German soldiers M15 shovel with wooden handle remains recovered in an old German Trench line near the village of Mametz on the Somme battlefield of July 1916

This is a German soldiers M15 shovel which is rare to have the remains of its wooden handle still in place.The head is in very nice solid condition. It has cleaned up well. It is a bit pitted and rusty with a few rust holes from being buried but is a nice example and is perfect for display or any collection. The shovel head was recovered in an old German Trench line near the village of Mametz on the Somme battlefield of July 1916..The shovel comes with A5 laminated information card with pictures and map.

In June 1916, the British preliminary bombardment cut much of the barbed wire protecting the Mametz defences and destroyed many of the trenches in the first position occupied by Reserve Infantry Regiment 109 of the 28th Reserve Division. On the 1st July 1916 when the British 7th Division advanced behind a creeping barrage, much of the German front line was quickly overrun and many prisoners taken; delays further forward caused the infantry to lag behind the barrage and suffer far more casualties. Mametz was occupied during the morning by the British 20th Brigade but a German counterattack forced most of the British troops out, until a second attack during the afternoon, when the advance of the British 18th Division on the right flank, had cut the Germans in the village off from Montauban to the east. The German defence collapsed, and the 7th Division reached all its objectives on the right and in the centre and began to consolidate, ready to receive a German counterattack.