What's your newest militaria III

One or two could fit in a room. I'm lucky enough to have a room dedicated to my collection and it's already crowded.

 

Autographs... surprise...

Hans Hube
Rare snap shot photo, it shows Hans Hube at the marriage of his daughter and his new son in law. Some handwritten infos are on the reverse side of the photo.
No signature

Heinrich Engel, Geschützführer 2./SturmGeschAbt 259
tank ace, 15 kills ( from the net )
Wartime signature

Hermann Witt, 1892-1988, Commander of the harbour Cherbourg
Postwar photo and signature

 

Also this excellent Hans Hube private photo with signature...someone else had it on hold but let it go...

 

Good for you Kai, that fits with your collection.

For those who missed my POW Stalag file thread, it's worth having a look !

http://www.ww2f.com/photographs-documents/58053-stalag-kriegsgefangen-personalkarte-i.html

 

All I got so far. Signal Corp file,foot latch ammo can,U.S.M.C. sword,1970 Lake City 5.56,1943 Lake City tracer 30.06,8 m.m.Turk I think. Rich A. in Pa.

 

Courtesy of a digger from the Volgograd area.....



.........

 

still a spot of original paint on it too!

 

A few weeks back I bought another grouping with a connection to the region I live in.
The items belonged to Techician 5th grade Richard N. Wagman. Dick Wagman came from York County, Pennsylvania, his Army serial number was 06893151 and he graduated from the Fort Knox Armoured School as a member of Company B 9th Armoured Replacement Battalion in June 1944. So my best guess would be that he joined the 70th Tank Battalion at some time in autumn 1944.



The complete grouping.





This picture seems to have been taken during Armoured School.





Baker Company 9th Armoured Replacement Battalion.







The 70th Tank Battalion was activated as a light tank battalion on the 5th of June 1940 at Fort George Meade military reservation.

It participated in the North African and Sicily campaigns, equipped with M-5 tanks.

At the end of november 1943 the 70th TB had returned to England where it was transformed into a Medium Tank Battalion, on it's TOE were three companies of M-4 Sherman medium tanks and one company of M-5 light tanks.
On D-Day the 70th landed on Utah beach, to support the 4th ID, the division it would be attached to for the geater part of it's operations in the ETO. After the successful landings in Normandy the tankers fought at Montebourg, Cherbourg, Saint-Lô, Mortain, Paris and Staint-Quentin



Distinctive Unit Insignia of the 70th TB, Armoured Corps Enlisted Men Collar Disc and 70th TB patch.





The 70th TB patch is a quite nice "Woollie" (e.g. patch embroidered on a piece of wool cloth). Those are very hard to find.






After a short period of rest and refitting the 70th went into the fray again on september 11th 1944. Once again in support of the 4th Infantry Division. The fightings in the Schnee Eifel region were part of the Siegfriedline campaign, the foreboding of the Hürtgen meat grinder! During this time the battalion was also equipped with flame thrower tanks, an indispensable tool for knocking out pillboxes.
On the 16th of november the battalion started to participate in the Hürtgen Forest fighting and wasn't relieved till the 5th of december. Losses were heavy and when the decimated unit started the road march to Luxembourg the Battalion only had 26 Sherman tanks left.



70th Tank Battalion Unit History.





Richard Wagman's Class-A Uniform and Overseas Cap.

 

Good coherent grouping!

 

An original find and mainly because many did not know what it was. I hence picked up a French foldable pioneer saw. These were still in use in 1940, depsite being M-1879 models! They are usually caried on a belt in a 12cm by 12 cm leather pouch and by unfolding it and adding a stick at each extremity you'd get a 1.28 meter long saw! My model has some nice winter cammo on it too .

 

Purists will shudder, but this was almost overlooked in a bag of small stuff which I got from a Volgograd digger.



Anyhow, at least I know it's not a fake.....

 

and a battlefield relic too . Nice catch Martin.

I got this one from the Rhein Occupation area. Many people will think this High ranked uniform is WWI , but it is in fact interbellum (1920 model and those were worn up to 1940 as seen on the following 1940 picture.) In fact the bleu horizon was admitted for veteran officers mostly , but a less noble thought was save money and the lower rank modelw were distributed for training cadets.
The difference between a Rhein area tunic and a WWI one is the ranks on the sleeves (they go round on M-1920 models and they are just a small patch on WWI wrists).

 

The officer on the picture is not the Lieutenant Colonel who owned this uniform. It is just to show these were still worn during WW2 . The cap has a different rank , but it's very expensive to match everything perfectly, so you 'll have to wait a bit. The medals are all WWI veteran ones, so they perfectly match with the Wacht am Rhein occupation spirit (1923) . Also the collar tabs are artilley form the Headquarters. Finally the Officer belt is the one I posted in my WW2 belt study.

 

That is a beautiful tunic - very French !

 

There are more belts here Martin and a quiz too

http://www.ww2f.com/uniforms-person...identify-your-french-ww2-belt.html#post639433

 

All I got so far. Ralph Lauren POLO fake M-41 rip off jacket,OD border greenback patch,pennant with leather patch attached. Rich A. in Pa.

 

Waffen-SS matchbox and, Panzer badge.

 

Latest arrival. Nothing exceptional, and it's not my usual sort of 'thing', but it adds to my small Eastern Front collection....

 

Would look good framed with the merit medal !

 

Thanks, Skipper - those medals seem relatively common and I may look out for one. But I'm frankly terrified of all the 'faking' which goes on even with the relatively unspectacular Wehrmacht awards.......