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Found on a British Car group, Spitfire project which is a bit different from what I was expecting on a car group..

Thank you all for the kind words. All collections are valuable. I am not trying to make anyone feel bad. Dont give up as there are so many things out there. I just like the weird stuff that most others dont seem to. Many are extremely affordable because they are not from elite units. For example, a Hermann Goering Division tuchrock can go for 2500 Euros and up, but a LW Beamter tunic which only one known may exist, may struggle to be sold for 700 Euros.

Yep it's almost one of those "I might as well give up now" moments

Sweet sleeves Jeeeansy! Bergflaks site is very helpful with spotting the fakes, and the German WWII stick grenade in general. It's hands down the best site of its kind!! http://www.bergflak.com/m24index.html

Thats very true, your money would double if you got a "special" or had lines to say, I was pretty lucky that way, I was good looking, had charisma, charm,stage presence,and a damn good actor, could have been the next Bond , but Brooke Bond Tea went from chimps to cartoons

I thought I would do a quick guide to cartridge headstamps. I know many of us are well aware of what all the stamps mean, but some people don’t and I think it would be useful to those people not yet as obsessed as me !!! I will only cover American, British and German small arms headstamps in this thread.......artillery casings are much more complicated and need a whole forum on their own, let alone one little thread. To start with, here are the main allied small arms cartridges lined up so you can see the difference in overall shape and size. Take particular note of the difference between a standard 30calibre American cartridge and the British 303. Also note the difference between the standard 30calibre and the M1 Carbine cartridge (this is not live by the way ! I remade it from two bits ). Ok, on to identifying Allied small arms headstamps. We’ll start with 20mm cannon cartridges. A view of 3 cartridges found on various WW2 airbases. Ok. Let’s look at the headstamps. You can see they all follow the same pattern. A letter ‘code’ which represents the manufacturer, a date stamp and a calibre. The right hand case therefore is made by RG (Royal Ordnance Factory, Radway Green, UK), in 1942. The middle case was made by I.C.I. , otherwise known as Kynoch in Standish, UK which is represented by the K2, in 1944. Also, you may have noticed the chunks cut into the rim of the cartridge. This is not modern damage but damage caused by the breech block forcing the cartridge into the breech and then extracting it again as the gun cycles. With American cartridges, the headstamps are usually very short, sharp and sweet ! Take for example these 50 calibre cartridges, again found on various airbases around the UK. The headstamps on these are not as detailed as some. Usually you get the manufacturer ‘code’ and the last two digits of the year, EXCEPT in the case of 1944 which is always represented by a single ‘4’. So on these cartridges you have RA 43, TW 43, LC 43, SL 4 and DM 4. RA is Remington Arms Company, Tw is Twin Cities ordnance plant, LC is Lake City Ammunition Plant, SL is St Louis Ordnance Plant and DM is Des Moines Ordnance Plant. These headstamps are repeated in standard 30 calibre and Carbine rounds. Take for example these 30 calibre cartridges, found on Slapton Sands.The headstamps all follow the same principals as the 50 cal cartridges. British cartridges tended to be a little more verbose. Take for example these cartridges, all found on an old D-Day practice beach. The headstamps, as you can see, contain a little more information. We still have the manufacturer ‘code’ and the year of manufacture (as either 2 or 4 digit), but we also regularly see ‘VII’ which denotes it is a standard Mark VII cartridge, and in some instances ‘303’ which obviously denotes the calibre. Different Roman numerals denote different 'marks' of cartridge. You may also see the marks 'Z' or IZ' which denote the type of cordite/powder used. It is interesting to note that the last three cartridges all have the same ‘odd’ shaped firing pin mark. This elongated mark is made by the firing pin of a Bren gun. A Lee-Enfield makes the ‘dot’ mark in the left hand two cartridges. So not only does the headstamp tell us something, even the firing pin mark can ! Now let’s look at 9mm and .45 calibre cartridges, again found on a D-Day practice beach. Now you can see a pattern emerging ! Hopefully you can now determine what the headstamps mean when you look at them. You have the manufacturer code, the year stamp and the calibre………….It’s easy once you know what you’re looking at ! The Germans used a little more complicated system than the Americans and British. Take for example these 7.92 calibre cartridges, all are ‘safe’ and were bought off a guy in an antiques place for 20p each ! He didn’t know what they were but I did because of a basic knowledge of headstamps. Ok…..all German 7.92 calibre cartridges carry four stamps. As you look at the picture, at 12 o’clock is the manufacturers code. At 3 o’clock is a code with a combination of a roman numeral (I to XXII) for the steel mill supplying the basic case-metal, a lower-case letter for the plating agency and an arabic numeral (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15 or 17) for the steel-analysis, which all identifies a copper-plated steel case. In some cases you may see (as below) a code such as St or St+ or S*. St or St+ indicates a steel case, either plated or lacquered. * or S* indicates a brass case. At 6 o’clock is a batch number and at 9 o’clock is the year of manufacture represented by the last 2 digits of the year. Of interest is the fact that the Germans changed their manufacturer code system. Between 1937 and 1941 they used the P codes (Patronenfabrik Nummer). Between 1940 and 1945 (there was some overlap between the change of coding) they switched to a letter code and ditched the ‘P’ number. This means all ‘P’ coded cartridges are made prior to 1941, and all letter code cartridges are made from 1940. So, for example, the far left cartridge was made by cg (Finower Industrie GmbH, Finow/Mark, Brandenburg), the case was made of St+ (steel case, plated), a batch number of ‘6’ (yes….i got it wrong on the picture !!! It’s a 6 not a 9 ), and a year of 1942. The far right hand case is made by P490 ( Hugo Schneider A.G., Werk Altenburg), the steel mill code IX (August-Thyssen-Hutte A.G., Duisburg-Hamborn), the plating firm code w, (Hugo Schneider A.G. Messingwerke, Taucha-Leipzig), and the steel composition 1. The batch number is 7 and it was made in 1939. I hope this of use to some of you. I know many will already know it but it’s good to pass on this sort of information ! Here are some useful links. 303 headstamps - http://enfieldking.tripod.com/enfieldking/id12.html General headstamps - http://cartridgecollectors.org/headstampcodes.htm German WW2 headstamps - http://home.scarlet.be/p.colmant/german7_92x57.htm Info about headstamps and cartridge sizes - http://members.shaw.ca/cstein0/riflelist3.htm Have fun !! Steve T

This is a local group to me, Aube 44, enjoy the home made gun, an old trailer axel and some drain pipe, looks the part though !!

Just got this in and loving it. Maker is DC and it still has most of the factory finish there.

Just got this beauty in this past weekend. All original! It has been a dream of mine to own a snow camo and now I finally do! Sadly I think this is the start of a new addiction

Here are some photos of a French made tropical shirt from my collection and it has had some German features added in the field, possibly done by the soldier himself, or at unit level by the company tailor. This shirt has seen very hard service use, as the collar has been replaced the cuffs have had olive green drill material machine stitched to to lower part to prolong the life of the shirt. Large numbers of these shirts were captured from the French when France fell in June 1940 and the Germans put them to good use when supplying members of the DAK, but these were not issued in early 1941, unlike the Dutch made tropical helmets that were issued to many members of Panzer Regiment 8 who were part of the famous 15th Panzer Division. The green drill was probably removed from the soldiers tropical field blouse and given to the company tailor and It is very common to see tropical field blouses with parts of the inner lining removed. I do not believe this was done in captivity when and if the soldier was POW and in my opinion this was down to the desperate supply situation the Germans faced in 1942, as the Italians found it almost impossible to get any supplies to the ports of Tripoli and Tobruk. It is very clear that the eagle that was sewn onto this particular shirt was an Heer tropical one and although there is no direct provenance this shirt was most probably used in North Africa. I will try and take a better overall shot of the shirt, but it is not an easy item to photograph and I am using my iPhone 5. D

Good job he has a double garage!

I collect anything which takes my fancy, but specialise in steel helmets and British WW2 cloth insignia....

Oops!

Dont get me started on the funny handshake brigade, been on the wrong end of that

And not a relic!

First posting so...Very cool site, Lenny! Congrats brother!! Been refinishing s couple of German 1915 Dischandgranate's & thought I'd post some pics.

Always nice to have a cutaway...

That "butter fly bomb" brings back some bad memories, but the incendiary is another matter, One of the coppers I worked with was sent to a local residential home for handicapped children. Some work was being carried out in the over grown garden and some new footings were being dug, They found something they did,nt like the look of, and so did the copper, It was a half buried German incendiary that was still intact. Instead of leaving it and calling for BDT, he grabbed it, pulled it out of the ground, walked all the way through the home with all the kids there and put it in the boot of the police car, then drove through a populated area brought it back to the station and logged it in and put it in the found property locker, right next to the main reception desk. Eventually someone realised what it could be and the station was evacuated and BDT was called, That copper was given a citation for bravery, he should have had his arse booted out,What made it even worse was that after my encounter with a live Mills bomb, I did,nt even get a thankyou, Very pissed off about that, even now, especially as this guy went on to be in charge of the firearms team, before being removed for dangerous behaviour and endangering other police officers, but I suspect it had something to do with his father being a Chief Superintendent in another force

Oh Gawd , dont let him see that , you,ll never hear the end of it

Cheers Dave,it gets better. Just bought a collection this week and there are bits in it to complete an incendiary as featured on one of the posters.

Hello Nick, Thanks for your reply, superb item, but sorry I thought they were WW1...Very Best to You....IanB/UK

Hi this is WW2 and all M24 St Hgr's... but yes they did make these in WW1 the same way,, Kind Regards nick

Hi Dave, for starters thank you very much for your kind words,mate!Let's say that I've been lucky enougfh to start collecting at just about the right time in the right place(s).Yes,I had very good contacts in Italy.France and Germany but the vast majority pof the items in my collection have been found in Italy and Southern France.I've thinned my collection but I strive to keep items with a story or a solid provenance! Cheers Manu

I do not think so pesky American hound!

Hi Manu, I will have to look, but I think one has had German pebbled metal buttons for the shoulder boards/straps and standard french plastic buttons on the cuffs and down the front. The collar has been replaced in the field so there are no buttons for that. I think the other one has more German features. I will dig them out and take some photos regards, D

Is that a Mk X1X Spitfire, four or five blades, and can I have it for my back garden

I really do enjoy your posts, you have a terrific eye for the best items for a collection, and a nose for sourcing them out, you must have some very good contacts

You aint kidding Mav!

Puts my meagre early collection shame! Nice one mate for posting pics and write up.

I,ve got to say that these are great, rare as rocking horse do do, I dont remember seeing any in better condition

Brilliant!Are they the ones which retain the button on the back of the collar or have they been modified? If they're French shirts modified by the Germans with "German Style" chest pockets and buttons and loops for the shoulder boards they're as rare as hen's teeth!I would really love to see them when your time permits! Cheers Manu

Very nice @PaulR

Here are some more views... The orange and light blue EM tabs are for military police. Super rare.

Not quite mainland Europe but the Channel Islands Military museum is a great little place, housed in a German bunker

Here's the first one. The cutaway wasn't all mine. Talking with Darrol & he came up with the 1/4 window!. Also Kudos to Paul for the label download. Goid to have friends! Thanks boys!

Ok, I have no idea why I couldn't access photo library earlier. Anyway thanks for help Lenny & I'll be seeing a lot more you guys in the future!

That auction house (and it's owner) have a reputation, deservedly or not, of selling a lot of elaborate fakes, all suspiciously with the same type of "provenance". Hitler's apartment is yielding a warehouse of memorabilia, all surfacing under the same circumstances. Buyer beware.

Thanks Guys, I mainly collect WW2 but these look so good!

they did Lenny,but they made them cut off the collars as well,in fact one of the things I look for are replaced collars even on seemingly untouched tunics!

Thanks, that would be really helpful (for all of us). Maybe the mods may see fit to create a reproduction / fakes folder so we could post al of the "buyer beware" info. I do purchase repros from time to time simply to be aware of what to look out for if I don't have the original yet (and don't have good references, i.e. book(s), actual examples, and so forth).

Hi yes there is,, brb is the name you'll need to look for,, also the type of manufacture... ill make a load of picc's and post later on all about theses and fakes.

Very funny, made me laugh

Love a bit o' blarney.....one of the better nonsensical descriptions seen on the bay lately.

These uniforms and insignias are excellent, one of the best LW collections I,ve seen out side of a museum, you,re a lucky man Paul

Thank you all for the kind words. I have more to show as well. I just sold five very nice uniforms to fund the purchase of a soldbuch to a high profile family member of mine, as well as replacement awards. All and all, about $13K worth... It pained me to sell them, but I figured that the odds of running into a Soldbuch for a family member(of moderate fame) was next to zero, so my arm was twisted. I will post the other LW items in the future.

Impressive collection,Paul.Thanks for sharing!

I don't think I've ever seen that much Luftwaffe kit in one place before @PaulR, very impressive. Thanks for posting them all.

Here are some insignia odds and ends.

Here is a great LWFD Uffz/Flak tunic. A friend of mine picked it up directly from the woodwork about 10 years ago. I was lucky enough to finally buy it from him late last year. It came complete with a party badge and train ticket in the pocket.