Showing my small WW2 collection.

Very nice M42 helmet Nick, are there any markings inside it?

I also have a Zeltbahn (although not in quite as good a condition as yours) and an ammo tin with the number of the MG it was assigned to, stencilled on the side.

 

so it is an amno tin, but what caliber?

 

They were mainly used for transporting belted MG 7.92 rounds. However, they were also used as storage containers for MG cleaning and maintenance tool kits.

 

Heh heh.

I remember when the local Army/Navy Surplus store had a wall-full of these (all were WWII and were American, German and Japanese) for sale back when I was a kid. I always wanted to buy two-so my Brother and I could use them when playing "war" with several other kids from the neighborhood.

Great stuff Nick! I can see your Zeltbahn and Ammo can no prob but, I can't see the last three pictures.

 

cheers John, excuse my ignorance about this .Militaria is fairly new for me as I used to collect aircraft relics only .

Carl :a whole wall of these radios, including Axis countries ones ! Had you bought them you'd be rich now

 

My pleasure Skipper, aircraft relics are completely 'alien' to me.

We all have our own interests and expertise in certain aspects of militaria, be it aviation, vehicles, naval etc. I guess that's why we're all on this forum...to learn from one another...

 

I more or less started my militaria collection by watching other rogues' relics. I must admit I got hooked pretty fast.

 

Hi John, youre right. These boxes where used for ammo and spare parts.
originally aluminium ammo boxes where designed for Fallschirmjäger troops, because of the light weight.

The M42 helmet still has markings inside.

 

here are more pictures of my radio. One while it is "on" and one with its little sister the long wave version. Note that this one was reused by the French afte rthe war and has some French markings. The third picture sis both radios piles up.

 

Hi Skipper, yessir, they must have had well-over 100 different kinds or radios to choose from. Most were Ami radios but, there were some WWII British, German, Japanese and I think even a Russian radio?

And get this, and had I then only knew what I do know now but, for many many years, they had a Showcase near the front entrance-which had thousands of American ribbonbars, a few British and German ribbonbars. They also had a few flags ans such (German & Japanese) and on one shelf on another side of the showcase-was botha chained S.A. Dagger, as well as a chained SS dagger. These items had been the Surplus store owners things since he was a Colonel in the U.S.Army in WWII. I remember likiing those daggers but, he also had German and Japanese Bayonets for sale.

I remember the prices for thse things too. The German 98 Bayos w/ matching scabbards ranged from about $15-$20 bucks. The Japanese Bayonet w/ matching scabbard and in mint condition, was priced at $50. The chained SA dagger was priced at $40 and the chained SS dagger was priced at $50. Care to guess which one I bought? I :headbash: bought :headbash: the :headbash: Japanese Ariska Bayonet :headbash: instead of the :headbash: Chained :headbash: SS Dagger. :headbash:

 

Well did I tell you how much I paid for my two radios? This is how things went. I was introduced to the seller by a friend. He asked me how much I thought they were worth and how much I'd be ready to pay for them. I gave him the price and said I'd be ready to buy one because I had to save some money so I could eat, even though I was aware it would be a shame to separate both items. He then said that I was the first guy to be fair with him about this and not try to ripp him off so he was happy to offer me both radios! Christmas in June! Absolutely free!

 

Hi Skipper, can't beat that offer! ;-D This happened to me once when I was dealing with a Militaria dealer from Illinois-who came to all our Gunshows here in CC during the Winter months. Anyway, I got a great deal on both of the Panzer Assault Badges I still own.

He had these for sale at $125.00 each and asked me if I wanted them. My eyes nearly popped from their sockets after spinning around as if marble would on a spinning Roulette Wheel - to which I said hell yes I wanted them. It took me about 2 or so hours to decide which one I wanted most. However, I did not have enough money on me to get both so-I bought one at $125.00. I hated to not be able to get the other as all I had left was about $25 bucks-and being on the weekend-I could not get more cash since I did not even have a debit card at that time.

It was on a Saturday morning when I bought my first & (still) only, Silver Panzer Assault Badge. I had thought of offering $100 for the badge at the time but, saw that he had not been making and money to smile about-and also seeing as he had made me some good deals in the past, I felt that I owed it to him to give what he wanted instead of haggling down the price.

As it turned out, I was the only sale he made that day and he still had not even broke even on the three tables he had. This guy was also selling guns but had only one worth crosing about-the rest I was disinterested in. For this dealer to "break even," he needed to make another decent sale.

I went home that day-grinning like an Ape with a tree-load of Bananas. I was kinda depressed because I now only had $25 bucks to get me through the weekend and wouldn't be able to do much of anything. Oh well, I thought, at least I had another WWII German badge to add to the collection. Well, Sunday came round, and I decided that if I could not afford to do anythiing-I could at least keep busy yakking with all the dealers I knew. I was there when they opened at 10 Am-first in line and-I didn't have to pay to get into the show since I was friends with the shows owner.

I started making my rounds-and went by my dealer/friends from San Antopino's tables first. Then made my way to my friend who always had several M1 GArands for sale. Then I made it to my friend who only sold leather holsters of all-types. This guy is another story-and I got a nice WWII German Police P-38 breakaway holster from him for only $5 bucks! ;-)) Anyway, I made it past Sam - who is a dealer from Houston-whom I bought my Mauser Sniper Rifle from several years ago. Then made my way to my friend Gary Hatley's tables (i've bought several guns from him in the past too) then went to see my friend Heavy Contreras (another i've bought from several times) next I made it to my friend who had the Spy Smasher bookstand, then finally made it back to my friend from Illinios tables. In doing so, this took up most of the day and it was now 4 PM and some dealers were already packing to leave or had already left.

Well, I saw that my friend was almost finished packing and was about to leave-when I asked him how he did at this show and whether or not he sold that P.A.B in Bronze? Well, I could tell he was thoroughly disgusted with not making any money and he told me that this was going to be his last show here in Corpus Christi because of lack of public interest. I told him I hated the thought that he was not coming back and I still had my $25 bucks on me and I asked him if I could look through some of his stuff to see what I could afford to get-while he made his first trip to load his vehicle. He told me it was OK to look through all of his Ryker Mounts and that I might find a pair of Shoulderboards or soemthing for sale.

While he was gone, I was happy to find that he had not yet sold that other PAB. I was trying to think of ways of how I could scrape up the money to buy the badge-but didn't think he'd trust me enough to take a $25 dollar down-payment. Well, he got back and asked if I wanted anything? and I told him I sure did-pointing to the PAB and never thinking that he'd agree to how I was going to pay him. Well, I guess the good Lord was smiling down at me that day because-he had asked how much money I was willing to pay him for that badge? I told him I was willing to pay full price but, did not have but $25 bucks on hand-unless he was to wait for me to drive across town and bring in all my saved change-which turned out to be more than enough to buy that badge.

My friend was tired and just wanted to pack his stuff up and he asked if I had the $25 on me? I said yes-thinkiing that he was going to trust me enough to make payments on the badge. My jaw had almost hit the floor when he told me he'd sell me that badge for $25 bucks-and this was at the time when it was well-worth his asking price. I said hell yeah, and then offered to help him load up his things-as a way of saying how much I appreciated him selling me the badge for so little.

He told me that he broke even and that he appreciated me buying both PABs. He had said that numerous people stopped by his tables and said they were interested in his badges, but nobody came back for them-or they decided to buy something cheap from him.

The moral of the story is that what comes around, goes around. I still have both badges residing in my feeble lil collection. ;-))

 

Carl, I'm in the process of constructing a time machine and your quite welcome to accompany me on its first test run, we can then buy everything in the shop...

Skipper, it just goes to show that it pays to be honest. It really gets to me, when at militaria fairs, a dealer trys to pass off a blatantly fake item as genuine...

 

Hi John, if that was the case, i'd gladly buy you that S.A. Dagger as my way of saying thanks. ;-)) I'd have to have the SS dagger since I have few SS items and no SA items. ;-))

One other thing about this surplus dealer-he also used to have about a dozen or so WWII Jeeps, Deuce-and-a-halfs and motorcycles-which were located in his hugh backlot behind the store. He had bought these back in the day when you could get near complete Willy's Jeeps from the Govt for $50 bucks each. None were running and all were definately fixer-uppers. If I remember, all of this stuff was sold in bulk, at a public auction held after he decided to retire. If i'd only known then, what I do now-about the values of WWII Willy's Jeeps?????

I checked on the net, and found WWII Jeep "Packages" starting at $6 grand-on up to about $10 grand. These were all WWII Jeeps, and the ones for $6 grand came with 100 parts and were much less completethan those for higher prices. The goor thinig is, is that what you got, was completely refurbished and ready to start adding to.

 

Excellent story Carl! You sure deserved those badges. Such things happen from time to time. Basically you were ready not to eat during the weekend to get those itmes. That's what I call passion. My next target is a potato thrower box. I saw that at a flee market . Of course it's empty but you sure don't see these every day . The guy wants 75 € euros for it.
Thanks John. I mostly try to buy from private collectors. This way I can also trade. I have a small budget.

 

Hi Skipper, thank you for the kind words ;-)) I do have a passion for collecting but, not enough funds to get all I need. Ah well, maybe i'll find some good deals in Houston? In a City of that size, there HAS to be at least one, Militaria Shop.

PS, it was lucky that I had enough canned foods to get me by that weekend ;-)) And actually, that was not too far off the mark either. Back when I was attending College in Harlingen, TX. I met an elderly Gent who had a booth set-up in the local Flea-Market-who had lots of German stuff for sale.

I remember most of his items were Kriegsmarine items-badges, pennants, flage etc-with soem Hitler and Goring stuff amidst. Well, in those days, I was a poor college student with an allowance of $17 bucks a week-just barely enough to get through the week with.

Well, I stopped by that flea-market one Saturday morninig. Lucky for me, my Pell Grant had come in, and I was looking to spend a few $$$. I walked over to this guys booth and stared at all of the stuff he had for sale. He had several different Kriegsmarine badges-all listed at about $40 each and all in good condition.

This was back when I had only four WWII German items in my collection, all of which were singles of shoulderboards and collartabs. - which meant = Junk. Well, I picked out a Destroyer badge-since to me-it was the collest-looking of all the KM badges I saw. This one I think was for sale for either $40 or $45 bucks. I bought it, and had the intentions of coming back and buying 1 or 2 more. Well, I was in my final few weeks of school before graduation-had my finals to study for, and I completely forgot about the guy with the German badges.

After my finals were overwith, I moved 75 miles-back to my hometown of Kingsville. I had money to burn at the time-since I had not spent all of my Pell Grant money-which we were allowed to keep. I had actually thought of going to see the guy in Harlingen again but, thinking about the 75 miles and a two hour drive-each way; stopped me from doing it.

Had I only known then what I do now I would have purchased all the badges I could have afforded to buy-which would have been the Highseas Fleet Badge, the S-Boar badges and the Uboat badges. I remember the uboat badges all were the cheapest ones he had-for about $20 or so dollars each.

I guess one thing positive about this story, is that I still have that Destroyer War Badge-which is maker-marked F.O-for: Friedrich Orth-of Vienna.

 

Free radios!! That's the kind of deal everyone like to find congrats Skipper!!
I'm amazed that they actually work, and at how much they look like the radios I saw in the B-17! Here is a comparison pic, although these did not work!

 

My radios are possibly a few years older (1944-1955 is my guess) I'm still loking for the exact references

 

WOW I am jealous and impressed! It is a great collection and very carefully selected the items you have!
I am trying to collect myself and I have stuck at the moment not finding something nice to buy...
Anyway congratulations!
Do you have a separate site?
My blog is www.militaria-collectors.blogspot.com
Best!

 

Thanks Alex, glad you like them. No site or blog for me. I post my items on this forum