Leigh Kitchens Odds & Ends of 3R miltaria

[army historian]

Leight,

Beautiful collection.

[leigh kitchen]

Ta, there's more, a few helmets, vsors & a couple of sidecaps plus some cloth & metal insignia, I just heve'nt got photos of them yet, I'll post when I get some done.

Luftschutze door plaque, about 72 mm in diameter:

Edited December 13, 2009 by leigh kitchen

[leigh kitchen]

A cigarette box, with Luftwaffe cap eagle, initials "AWD" cut in the "fin". The box measures 16 cm long x 8 cm wide:

Edited December 13, 2009 by leigh kitchen

[leigh kitchen]

A Commemorative medal of Luftwaffe Reserve Flak Searchlight Battalion 269.

Commissioned by the unit's commander,Major Holtfort, produced in aluminum in Bremen, presented to personnel as a christmas commemorative, 1943, financed by the profits of the staff canteen at the end of 1943. The cost of producing the medals was met from the profits of the unit's canteen.

The unit was based on the North German fortress island of Sylt - Lager Sylt, the concentration camp at La Foulère in Alderney was named after this island.

[leigh kitchen]

Reverse:

[leigh kitchen]

Ribbon Bar, War Merit Cross with Swords, Long Service Medals 3rd Class & 4th Class, Sudetan Medal with Occupation of Prague Clasp:

[Mervyn Mitton]

A lovely eclectic collection. The plastic box must be quite valuable - I take it that it is plastic and not glass ? Bakelite and plastics were a valuable novelty pre-war which is why they had it for the dagger handles.

[leigh kitchen]

I don't know if the cigarette box has any real value, I qute like it tho' it's hardly pretty.

My first thought was that the perspex (I assume it's perspex rather than plastic?) would be from an aircraft, but it has no "soft" layers sandwiched in it - maybe it should'nt have, probably getting my wires crossed there.

Bakelite was used for so much in the way of trinkets at the time, I think that I only have a little brown box for a single "Rolls" razor blade. The Britsh economy plastic cap badges of WWII are actually of plastic, although a lot of people assume that they're of bakelite, although many have warped & bent & peeled over the decades, some of them have a lot of detail for what were a make-do measure.

I have a nice little green plastic or bakelte Brtish helmet somewhere, about 4" diameter with a ribbon chinstrap held in place by a couple of brass paper clips, it's a razor blade container with a small compartment for the blades nside. As you say, novelty materials.

[leigh kitchen]

Fire Police helmet, leather neckguard, aluminium comb, salt & pepper shaker vents, both decals, roller buckles on the leather chinstrap.

[leigh kitchen]

The lining. One of the tongues is ink stamped "56" within a box. The leather liner has been cut between the front tongues, presumably to attain a tighter fit.

[leigh kitchen]

RLB helmet - the colour is actually a lightish grey / blue, but it appears a light khaki because of the dirt:

[leigh kitchen]

One of the latest arrivals, this reserve medical slip on board has black rather than blue waffenfarbe.

[leigh kitchen]

"229" - Transport unit waffenfarbe?

Edited May 14, 2010 by leigh kitchen

[leigh kitchen]

12 Veterinaer

Edited May 14, 2010 by leigh kitchen

[leigh kitchen]

142 Pionier Bataillon

Edited May 14, 2010 by leigh kitchen

[leigh kitchen]

I may have posted a photo of the 3 x manouevre bands I have named to men of the 37th Pioneer but I don't think that I've posted this photo of one of them named to Merter

[leigh kitchen]

I think that there are some later postings missing, here are a few more items in the collection.

 

An early political eagle?