My collection of many years

Here's the liner John. Interesting story about the Major. He was in the Medical Corp and near the end of the war he recovered a very important large German insect collection from the possession of the Russians by getting the Russian in charge of the collection drunk. He also was the 1st US soldier to liberate a concentraion camp that he discovered as he was driving by it. Ray

 

Great story; getting the Russian drunk was a good way to make both men happy

 

I do think the drinking was made by drinking toasts and boths sides took as many drinks as the other. Well done if the major got the Russian "under the table" with vodka toasts...

 

The Major was a well regarded Scientist in pre war life and in a news paper interview after the war he related how he was able to find and return the world famous ant collection known as the Wasmann collection. He stated he found out the collection was located in a damaged museum in the Russian sector and he drove to the museum with a ten ton truck, as the collection was so large it needed a large truck to handle it. He loaded up the truck with the collection and the Russians came and sealed off the entrance to prevent him from leaving. As his story went, he had brought along candy, cigarettes and whiskey and passed them out to the Russian guards and got the Rusian in comand drunk enough to have him release the trucks.
The camp he liberated was a slave labor camp and as he was driving by it he spotted it and it was being guarded by SS guards. A US tank happend by and he had the tank aim it's cannon at the gate at which time the guards opened up the gate and took off. There were some wooden handled leather whips in his foot locker also and some finished and partly finished cloth insignias, all of which came from the camp. Ray

 

Here's the camo helmet on my German sharpshooter display, The tunic is 1941 dated which was customized with a green collar by the NCO. The Straight leg trousers are also 1941 dated. The weapons are a 1943 byf K98 Mauser with a Z41 scope and his side arm is a 96 Broomhandle 30 cal. Mauser pistol which is complete with the wooden shoulder stock and harness. Ray

 

Great display to say the least ;-)) I also say that your stuff totally blows away the stuff that the CC Museum of Science and History has. I used to work in their Collections Dept-and I saw some amazing things there such as several Machineguns all fully operational-cept for one 1895 Colt "Potato Digger"-and your stuff easily blows away their stuff.

 

Thanks for the compliment. The museum of Museum of Science and Industry as it was called in my day, was a great museum . I was born and raised in Chicago and went to that museum a number of times. My favorite was the U-505, Ray

 

Hi Ray, i'd love to visit U 505 sometime. I knew and was friends with a man who served on it--Hans Goebeler-who, sadly, passed away in early 1999. Anyway, i've always wanted to visit his boat and will sometime ;-))

 

Here's one of my favorites, my Mp44. It's a full working model and shown with my Eastern front german display. Also on the German is an original MP44 pouch. What's interesting about the pouch is it was not completely finished as the straps that the long closure straps slide into to secure them were not installed. The ink dots to position the straps are visible. The pouch is in mint condition. Original MP44 pouches are quite scarce. I put an original camo smock on him for winter camo wear. Ray

 

wow! this collection is a masterpiece! very nice!

 

You also have my vote on it being an outstanding display and mostly because of having that Sturmgewehr with it ;-)) The STG is my all-time most favorite weapon of WWII.

 

Beyound Wow !!!!!!!!!! This is the most awesome collection I have ever seen by one single collector !!!!!!!!!!!!! . I'm a collector as well,But i only have one room full...that i will share soon as i figure out how to get the photos small enough to put them on the fourm..... many thanks to you for sharing these with us !!!!! WELL DONE !!!!!!

tablesaw

 

I only have three German helmets and they are on my three German set-ups.
Here's the third one, a German Fallschirmjager helmet that's displayed on the FJ display.
It's a decent untouched and fairly early one. Ray

 

very nice rayg,a lot of looking after too I'd say..

 

I joined the site to sell some of my friends items. Ashamedly, my only motive.

Now, I can't stop coming back to see things like this. Incredible Ray, especially the Civil War (my top interest).

 

Love the fallschirmjager helmet. In a cracking collection.
Thanks for sharing it.

regards John