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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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

phantom: Hello. Thank you very much for the compliment. It is a pleasure to share my collection of Kriegsmarine antiques with the Forum. Kindest regards, John R.

Hi Eddie, sorry I missed this post, yes unfortunately there was no "BM" RZM prefix, they are only found on fakes.

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

Soak for a few hours in a bath of lemon juice (citric acid) and water or a solution of oxalic acid. Remove and rinse thoroughly when sufficiently clean, dry thoroughly. Rub with a suitable oil to preserve

Gildwiller1918: Hello. Fantastic acquisition, a great addition. Thank you for sharing your new antique Mannlicher 1890 Rifle with the Forum. Thank you for continuing to be a steward of history. Best regards, John R.

looks like post war Souval

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

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.

Here is the Mosin Nagant M1895 Revolver. This gun is a 7-shot and fires a 7.62 x 38mmR cartridge. It was designed by Léon Nagant and production started in Belgium, in 1898, Russia bought the rights to produce and started making on average 20,000 a year. The gun utilizes a gas seal, which seats the cylinder against the barrel, preventing loss of gas pressure. The cartridge is also unique looking with the bullet completely recessed inside the casing. The loading and reloading on this gun was not fast or easy compared to other revolvers in use elsewhere at the time. These pistols were made in large numbers, with at least 2 million produced seeing service through WW2 until being replaced in 1952. This particular firearm was made in 1909 at the Tula factory, however after the revolution, czarist era stampings were marked out or removed, as in this case the markings have been stamped over. Typically, from what I have seen, more soviet era pistols are available than Czarist ones on the market today.

I remember many years ago, these were on offer deactivated to collectors, now no longer permitted. They were quite cheap in those days.

Thanks John, much appreciated

very poor copy

Progress is being made in the restoration of the Heinkel at Hawkinge - https://www.kbobm.org/heinkel_project.html

Copy

here are backs. What about the badge. Its heavy, could be bronze but seems darker than originals i looked at?

they are pretty rusty.

Awarded to all troops trapped in the Festung Dünkirchen, which surrendered on 9. Mai 1945 A copy being offered for 19,95 Euros https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dünkirchenschild A said original

Hi Kenny Are all badges marked with a BM known fakes- I’ve got a couple of German youth badges marked the same. E

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.

It is marked with ,, bw 29"

Here is my Mauser HSc pistol, the HSc stood for: Hahn Selbstspanner or self-coking hammer pistol. While originally developed as a commercial pistol, it was incorporated into military service once war broke out. In late 1940 these went into production with serial numbers beginning at 700,000, which was a carryover of the previous model, the Mauser 1934 pistol. Early models had a more refined appearance and high-quality machining, naturally as the war progressed the quality decreased. The initial batch of pistols went the German Navy, and afterwards the Army got the bulk (54%), followed by other organizations. This model is the 3rd variation which has the acceptance mark of an Eagle/135 which stood for weapons produced at Mauser Werke AG, Oberndorf am Neckar, Germany. The pistol has all matching numbers and was produced in early 1942. It also has the Eagle/N proofs in the correct locations. The pistol is 6 inches long and weighs 1.9 pounds unloaded. it fired a 7.65mm semi cased cartridge or .32 ACP. After the war, the Mauser factory at Obendorf was in the French occupation area, and production resumed in 1945 to 1946 for French units in Indochina. Overall production ran until 1977 in which these were supplied to German police forces and to commercial markets. Just a side note, this was the first WW2 pistol I got my hands on a long time ago.

Nice pistol, what a shame the new laws in Europe prevent collectors purchasing or owning even deactivated examples.

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?

Thanks! I'll try.

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

original

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.

Very impressive items, thank you for posting. Looking forward to seeing more of your items

Hi Kenny Had it confirmed that M1/70 (badge 1) is a well known copy. Badge 2 is marked RZM m1/22 (hard to make out the number) Badge 3 has an RZM mark, the letters BM and M1/122 cheers

1. M1/70 HJ Honour Award is a copy unfortunately. 2. Can't make out the maker, is it maker stamped? 3. Can't make out maker ? 4. Looks OK 5. Looks OK 6. I don't like this one either

Kenny: 4,000 plus views, I am at a loss for the words to express my gratitude. Many thanks to everyone. I look forward sharing other pieces from my Kriegsmarine collection with the Forum. Best regards John R.

I can't really remember Dune and never liked Sting much either. I did have a nice set of Black hole figures which were quite good and well made from memory.

What a Fine example despite one of them is a dug pin!

NSDAP is the party

Thank You for your input, it's going only for 220usd, it may be too good to be true.

Hello Patrick, well prices for this item can vary depending on condition and maker, typically from what I have seen recently they were selling in the 600-euro range at auctions; however, I have also seen them as low at $450-500 USD from certain dealers. But it always comes down to what you are willing to pay and what you think it's worth to you.

Hi all, Just back from our house in France which is our home now, we just work in Scotland. France publishes many good military history magazines but there are few in Britain. I am interested in WW2 and can always get interesting material in 2GM (WW2), Gazettes des Uniformes, 1939/45, Batailles and of course Militaria. Armour is catered for with Batailles et Blindes and TNT (Trucks and Tracks). Military Modelling is catered for by two or three mags. eg Steel Masters. WW1 and the middle ages have heir own publications. There are also specials that come out 2 or 3 times a year for most titles. Why can't we have the quality of these in UK? Dave

I know what you mean! I do not want to sound vain, but I have a degree in Military Studies and reading the usual 'yeah we have tanks and can crush people' and 'For death or Glory' type magazines just annoy me to no end. Granted I am not ready to yet go back to the REALLY dry stuff of actual Military Studies where a bunch of PhDs write back and forth articles on how many bullets it would take in how many minutes to do so much damage in a certain area. In general I prefer the middle road information, items that are still informed, well written and NOT sourced from Wikipedia but also not the high scholarly works I used when studying. Armourer is one I took on to get to know the UK collecting scene but have become annoyed with as every armchair general write in absolute bullocks about things and sources wikipedia. There was a recent article about the Schlieffen plan that firstly spelt Hew Strachan's name wrong (THE authority on WWI at the moment and also a former advisor of mine) and secondly it was outdated as (believe this or not) modern military history research suggests the Schlieffen Plan never existed. This is well documented, argued and agreed upon in many the the leading military journals currently. In short Armourer is for people who like to dress up as Waffen SS and have a good time. I've recently found Classic Arms & Armour. This deals in older stuff Pre-20th Century mostly but it is well researched and written with actual authority figures, proper citations and excellent articles. I do suggest it to anyone interested. What else do people suggest?