Staff Sgt Jock MacSplock

Next is a bit of a funny - it was sold to me as a blank firing attachment for the MP40, and right enough, it fits! There's a partial waffenampt stamp on it.

I've picked up a couple of "extras" over the years. First is a "loader" that could be attached to the top of the magazine and repeatedly pressed down to make space for the 9mm bullets. I imagine this came in particularly handy on the Russian Steppe when frozen hands wouldn't have been much use. The magazines only took 32 bullets and with a fire rate of nearly 1000 rounds per minute it didn't take long before they needed to be reloaded. Some of the MP40 magazine pouch webbing sets have a clip up near the shoulder for holding the loader - I was told that it wasn't issued to everybody, e.g. only Unteroffiziers and above, but not sure if this is correct. It's not that substantial a piece of kit compared to the gun itself so I can't see why it wouldn't be given to everybody.

Here are some pictures of a de-ac MP40 that I've had in my collection for nearly 20 years. I bought it in 1990 for ?370, and up until last week it was doing quite well in value terms! Anyway, thought I'd share some pics before I have to hand it in for melting down! The marks on the barrel show that it was manufactured by Steyr-Daimler-Puch in Austria in 1941. The story that I got was that a number of these guns were placed in storage after the war and only given over to dealers and collectors in the 1980s when it was finally decided that they'd become obsolete. Accordingly, the gun is in almost perfect condition with all the blueing still on the barrel. The only fault is a slight bend to the extendable stock which was done by yours truly while trying to figure out how to extend it!

I picked this up a couple of years ago from a dealer in London. It's not maker marked, and isn't flat-backed either (die cast scoop-backed I think). The closest I've been able to approximate it from the various badges shown on here is to the maker EWE (dond posted a bronze one a couple of years back). There isn't much grass under the tank which I'm also led to believe is a characteristic of this maker. Grateful for any view! Cheers

Interesting thread! Any chance of a few pointers as to what the giveaways are with these badges? In some cases, I'm struggling to tell some of them apart from Jan's excellent PAB thread that's running elsewhere - it's almost like a "spot the 10 differences" in the Daily Mail!!! (and I've only been able to score 2 )

And one of the metal fixings

Thanks for that. Here are some more photos where I've tried to give some close-ups

This is one of my first posts so hope I've stuck this in the right place! I'd be interested to hear any views on this pennant. It was bought from a dealer who told me that he had acquired it from a lady who had served in the ATS in Germany in 1945 and had brought it back as a souvenir. He thought it had belonged to a Signals Unit but I've never been able to trace the colours to any. The pennant is brown and black, and on a metal frame which comprises two pole fixings that are angled inwards. When the fixings are straightened out to take the pole, the effect is that it makes the metal frame rigid which I think is the point. There is a machine-stitched luftwaffe eagle on both sides made of what looks like a felt-type material. The whole thing is quite big - approx 90cms x 50cms. The ruler in the picture is 45cms long. I'll try to post a few photos but I think I'm size-limited because I'm new! Thanks in anticipation!