To the forum membership in general -

What is it in the form of militaria that you wish to see photographs of?

Now granted, my own collection is 100% nothing but German related militaria. Why is this? Because for my own self, there were six family members on my mother's side that fought for Germany during World War II. Pretty obvious when figuring Mom was born in Germany and later on in life immigrated to the United States. Of my father, there was but one, an older half brother who served in the CBI theater ( China, Burma, India ), flying supplies in to the Chinese to fight against the Japanese. My mom's side of the family is/was a lot closer than my father's. It's an "odds on favorite" that I would pick up my interest in World War II history from a German perspective.

But, that doesn't matter. I will attempt to go where I can, have over whom ever I need to, find which ever item it is, to bring you guys photographic evidence of items that other wise the membership in general might not get to see.

I can even bring you photographs of the faces from behind the battles and campaigns that you read and post about. In my own town, I know of one man who served in the German Navy and assisted in rescuing the survivors of the "Wilhelm Gustlov" disaster. There is, just this morning, an article in our newspaper about a man who served in a Luftwaffe flak battery at age 16 in 1944, who was later turned over to the Russians and spent two years in Stalin's gulag. I have had Horst here at my home, and he is a very interesting man. An hours drive from me, there is another, a man who served in the Luftwaffe, and flew supplies in to the embattled German soldiers at Stalingrad. Another man, living in my town, although not directly fighting in the war, served in the Hitler Jugend. And of course, there are enough U.S. veterans that I could mention, but my time is running short for the moment.

I am attempting to get a Kubelwagen photo shoot set up, and a Kettenkrad restoration project photo shoot also. I was going to do an educational thread on how best to determine German arm shield originals from reproductions. Well, at least the major five known manufactured examples. Iron Crosses. Anyone want to see these?
How about an update on the mannequin thread. I have just added two more to the mix that finally arrived last week. One, a German fallschirmjaeger serving on the eastern front, and two, a DAK Luftwaffe Generalmajor.

So, please, let me know what it is that YOU, the forum member is interested in seeing. If it is something from an Allied nation, I might have to go a bit further to locate it, and with my work schedule, give me some extra time, I work a lot of hours these days, but I am willing to do it. This is your forum! I/we want it to grow. I/we want to have the best militaria section possible to us. Although I can not personally post the pictures directly, with Volkbert and Stevin's help, we CAN and WILL get it done. This is your forum as I say. A discussion forum. A question and answer forum. Let's talk shall we?

Let me know, and Carl and I will do everything we can to get things shown here.

Be good to each other.

Bill

Hi Bill,

as you know I'm mostly interested in German snipers and pz.vern.abz.-trägers although there are other things that interest me. Anyway, I mostly enjoy seeing documents and photos so if anyone have anything that might be interesting please post it.

By the way, where exactly do you live?

Best regards/ Daniel

Bill, Everything I have seen from you so far has been great! [img]graemlins/rk.gif[/img] You are the expert, keep-em-comin.

[ 15. July 2003, 11:40 AM: Message edited by: David Barton (DB) Mathis ]

Hello Charlie -

Got you covered. Take a peek at that G43 sniper set up I have pictures of on the German small arms thread, but in the pictures section. If you want close ups, I can get something for you there.

I also have a friend and collector who has a few k98k's with the ZF41 set ups, so perhaps I can convince him to come down and set up a photo shoot of these for you too.

I reside in the Pacific Northwest Region of the United States.

DB -

Thank you for the words of encouragement. I intend on doing a few more things, and with Stevin's and Volkbert's help, we'll get some more threads with photographic support coming along soon. It just takes time to get everything to fall in to place. Hopefully you'll see some great stuff coming down the road in the weeks to follow.

Bill

Hi Bill,

One of the first things I (want to) do when I meet up with some-one, is go through his library. See what books he got. I don't know if it is sensible when you have all that great stuff around, (but as I am thinking of starting a Library thread anyway) I wonder if you have a pic of your books. In a way that we can kinda see what books you have. (Maybe I'll start a thread on my own starting with my own bookshelves)

Furthermore, I would be interested in thing Luftwaffe personell would have used on an almost daily basis. I read a lot about the (daily) lives of these men, but haven't seen many of the items descriped in books and articles. Just the day to day things.... Remember the boots? That kind of thing.

I'd appreciate that, Bill...

The stuff that you have shown us so far is already major anyway. I was amazed too at the quality of your pieces and how well they stood against time. Jawdroppers, Bill!

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Hello Stevin -

You bet, I can do a shot or two on what sorts of research, or reference books I have. I'll get that taken care of in a day or two, and if not, by Friday. ( I have but one day off this week! )

I'll work on the other too as time permits. Thank you.

Bill

As for what I wanna see--well--anything militaria related. Pics--posters, weapons, uniforms, badges, autographs, flags, vehicles, documents, books etc.

OH AND SPEAKING OF THE WILHELM GUSTLOFF, I have a Wilhelm Gustloff cap tally--so, if that person who helped in the rescuing of some of the Gustloffs passengers will do somekind of an interview--I can have a pic done of the cap tally to go with it if you wish.

Oh and expanding on this thought--Bill--i'd love to see any of those pics yopu have of those German vets who have been at your house as well as hearing the stories of what went on while they were there. [img]smile.gif[/img]

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Stevin, you should of come up for a visit to troll through the library here and WW 2 vids I have made and received from Deutschland....too bad, maybe one day. If I can get my friend to get his new scanner and dgital cameras underway I'll forward up a web-page to copy off of. This is what I have been waiting for but since he works for US intelligence I have to wait on Mr. government to do his bidding first before I come in second...

~E

My interest lies mainly in german infantry items, SA and NSDAP. Caps and uniforms is what I like best. Info on how determine fakes is also appreciated.

Yeah, the fact that I spend all my time on US actually makes me really interested in the german aspect. I try to learn as much as I can. Plus, I rarely see german things anywhere at all, so anything is appreciated.

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