouts) who likes a bit of garish colour in her shots. Amy is not very happy about what is being said about a programme originally made as "Nazi War Diggers". She says "People who say #BattlefieldRecovery is about grave robbing have no idea what they are talking about. Watch all 4 episodes, then decide" (actually there are six). Since the majority of the comments made by people who ARE watching the episodes do not actually concern "grave robbing" (look it up Amy), I'd suggest that it is Ms Clark who's not really on the ball about what the issues being raised are. But then, all becomes clear here:

Amy ‏@A_myJ 8.01

Looking forward to #BattlefieldRecovery tomorrow to see my mate in action. All done for honourable reasons. Stop spreading misinformation

of course, and who might that "mate" be? Let us guess. In any case, what "honourable" reasons are there and why can they not be done with no TV-for-profit cameras there?  No, there is no honour here. This is cheap thrill fictionalised commercial television. Nothing more.

Amy is "Disgusted by the amount of academics slagging off #BattlefieldRecovery", but then, is not commenting on what we see happening around us the job of academics? What is being discussed is what is put into the public domain as "acceptable". Some people are expressing the view it is unacceptable and why. There is much more tweeted by Amy (and retweeted by others) on the topic, most of it the same sort of whingeing about the presenters being criticised (which we hear from just one of them who perhaps coincidentally is also a musician) but really dodging the actual issues of what they are shown actually doing and where that falls short of even the most basic expectations of a show aiming to portray "honour and respect" for the war dead - now involving civilians. 

Neil did some "thinking"...

Amy links to a Neil Humphries, a football fan who cannot capitalise his own name and is also a "mate" of one of the diggers. He says "everything was going to museums". This has been questioned in the case of the Latvian diggings (see here and here also). Which "museum" received the artefacts allowing the identification of these bodies removed from a mass grave in Poland?  What "respect" is there when they televise the exposure of the bodies and identifiable clothing of people buried there within living memory?

Amy also links to a Samantha Sutton (not the Samantha Sutton I wrote about here earlier), Samantha thinks we should all give the metal detectorists a chance:

Samantha Sutton ‏@sammie2702 7.01

Can't wait to see this show - real history being brought to life in a respectful and civilised manner. #BattlefieldRecovery

[and then having assessed a programme she's not yet seen, uses a typical Two Wrongs Argument]: Samantha Sutton ‏@sammie2702 7.01  

  @MesolithicMe @CWGC How many Battlefields have been dug up for housing estates and industrial areas with no care for relics?

The pity is that this is indeed real history, very real to Poland, and I would not say the way this fictionalised deathporn reality show with Nazi badges has been done in anything like a respectful and civilised manner. Is this the best Britain can do? Ms Sutton, is "recovering (or not) relics" the only thing of concern when a site is developed? Or has PAS outreach (which you pay for) taught you and millions of other Brits something else? No, of course not. Total waste of money there.

Rugby coach Ben Scanlon from London reckons

Ben Scanlan ‏@ben_scanlan 8 godz.8 godzin temu

#BattlefieldRecovery good tv. Informal but informative, just what the Dr ordered after my week. Sad I've missed the first two  [and] Ben Scanlan ‏@ben_scanlan 8 godz.8 godzin temu @HowardCarterGo @channel5_tv @Channel5Press too true. Need more stuff like this that marries knowledge and entertainment

You can get the first two episodes through Five Demand Mr Scanlon. If, however, you are interested in the end of the Second World War in Poland, the advance of the Red Army and the complex series of subsequent events, I think a history book or two may be more informative, if information is what you actually want. From what the "presenters" say, there is not much evidence that they put any effort into getting any "knowledge" either before the trip or during it. So they could hardly impart any could they? More on that later.

But here's a really good example of metal detecting misinformation straight from the St Petersburg School. One "Harry Smith-Taylor" (note the construction of that fictional name) who likes "history, writing, smiling", says he's from London, is obviously a sock-puppet. The account was opened a short while ago with the obviously intentionally provocative attention-seeking comment:

Harry Smith-Taylor ‏@HarryTayl1 10 godz.10 godzin temu

#BattlefieldRecovery on soon... Can't wait

then this is followed by typical tekkie chip-on-the-shoulder gems such as this comment made after the show aired:

Harry Smith-Taylor ‏@HarryTayl1 9 godz.9 godzin temu

#BattlefieldRecovery really informative, and great to see real people not pompous academics doing something they love

Like digging up dead babies you mean? In their nappies? Dead babies buried there in living memory. I would say anyone who "loves" that needs to go and see a specialist. Then a personal attack on archaeologist Meghan Dennis:

Harry Smith-Taylor ‏@HarryTayl1 8 godz.8 godzin temu

Am amazed @GingeryGamer is associated with @UniOfYork... Really want to be linked to somebody so critical of people trying to improve world?

Improving the world? How come? How has the world been improved by four foreign artefact hunters coming to my country and pretending to dig up these bodies under the gaze of gawping British tv viewers to fondle the relics found with them? This sock puppet then mostly retweets stuff from digger's mate Amy who clearly does not understand any of the issues involved here. Here is Smith-Taylor commenting on another thread:

Harry Smith-Taylor ‏@HarryTayl1 11 godz.11 godzin temu

@lapsedarchaeo @YACNottingham little warped logic there. Room for all; there's a lot of history to dig up #BattlefieldRecovery

But of course the issue is how to "dig up history" and how to portray an exhumation and forensic archaeology in the media. Then there's this one here:

Harry Smith-Taylor ‏@HarryTayl1 9 godz.9 godzin temu

@Lucy_bach @Ofcom #BattlefieldRecovery gets support. So glad that the silent majority are finding their voice!

The fact that they all quote each other looks more like an organized campaign than anything else. Note that this one was copied to Ofcom.

It looks like somebody in "Edutainment-for-Profit World", worried that academics, heritage professionals and others actually have views on what that "edu-" prefix should mean, is whipping up support for what we see as more profitable second-rate, cut-corner dumbdown. Here is a new account, looking like it's from the same stable:

Sam Charles ‏@SamCharles1654   14 godz.14 godzin temu

Just setting up my Twitter. #myfirstTweet

and: 10 godz.10 godzin temu

Learnt so much about end of WW2 from #BattlefieldRecovery. Thank you @Channel5_TV @Channel5Press

But there is more. There's another sock-puppet. This one is a real cracker and illustrates very well UK artefact hunters' attitudes. This one calls himself or herself "Howard Carter" (no points for originality there). Mr Carter [@HowardCarterGo] claims to be an "investigative journalist" and to also be from London. He started his spoofing earlier:

Howard Carter ‏@HowardCarterGo 16.01

Looking forward to #BattlefieldRecovery reaction - overblown fuss by elitist academics? Err and the Pub Landlord...?

He's much more chip-on-shoulder forthcoming:

Howard Carter ‏@HowardCarterGo 16.01

Are soldiers left behind on a WW2 battlefield just academic specimens? No. Good on #BattlefieldRecovery @channel5_tv for getting some home

Are they just playthings for metal detectorists on film then? But episode three showed something else. In any case, it should be noted that we have not yet seen the identification of a single lost individual and the repatriation of his remains to his family, we see a selection of nameless bones being handed over by the metal detectorists to be buried in nameless mass graves on the edge of a foreign cemetery. In fact, is that not where the civilians they dug up in episode three were lying already?

Here's Mr Carter spewing out a Two Wrongs one mirroring a comment by none other than Estuary English on a detecting forum near you:

Howard Carter ‏@HowardCarterGo 16.01

Did 'archaeologists' get this het up when they smashed the lower legs of the 'Richard III' skeleton with a digger? #BattlefieldRecovery

(by the way, both metal detectorists seem not really to have understood the Richard III exhumation and the difference between that and "Nazi War Diggers", but that is their problem). Here is more typical provocative anti-archaeological PAS-partner-talk:

Howard Carter ‏@HowardCarterGo 16.01

Think 'archaeologists' have lost their moral bearings. Not for an academic paper but these guys are doing a good thing #BattlefieldRecovery

Howard Carter ‏@HowardCarterGo 16.01

'Archaeologist' snobs miss the point - give the fallen a proper grave. That's the truly ethical position #BattlefieldRecovery

Howard Carter ‏@HowardCarterGo 16.01

#BattlefieldRecovery Troubling gap between academic snobbery of archaeo-Twitter cabal and ordinary decent values displayed on TV tonight.

Howard Carter ‏@HowardCarterGo 16.01

#BattlefieldRecovery @channel5_tv Archeo-cabal's shrill attack shows 'archaeologists' have lost their moral bearings. Out of touch.

Howard Carter ‏@HowardCarterGo 16.01

#BattlefieldRecovery How are Twitter 'archaeologists' making WW2 EF accessible to wider audience? Yr comfort zone is judgement from keyboard

Howard Carter ‏@HowardCarterGo 12 godz.12 godzin temu

Is the archaeological militant tendency out again tonight for more orchestrated snobbery and rage? #BattlefieldRecovery

Howard Carter ‏@HowardCarterGo 11 godz.11 godzin temu

The basic line seems to be: 'How dare ordinary people get involved in history!' Academics versus accessibility on #BattlefieldRecovery

No, the basic line is how, in the times when there has been an enormous amount of public outreach is it even remotely possible that a responsible production company and "responsible artefact hunters" could imagine in their wildest dreams that any of this makes an acceptable presentation of the exhumation of war dead and investigation of a massacre in the second decade of the twenty-first century? What on earth were they thinking? This buffoon understands nothing

Howard Carter ‏@HowardCarterGo 10 godz.10 godzin temu

#BattlefieldRecovery helps uncover a poss war crime in Poland... How outrageous they didn't think to invite a British archaeologist along!

and what makes this individual think that the proper people to invite along are three puerile British metal detectorists and a cocky US dealer in Nazi war relics, untrained in any kind of forensic archaeology and lacking even basic osteological knowledge or the historical context? I repeat, what were they thinking?

[Not that it really matters who the culprit is, but I would draw attention to "Howard Carter's" spelling and vocabulary. What other British detectorists do we know who use such a range of concepts in their writings, for example in other sock-puppet guises?]

 * * *

This flourishing of supporters for both metal detectorists and the Nazi-relic dealer as well as the production company puts me in mind of one of my favourite classic old Polish comedies (and not mine alone). This is Stanisław Bareja's bizarre Miś (the Bear) made in 1980, completely demolishing the absurdities of many aspects of Polish life in the Communist period. I hold this film is in effect untranslatable and I am not even going to try with this scene. Those who know what it's about will see the point I am making. The rest can take something else from the fact that they do not understand it all that well. I would equate it with the problems that are associated with inserting four naive buffoons into a complex international situation which they do not understand and are making comments on it which can only emerge as burlesque. Then we get these empty-headed apologists.... Łubu-dubu.

Miś: "Jarząbek" - posted on You Tube by Riposta TV

I think if the PAS were doing its job half as well as it should, it should be they, not outside archaeologists and others, who as a fundamental part of their outreach take up the task of using social media to reach the public which are reading these comments by these agitators. The fact that such comments are being made (on a programme that would not have been made with the involvement of metal detectorists if their outreach had been at all effective) is a measure of PAS failure. How long will they continue to ignore their failure, before they start doing what they've already taken millions of pounds to do over coming up to two decades. Where is the PAS presence on social media?

UPDATE 26th January
Amy has decided that not everybody is worthy of reading her words of wisdom, so she's blocked me from her Twitter account.... . I guess I'll never know what I'll be missing in the line of garish photography and body piercings.