What do you collect?

That sounds nice. I used to collect hockey cards, specialising in Brett Hull and Jason Arnott. Altough one shouldn't misinterpret this since I'm totally uninterested in sports.

I used to buy a lot of records but that can hardly qualify as collecting. However I buy some Jesus and Mary Chain and Joy Division memorabilia every now and then, I met Jim Reid last autumn and got his autograph on the backside of an 1984/85 Jesus and Mary Chain postcard.

Best regards/ Daniel

[ 10. January 2003, 03:11 PM: Message edited by: charlie don't surf ]

 

C'mon people, let's keep this thread going. There must be more collectors around here?

Best regards/ Daniel

 

Well, I collect german militaria, mainly kit and so on, but it is for re-enacting so most of it is reproduction. I do have quite a bit of original kit and I am starting to collect bayonets, fighting knives and bladed weapons. I have a small collection but I like it. I have 2 K98 bayonet, british 1907, swiss mauser bayonet, a sykes fairburn fighting knife (picked up at a car boot sale for a tenner), 1942 british army nachete, my grandfathers jack knife, a hitler youth knife and erm, oh a czech army bayonet (of importance because it was a gift from a friend). Not a particularly large collection but I have a few deactivated weapons (SMLE, K98, MP41, Bren, Enfield No.4, Moisin Nagant 1938 (my fathers really) and a 1915 Nagant) I also have a couple of blank firers (which i wont have to give up under the new laws thanks to re-enactment). Aside from that there is my SS uniform and kit.

My father on the other hand collects books and has a library of over 4000 which is cool since a large portion of it is military history based, but it can be very daunting when trying to decide what to use as a source.

 

I collect books, photo's, documents...that kind a stuff. I love to research and document 'things'...Once in a while I come across a nice tidbit of history (meaning some physical item other than paper)which I pick up. But I usually don't go out seeking actively for that kind of stuff. All about Air War and Land war in the European theatre.

I am a book man, I am...

 

Hopefully in February--I am hoping to be able to get Ritterkreuztrager Pasternacks wound badges with documentation. He has a Black WB and a silver one. These were originally sold by Detlav Niemann of Hamburg Germany. So they have prominance. The BWB is a Spanish WB--the silver is a ww2 WB.

 

Too much, actually !

To try to keep a little space for living in (!) I collect things connected with the areas of WWII which particularly interest me, ie : -

Ardennes Offensive / Arnhem / Falaise / Bomber Offensive ( USAAF & RAF ) / Battle of Britain / Lancaster / Mosquito plus to a lesser extent Eastern Front, Italy and the Desert.

So my collection encompasses books ( a lot ), aircraft relics, autographs, munitions, photos, deact weapons, knives, art prints....

I daren't list it all !

 

Martin, you're home is in excess of 6,000 square feet correct ?

Do you by chance have some relics from the Falaise battefield, or are you just interested in the happenings of that time period ?

E

 

I wish it was !

Falaise interests me ( Eddy Florentin's and James Lucas' books about the Gap are fascinating ) and I have some odds and ends collected around the Moissy Ford area ; a K98 cleaning kit tin, 20mm flak shell case, assorted small vehicle parts, mortar bomb tail, etc.

Warning : rummaging around under Falaise Gap hedgerows can be addictive and ruinous to a holiday if your wife is waiting !

 

What do I collect ?
Well, thanks to my wife, bills mainly

 

I collected - still do to a certain extent - WW1 stuff for a long time, but the prices are quite daft now. I did have a big collection of WW2 uniforms and equipment, but sold it all when I left home many moons ago - doh!

I've recently gone back to collecting WW2 again; mainly British related, and especially photos, documents, maps and books.

I had a great find on ebay last year - a complete collection to a British officer who was wounded in Italy on the Gothic Line; including his annotated field map, showing the exact spot where he was hit! I'm taking a copy of it to Italy with me later this year and aim to stand on the same spot!

God, we collectors are nuts, eh?

 

No - we are just preserving historical artefacts for posterity.....

( Funnily enough, I started out with WWI about twenty years ago when very good books, trench-art, crested china tanks, etc were reasonably 'available' but then, as you say, prices rocketed...and now WWII's going the same way )

 

some great finds guys ! yes the normal person would think we are all nutz !!! for sure !!!

man, I sure hope I can make it to the Ardenne in about three years, there is still so much "lost" material out there. Now where to find an experienced guide who won't charge me an arm or a leg. Nah I'll just go with our aviation archive team and watch those young bucks dig.

I've also heard there is quite a bit of non blown ordnance scantily buried here as well as Falaise and among the Hedgrows of Normandy.

E

 

Too right !! Three years ago, 'poking around' near Moissy/St Pierre Sur Dives on a hot day I saw what looked like a deep hollow under some bushes. Scrambled down - backwards through the bush - to find myself standing by a rusting pile of unexploded artillery and mortar shells ( about twenty of them ) obviously dumped there over the years by a farmer.

Exit me - back the way I came - very quickly indeed. And, er, NO souvenirs !

 

Sounds like a dangerous business Martin.

/Daniel

 

That's nothing Martin; there are two 250kg WW2 aerial bombs buried 500+ yards from my house in France, which came out of a ?Wellington that crashed there around 1942/43 - the French bomb disposal unit won't come and remove them, despite the wishes of the mayor!

 

Oops! That does sound quite dangerous. In Finland there are bombs found some 3-5/year today, I think, but they are as well taken care of and exploded, while the people in the near area are usually evacuated for the necessary time.
If they hear a rumour of a bomb it is usually checked, I think. Sooner or later.

[ 21. January 2003, 02:37 AM: Message edited by: Kai-Petri ]

 

In the Charleston, South Carolina area in the early 1960s, a boy found a Civil War cannon shell that was partially exposed in his neighborhood. While on his way back home on his bicycle with his treasure, he hit a bump and the 100 year old shell exploded killing the boy....perhaps the final casualty of the War Between the States.

As has been mentioned above in earlier posts, it is best to leave unexploded ordnance alone and report it to the authorities for proper disposal....to protect those that aren't wise enough to leave well enough alone.

 

Mmmm that is a tragedy Imagine the excitement of finding such a relic and not really knowing about it--thinking WOW way too cool and then being killed by it--darn shame.

 

Always - ALWAYS - best to let sleeping dogs lie.

( But you can still photograph them )

 

Hi, I was thinking about the civil war shell thing and though this may be a little off topic, how did civil war explosive shells work? I assumed they were the same as the earlier ones which were basically steel spheres containing gunpowder with a fuze. I dont see how one of these could go off on his bike so I guess they worked differently, anyone got any ideas?

By the way Martin, I was in the somme area with my father, we were rooting around near a crater called 'spambrukamolen' (in english, I cant spell in foreign) and I saw a small lump of metal buried beneath the ground, it had some markings on it but I couldent read them but thinking it better to leave it be I told my father where it was and we avoided it. Unfortunatly my younger brother ambled over to it and started brushing the dust off, we turned in horror to see him.....

....blowing the dust off a chunk of howitzer carriage. Relief is not the word, he has it on his wall. The moral of this story is lock any kids in the car unless they are as lucky as my brother.