Spasm

A few veterans dotted about, Harry was easily found, right in front of the memorial. A couple of sailors, one from Norway, and Flying Officer Roy Rogers of the RAF amongst a lot of others. It poured with rain - it seemed fitting.

Went off today to try to find some VC winners in our local cemetery, Arnos Vale in Bristol, UK Arnos Vale cemetery seems to have been abandoned towards the end of the last century and is being restored. It is a 45 acre site with hundreds of thousands of burials. I was looking for Harry Wood, Danny Burges both WW1 and Cronow Davis who was awarded the VC in the Crimea. I only found Harry. You can see that this large cemetery being restored generally by volunteers is going to take some work - if clearing of the whole area is the plan. It seems to be right as it is, a very soulful place.

Thanks very much Gents. As usual, an amazing knowledge way above anything I could find on t'tinternet. Doesn't look like this bit is pinned to that board in the picture. Although I did have to straighten it out a lot from a fairly mangled piece using Brian's advice on not just hitting it with a hammer. Hopefully you've all earned me a fortune on ebay. Ta very muchly

Hucks Thanks for that. Much more info than I had but I think I can add the following: Apparently shot down by a Spitfire piloted by H.L. Whitbread from 222 Squadron. Herbert Whitbread was posted to 222 Squadron at Duxford on 6 November 1939. Whitbread claimed the Bf 109 destroyed on 9 September 1940. He was shot down 10 days later and killed in a surprise attack by Bf 109s on the 20th. His Spitfire, N3203, crashed at Pond Cottage, Hermitage Farm, Higham, Rochester. Herbert Whitbread was 26 years old.

Small section of Messerschmitt bf 109E-1 of 6/JG27 shot down on 9th Sept 1940 at Benenden, Kent. I've then daubed on it with me crayons.

Why are these so nice? I don't collect them especially but I seem to have 20+ of them hanging around without really noticing that I bought them. I've got them with certs and with dogtags and with ribbons with black safety pins and one with a massive death poster thing. They are just great things to behold. As you Tony, they do all look the same to me as well. I even bought a book and that was no use whatsoever. A jolly nice bit of scrap iron Jock.

Specially for you Pete: So there's 3 geezers who always go to the local café for breakfast on a Friday. Sausage, egg, bubble and a tea. And it always costs a fiver each. A total bill between them of £15. A new waitress takes the money to the till and the boss says to her "those blokes are in every week, give them a fiver back for being good customers this week." "Nice one" thinks the waitress. Walking back to the three geezers she pockets two of the pound coins and gives each bloke £1 change. As each guy has originally paid a fiver and then receives £1 back from the waitress so they have therefore paid £4 each for their breakfast. So, that's 3 blokes at £4 each and the £2 that the waitress nicked which totals £14. Where's the other £1 gone?

Brill! Those metallics look great. Takes a good photo too. Well done Colin absolutely superb. May be worth taking a mould before you paint the next one.

See, always worth doing a search before you go blundering in, cheers JapanX Could've done with all that before I painted it.

Here's the film based on the book by Sergei Smirnov https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CefR_OEgeY

A great piece of history, nearly forgotten due to the lack of survivors and lost in the mountain of heroic deeds during 1941, but now rightly honoured by being a Hero Fortress City, awarded on the 20th anniversary of the German surrender 8th May 1965 Here's the inscription from the museum

Paja Thanks very much. Makes much more sense.

Gents For those fortunate amongst us that can read Cyrillic, can you tell me what this actually says. I have the translation from the Brest Fortress website but I don't think it is the literal translation as it seems much shorter

Karl Goetz plied his stuff to anyone who would buy. A good maker but pushed to make a name for himself. Hence the Lusitania medal (which was reproduced in Britain and proved to be great propaganda for the Allies) and this one amongst others no doubt. I gather that the coupe-coupe were produced in France and were mostly used in their colonies. I assume as it was part of the soldier's kit, it came with him when he was posted to the Western Front. Very heavy blade used for chopping. Terrible.

They picked up other reputations as well This is by Karl Goetz (who also did the Lusitania medal) - the Watch on the Rhine or Black Shame medal in the early 1920s

The bloke taking some air downwind on the train needs to watch out

Paul The little helmets are made in Shermanland. I tried to contact the makers to buy a few but they never got back to me. As you say, a modern toy. They do a selection of WW2 US and German helmets, pretty good reproductions too. I can't remember who makes them but I can have a dig around if you are interested. Brian has privately printed an ongoing research book on German Helmet lot numbers. I think he's up to revision 4 at the moment. The lists are fairly easily available from lulu.com or sold on ebay. The book is basically a list of German helmets by all known manufacturers that he has noted in his studies on the subject. It is a good reference on known helmets as collections do tend to 'do the rounds' amongst dealers and collectors. Worthwhile, I think, as the book is very inexpensive while the cost of good helmets spirals into the atmosphere. Helmets are listed under maker, size and lot number (all these are normally stamped into the skirt of the helmet). Yours (assuming it's the same one as many helmets can carry the same lot number), as above, is listed as M42 - obviously the raw edge later made helmet NS64 - Maker (Vereinigte Deutsche Nickelwerk Schwerte) and size 64cm D291 - lot or batch number (helmets were stamped out of a very large steel plate and were then tested by shooting them with a rifle and jumping up and down on them - those that failed had the added band and went off to civil defence) SD - single decal LUFT - luftwaffe 43ZSH - 1943 stamped Zinc headband with sheepskin/goatskin liner SM - side marking - factory stamps in skirt near left ear guard. Sounds like your actual helmet. You could check the date stamp in the headband just to confirm but they are quite difficult to see, just pull inwards slightly with your finger and look with a torch. Hopefully that's all a bit clearer.

Looks like the decal was folded during application, compare the right wing tips on these (from the eagle's point of view). The first is the one on 15TH's helmet above:

Looks like a 62 rather than a 54 to me, or am I losing it again? Does it have a lot number stamp?

A Berlin one

I've missed a few but here's another thought

I've played with the picture a bit Looks like more than a boot to me. The roundel is easily seen as well. I like that the bloke in the middle took his hat off so that his mum would know which one was him.

Thanks Hucks

A couple of certs to Ernst Schlett of Schwere Artillerie Abteilung 841. The EKII award is signed by General Robert Martinek of XXXIX Panzerkorps. Ernst Schlett, born 04/10/1911, is reported as missing around the Brody/Knaize/Kosin areas (a pretty big area) as of 01/06/1944 in the memorial book of Potylicz Cemetery. (Martinek himself was killed later that same month in the surprise Soviet Offensive Operation Bagration) The only actions I can find on that date is around the Jassy area. Does anybody have any further details on Ernst Schlett or can you point me in the right direction. Would be nice to put some background to him and 2. and 3.Artl.Abt.841

Looks good to me too. Not listed in Brian's book - there's an M40 Q62 Single decal lufty with the same batch number. zinc band in liner and factory code and size in left earguard. I think Paul and his family at Lakesider have a pretty good rep but I haven't had anything off of him myself. $295.