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Pictured from my collection is an optical gunsight for a 3.7 cm anti-aircraft gun (Flak M42) manufactured for the Kriegsmarine. The code for this manufacture is 'dow' (Waffenwerke Brunn A.G. (1943 - Opticotechna Gmbh, Prerau Czech.)). The optic has a wide field of view with a ranging reticle. Even though designed to withstand harsh environments, this optic was made to be removed from the weapon system mounted on an U-boat .

Pictured from my collection is a Kriegsmarine sea mine timer marked dnt M 4598.

Pictured from my kriegsmarine collection is an emblem and a badge used by the Ubootwaffe as tradition cap insignia. The emblem for the National Socialist League of the Reich foe Physical Fitness( left) was worn as an U-Boat cap insignia by the crew of U-274, as was the Edelweiss gap device of the German Army Mountain Troops (right) by the crew of U-124. Examples of the these tradition badges are on page 77, page 81, and page 83 of 'Torpedo Los! THE FASCINATING WORLD OF U-BOAT COLLECTIBLES' by Gordon Williamson. Pictured from my collection is a U-Boat tradition cap insignia 'Swordfish spearing an enemy sip' for the U-441 being worn by its Commander, Klaus Hartmann (white cap). All 51 hands, including Hartmann, died when U-441 was sunk by Allied depth-charges on 30 June 1944.

All: I just finished reading all the posts, what a great exchange between everyone. A big 'THANK YOU' to to Kenny Andrew, Fritz, Gildwiller1918, Eddieq, Urkund1939, Ycvu, and Phantom for sharing their knowledge with others. The ones asking the questions and the ones providing the answers make the Forum great. Best regards, John R.

Pictured from my collection of Kriegsmarine antiques is bunker light from the Channel Islands. This light was manufactured by 'dzw' Metalwerke v. Galkowsky u. Kielblock, Finow. The fixture is original to the period with only wiring and socket mount being replaced by the prior owner years ago.

Pictured from my collection is dome compass (top) with lower binnacle case, type used aboard a Schnellboot. The Eagle, left of the gothic letter M on the bezel, was denazified with black paint, but not damaged. It is visible, just not in this photograph. The compass and sunshade (bottom) are marked C. PLATH of HAMBURG by the maker.

Pictured from my collection is a stereoscopic range finder manufactured for the Kriegsmarine by Carl Zeiss Jena (blc). This instrument was used to accurately estimate distance to a target calculated through triangulation, based on the length of the range finder. It can be operated with or without battery. The range finder and all its accessories are kept in a grey painted wood storage box, not shown from collection. A range finder like mine is pictured on page 424 and page 425 of 'Deutsche Kriegsmarine Uniforms, Insignias and Equipment of the German Navy 1933-1945' by Eduardo Delgado.

Pictured from my kriegsmarine collection is the emblem of the 1936 Olympics rings (top left) that was worn as an U-Boat tradition cap insignia by several crews, including U-165 and U-995. Also pictured is the insignia for the 9th U-Boat Flotilla 'Laughing Sawfish' (bottom right). Examples of the these tradition badges are on page 64, page 77, and page 83 of 'Torpedo Los! THE FASCINATING WORLD OF U-BOAT COLLECTIBLES' by Gordon Williamson.

This is an interesting set of dogtags from a german soldier named Walter (or Walther) Unger. He was born on June 26th 1896 in Saarbrücken. So he would have turned 18 just before the start of ww1. The first dogtag is a model of 1878. It still has the original black and white string and it only shows his name. The second tag is a model 1915. It shows his name, place of birth, date of birth and his unit. It still has most of the original string, but it's not as long as it's supposed to be. It did come with a short piece of thicker string, but I'm not sure if that really belongs with it. Maybe an old repair that came loose again? I think it's really interesting to have these two tags together. The soldier probably kept his old tag when it was supposed to be replaced by the newer one. If anyone has any more information about this person, I'd be glad to hear!

Here are two british armbands from my collection. One from the derby scheme and one from the volunteer training corps. The VTC one is in worn condition and has two period replacement buttons. The derby scheme one is in perfect unissued condition and still has the original zinc buttons attached with multiple strands of thread, exactly how it would come from the factory. Both are very nicely marked on the back.

Thanks! I'll try.

You'll have to file the inside of the strap fitting a bit

Any tips on how to mount a chinstrap on a m16?Got one and it's pretty hard to get the repro strap on it.

original

Hi John R., Thank you for your donation of 75.00 GBP. We look forward to improving the forums with your donation. Thanks Treasure Bunker Forum

awesome collection thankyou for sharing

Here is my new Mannlicher 1890 Rifle or Infanterie Repetiergewehr M88/90. In 1888, the Austro-Hungarians changed the contract on their model 1886 rifles, mainly due to the French introduction of the smokeless powder Mle. 1886 Lebel. This involved moving away from the 11 x 58R cartridge to the 8 x 52R cartridge. The M88 was further upgraded to fire the new smokeless powder M1890 ball cartridge. The rifles that were modified for this were called the M88/90. This is a straight pull bolt rifle, and it is a very simple design with very few parts for disassembly. Some of the changes made to for the conversion to the new smokeless cartridge was adding a more narrow and shallower magazine, as well as a rechambered barrel and sight modifications. The barrel is stamped W-n 91 and marked OEWG. The rifle is about 50 inches long, and weighs 8.9 pounds, with a 5 round capacity magazine. Slightly over a million of these rifles were produced and like many other nations, these were also pulled out of storage for rear echelon units to replace massive losses at the front. This rifle at some point made it to Africa as it has the AOI stamp on the buttstock. This was a RTI gun, and was quite filthy and worn, but I cleaned it thoroughly and got it looking decent once more.

Thoughts on this medal please

they are pretty rusty.

XCVU, as Fritz said you might have to fiddle with the repro strap fittings to get them to work. Are the lugs clean and free of rust or corrosion?

Thoughts on this please gentlemen

Shortened but looks original

Thanks! Yes, I still have quite a bit more stuff I'm going to share (bayonets, some german equipment, inert grenades...). I'm taking a few pictures every now and then and posting them here.

Opinions on this summer tunic eagle- KM or heer?

Looks like tarnished silver to me, if it came on that jacket, it should be silvery. By the way, the buttons on that jacket are not qute right, they belong on the fieldgrey tunics, they should be bright aluminium Gilt Tombak, Kriegsmarine Silvered Zink, Heer

Could be Kenny with lots of patina.

Looks silver to me

Bronze/ Goldish

Thanks Xcvu! Yes, I tested the core and everything and it seems to pass the tests. The core is magnetic, the frame is not, and it does seem to be a multi-piece construction. Not sure how to judge the sharpness of the swastika since it's got some wear to it, and the colour between the chipped swastika and the frame look similar given the tarnishing, but it's difficult to tell. It's tough, I've done lots of research online about these crosses over the years, but I haven't had the chance to handle many that I know are real, so I'm definitely still finding my feet in terms of recognizing all the details and knowing what to look for. It's great to get the input from those who have much more experience with these things.

I'm not a big expert on ww2 ek2's but I don't think there is a big difference between these and their ww1 counterparts. Try checking if the core is magnetic it should stick and then try checking the silver frame it shouldn't be as reactive as the core and you can feel the difference. Also the swastika's edges should be sharp and not dull. On your cross you can see that the color of swastika faded in some points try to compare the color of those points to the one of the frame they shouldn't be the same as it would indicate a one piece construction. While for the markings I did some research and they could be hallmarked just as their ek1 counterparts which may differ from a manufacture to another. Also try to slide a thin piece of paper between the frame and core it should slide in between. Hope this helps you.

I also have an EK2 with markings on the smaller ring. It's a 1939 version, so I don't know if it would be the same story as the earlier crosses, but it seems like some makers did add additional markings to the smaller ring. I'll post some pictures below. Depending on how it catches the light, the mark on the smaller ring looks like either a fragment of an X, a kind of misshapen M, or some kind of ohm symbol, but like I said it's extremely hard to make out. I posted it to another forum because the makers mark on the main suspension didn't line up with the font of that maker, and I had concerns about its originality...it's stamped "4" which would be for Steinhauer & Lück, but the style of the 4 doesn't look like any of theirs I've seen. The consensus there was that the cross looked original, and might actually be from maker "24" who were apparently known to have mis-struck or faint 2's on some makers marked examples. They also shared some other examples from that maker with additional marks to the smaller ring as well. I would be really interested to get people's opinions on this cross here, but if we agree that this one is original, it would certainly seem like there are genuine examples out there with marks on the smaller rings.

Here are some reference links over 13 pages of photos, to some interesting pictures on another forum (milsurps sticky) that members many may enjoy viewing. I wish mg1918 would join here. I also would love to see more of your specimens. Any post cards with Mg08s? Are those cartridges from WW I, please, how about a photo of the cartridges' headstamp . MG08 https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=42631 MG08/15 https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=42632 On this forum see this amazing post:

Picture is a two-piece officer''s visor cover for junior grade from my collection of Kriegsmarine antiques. The cap has a hand-embroidered gilt wire national emblem and, cockade, as well as gold wire piping. This cap belonged to Werner Wendt (1916-1988), Captain of U-765. The U-765 was sunk in the North Atlantic on 6 May 1944 by depth charges on its first war parol. Werner and 10 crewmen survived, 37 dead. Pictured below is the underside view of the visor cap. Pictured below is the two-piece visor cover disassembled. In this configuration, a white or blue cap-covers could be worn. Because I do not like to take this cover apart, I used a photo taken years ago.

Just got around to watching Greyhound, it was pretty good depiction of the Atlantic Ocean Battle. Although I understand that most U-boat Commanders were aggressive, in the movie it seemed to me they were very aggressive, to the point of recklessness. Just my opinion, but still an entertaining movie.

Thank you John, and we continue to look forward to your items as well.

Everything supposedly fake but old fakes maby .EK2 non magnetic one piece, is this cross fake and what gives it away?

The swastika's edges look dull which is not a good sign.

Copy

This one looks OK

I think I would leave that one.

Hello, does anyone have an opinion on the authenticity of this Iron Cross? It's a 1st class Rudolf Souval.

Older dogtags were always issued in pairs, one large one small, in 1916 this was changed to a larger dog tag in two halfs

Gold or Silver?

Sorry Paul, I Know I said I would not part with them, but sold them years ago.

Found this image on the internet, showing how the rifle grenade system worked for the Dyakonov.

Hi everyone! This is my first time posting here on the forum, so I'll introduce myself. I'm Bram, I'm 20 years old and I collect all kinds of ww1 militaria. I'll continue sharing bits and pieces from my collection, but I'll start with some Mg08 and Mg08/15 related stuff. I have three standard wooden ammo boxes. Two of them still have a lot if original paint and are marked R. Görs & kallmann on the inside. They have some sort of metal shielding on the inside too. I got the third one for cheap, as it was repainted after ww1. I was able to remove all the postwar paint, but unfortunately there wasn't much original paint left. It still looks much better than it did before though. I also have one metal double ammo box also with a lot of original paint and a parking on the lid. The larger box in the back is a transport case for two ammo drums for the Mg08/15. It has a lot of original paint and it even has the original protective pads on the inside of the lid. The small box in the middle is for the hilfslafette. The inside of the lid still has the schematics for the parts that should be in there. The leather strap is marked 1917. The large flat box in the back that says 'Reinigungsmaterial' used to contain all kinds of cleaning materials for the Mg. It has a papercloth handle on the side. The ammo belt is also an original example. It isn't a full 250 round length anymore, but it's still a nice and rare piece. It's nicely marked and made in 1917. All the rounds in the picture are dated 1916 and 1917. They are all deactivated because I can't own live ammo where I live. Hope you guys like it! Greetings, Bram

Thanks everyone! And thank you for the reference links! I don't have any postcards with german machine guns, but I have quite a few postcards written by belgian frontline soldiers. There are definitely a few interesting ones among those. I checked the headstamps of the cartridges again and they're all 1918 dated. I thought they were 1916 and 1917, but apparently I remembered that wrong.

A perfectly good example with a lot of patina

I would find it hard to let go of my AH formal pattern fork that was taken from the Eagles nest, it came via a dealer direct from the vet with a porfolio of pictures of him and his unit removing the silverware. The sale of the vet's silverware was used to rebuild his local church's roof.

I have two I would never part with. My combined pilots and observer's badge by W.Deumer.....And my Flier's Commemorative badge by C.E.Junker.