Show us your militaria...

Hi Bill, quite welcome. Also, nice firearm collection. I used to have three Enfields-two of which were Lithgows-which are supposed to be very hard to come by. I sold one Enfield about 15 years ago, traded the other two off for some important German items I still have. Lastly, I too own a Mauser K98. Mine was built in 1935 and has a 1936 (which is correct) 25 round fixed Ansteckmagazin. Mine is a rifle that they produced less than 200 of, is a sniper varient, and there is one pictured in Laws book: Backbone of the Wehrmacht, that resembles mine.

This one I still have.

 

Many thanks Carl. My SMLE was made by Enfield. There was just something about it that caught my eye all of those years ago. I am a Mauser nut more or less. If you have a photo of your K98, I would like to see it. Bill

 

Nice collection of rifles, Bill, especially the Enfield-made SMLE. These aren't easy to find these days and fetch a good premium.

Incidentally, the old Enfield works was just a few miles from where I used to live - today, it's a housing estate....

 

Today I will show you part of my pin and badges collection. This pannel is dedicated to the Dutch ones, something you surely don't see every day. (Bigfun would kill to have any of those).
They are either NSB (National Soc. Bund) , regular Dutch WWII army, Dutch Resistance, and a few cinderella like firemen and freemasons.

I have more or less identified all of them, but I'm not 100%positive so forgive some potential misidentification.

these are all 100% original and some are very rare. They were all collected in 1945 by my grandfather who worked in a Red Cross Hospital laundry in Holland.




First row from left to right : 1 NSB helmet + 2+3 NSB badges (some are number and have initials on the back too) 3, Dutch SS runes. 6 = nsb helmet (small model) 7 = skull , 8 + 9 1936 +1933 Jamborees (Pathfinders) .

Second row: 10= signal corps, 11= scout 12 = airforce (groundcrew?) , 13 Royal navy, 14 motorized cavalry, 15 beret insignia , 16= artillery, 17= airgunner (small model).

third row: 18= airgunner (big model) 19+20= catholic priest. 21 infantery, 22 rifleman

fourth row from 23 t0 32 (this is for Bigfun) Dutch ressitance which local made pins including initials, towns of fabrication and some are enameled. 31 is made with an old coin and 32 is a jacket button.

fifth row: 33 = freemason 34 firefigther

 

Wow! Thanx Skipper! Excellent collection!

 

I'm glad you like it. It's something exceptionnal I received from my grandfather because he knew I would keep it in the familly and save it for future generations. I never knew he even had these before he gave me the box in 2005. There are some German pins too. I would post these in the future.

 

Hi Bill, quite welcome and, I too am a fan of German weapons. I've owned one other K98 but sold it off years ago, as well, I used to own one of those Portugeese contract all black Lugers commonly and erronously referred to as: "Black Widow Lugers" and a few other Walther P-38's and even a nice Police PP. One was stolen from me back on Jan 6th 2000-and is now probably residing in the collection of some Police Officer.

On my Mauser, there was at onetime, a nice pic or two of it posted here and I THINK was posted by a nice fellow by the name of Volkbert. I don't know if it's still here or not? but, I do have a copy of the same photo as Volkbert posted for me, but, im about to move house and don't know when I will be here next or when i can send a copy of that picture out to someone who can post it for me. After I resettle, i'll try to find that picture I have of it and will let you knwo.

Take care and best regards-Carl.

 

Hi Skipper, outstanding collection of badges. I know a local collector who collects these as well.

 

Thank you Martin! I had read that the Enfield Works was huge. I did have a correct year bayonet and scabbard for it as well, but it came up missing when we moved 4 1/2 years ago. Maybe I will find another, one of these days. I see the price on those has went up quite a bit as well! Bill

 

Great collection Skipper! Thank you for sharing. Bill

 

Hello Carl, That stinks about the stolen gun. My wife`s grandfather was a Captain in the Signal Corps attached to the 15th AAC and he brought home a Luger. The story I heard was, he ended up selling it for next to nothing after he got back home because he didn`t want to get caught with it. That would have been a sweet piece to have. At least we still have one of his uniforms. His Officers Guide was destroyed in the flood last year, but there is no way we will throw it out.

No hurry on the photo. I know how moving is.... Thanks again, Bill

 

Cheers guys, I hope some local expert may see these and confirm the identification.

guys, whenever possible try to answer with one post only , there is no need to make up to three posts for a single paragraph with no pictures. I can fit five pics in one post. This will make this whole thread much easier to read for everyone.

 

a fine collection there skipper thankyou for showing us mate
cheers krieg

 

Today my collection of U.S. medals and pins, mostly WWII with the excepetion of Korea and Nam.

First row left to right: D.F.C. , Silver Star , Vietnam Service, Purple Heart, European Air Offensive (Commemorative).

Second Row: Air Medal, Korean Service, Vietnam Campaing, Meritious Service,

Mechanic and Driver pin, Pilot Wings.

I hope you"ll like these. They are very hard to get on this side of the Atlantic!

 

I have a couple of blades I could show you. I also used to have a type 30 Japanese Arisaka Rifle, but sadly, one day i took it to a gun shop and the shop owner grabbed a pile of guns and ran from the police. -.- my rifle was in it. -.-

Japanese Arisaka Bayonet, still sharp.

Japanese Officers Shini Gunto Sword I think.

 

Nice blades, you don't see these every day !

 

I happened to be perusing the local Salvation Army the other week & came upon these just as they were coming out of the back. Needless to say they never made it to the rack. 3 of the jackets have the trousers with them & they all range in dates from 1945-1951.

Someone correct me if i'm wrong please, but i assume the original owner was trained in the 2nd Army, then served in the 8th. Hence the shoulder insignia.

Oh yeah, the jacket in the back is an unused M-1943 that looks as though it's been kept in a chest since it was 1st obtained.

 

Hi Bill, yeah----it's depressing to think about that pistol being stolen. Good thing I guess, is that this pistol was sitting right next to another one I had-which was and is much more valuable than the Walther. What I used to have, was Lieutneant General Francis P. Hardaways 1942 made Remington marked, Colt .45. This think was parkerized O.D. Green and only had slight holster wear. Anyway, the thief must have not known jack about pistol values since they took the Walther over the Colt-probably becouse it "looks neat."

Sorry to hear of your loss thanks to Mother Nature. Glad to hear your keeping it even if damaged and beyond much value. I too could not part with something if it was part of my dads stuff-even if not in good shape.

Take care and best regards-C.

 

Darn nice "catch!" I hate it when someone just throws out "dads war stuff" damn shame. I still have my Dads stuff-but unfortunately only from his Korean War days and not the WWII ones. Also I have my Granbdads WWII Navy Officers coat. These Items were among items I rescude from the big garbage dumpster located behind a large Quanset Hut we owned. Apparently my oldest Brother did not care for this stuff and chucked all this, my Granddads WWI Overseas Cap, and all his WWII Merchant Marines awards. Luckily I just happened to look into the dumster to see how much stuff was in there, and noticed something shiny sitting at the bottom of the dumpster-which happened to be his Mariners Medal for War Wounded. I jumped in there and found (I hope) everything that was tossed-and hid the stuff from my Brother and snuck the stuff home and today is safe and sound-among my things.

The exact same thing happened to one of Germany's most highly decorated men of WWII. The Luth family allegedly threw all of Wolfgang Luths stuff-at least uniforms, allegedly took them to a landfill and threw them awaw. Well, a militaria dealer I met in either Gosler or Lubeck, told me the story and showed me that he owned on of Luths uniforms. Apparently after the Luth family threw this stuff out, people found out about it and went to see what they could find and took it for themseelves. Well, the Luth family found out what this stuff was worth, and if I recall correctly? they tried suing all the people who found the items to try to get them back. Apparently they succeeded in getting the awards but not all of the uniforms.

 

Skipper, 11th Airborne, nice medals and nice Bayo and S/Sword.

I used to have a minty Arisaka Bayonnet at one time. It was part opf a small collection of WWI and WWII Bayos I had and someone broke into where I had them stored at, and they took the whole Kit and Kaboodle which included but not limited to several bayonets, a WWII Luftschutze 3 piece ""Gladiator"" Helmet, my Dads WWII G.I. Steel Pot, web belt w/ canteen etc on it.