"Do you own military paraphernalia?" Topic

Do you own any military paraphernalia that are NOT connected to military service you have done yourself?

Hats, badges, uniforms, authentic manuals etc.?

I know several former US soldiers who collect German and Soviet military trinkets.

Guns probably don't count unless you collect firearms purely for historical value, not as a general hobby.

M-43 Feldmuetz and a Fallschirmjaeger helmet, ATM.

Damon.

Yes. I began collecting militaria before I was a wargamer, the start of my collection was my grandfather's cap badge from WWI.

Roughly one thousand pieces of insignia for the British Army, mostly 1908-1918, but some WWII and some pre-1908. All metal, except for a dozen or so WWII formation signs and a few WWI proficiency badges in cloth.

I have several family related military things and I'm going to tell you about them, I have a Machine Gun Corps cap badge worn by my great grandfather who was wounded at Gallipoli, convalesced in England then went on to fight at Albert. I also have his "Mutt, Jeff and Willafred" medals, as a nice side note I also have his leave papers for when my Grandfather was born. I also have a German coin taken by my Grandfather who was an air raid warden during the Battle of Britain he was given charge of a downed piloten and this coin was taken out of his pocket and subsequently became a war trophy for good old Grandad. I also have the medals from my other Grandad who fought across Sicily and up through Italy as wellas his discharge papers from the end of the war. Its not often I get to tell people about these things so I hope you enjoyed.

I used to have some insignia but lost them and never bothered to replace them. If I have spare cash it goes to games.

My dad's medals

Yep

Some Civil War bullets recovered from a battlefield and some capbadges, including my wife's aunts from her service with the Royal Canadian Navy

I got roach clip used by Rommel and a bong that Wellington took a hit off of at the battle of Waterloo.

Just my dad's medals and playbook

x42

I have a few items that were my Grandfather's,who was in WWI in the AEF.These items include his platoon photo,his dogtags and his infantrymans manual.

I have my grandfather's mess kit and unit photo from the Great War. Also an Iron Cross (could be a replica for all I know), post cards, and various European coins from the pre-war era.

Grelber

Eleven 1st empire hats/helmets and three swords.
regards
Russ Dunaway

I have a collection of WWI medals from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as well as a few odds and ends. I've bought and sold a number of military weapons, equipment, decorations and insignia pieces over the years.

Only what I've inherited, but I grew up with Father with a massive antique arms collection so am familiar with it.

I have some Army Air Corps pins, some Soviet Union pins commemorating achievements and a KGB pin…which I don't wear.

Some silver brandy cups in a leather case autographed by my grabdfather's WWI buddies and some trench art.

Aside from my reenacting gear and a number of replica swords, I have a number of items of my grandfather's kit from the Great War. I have his foot locker, uniform, kit bag, WWI Victory Medal, and a couple of manuals.

I left it all behind when I left my first wife.

My great-grandfather's WWI compass – he was invalided out in 1916 (which probably explains why I am here).

I sold a lot of my WWII stuff, but I still have some things of my father's and things he brought back, but I do have some WWI items I've collected as well as a couple of German FPW medals.

Soviet KMZ jacket, US SF 'Tiger Stripe' jacket (temperate not the Vietnam one) assorted stuff from my uncles days in the 17/21st Lancers

I have a 13th Century great helm that I made. Just to see if I could! It is functional but not pretty!

The metal came from an old Alfa Romeo I was scrapping. And yes, there was enough metal that wasn't rusty……

My grandfather's cap badges, the Royal Artillery & a Guards badge with the motto "Honi soit qui mal y pense". Not sure which Guards badge it is though. I used to also have his army rucksack & gas mask, but no idea what happened to them.

Smolders, shouldn't that be Pip, Squeak and Wilfred ?
Great that you have them. I have my father's original war record (Fleet Air Arm) but that's about it.

Only my grandfathers Spiked helmet from WWI and my fathers steel helmet from the Austrian Army in WWI, I have a few of the families medals and decorations that they and this or that uncle or grand uncle had. I also have a Japapnese WWII helmet a family friend gave me. Don't really care about the latter. I don't collect militaria. Somehow it seems-- sacreligious.

@Dag…yep youre absolutely right..dunno what I was thinking when I wrote that!! *sheesh*

I do re-enactment and Airsoft so I have tons of stuff as I have multiple impressions covering WW2 the Cold War and ultra-modern, plus some bits of nineteenth century stuff (mainly hats). In fact I bought a new sandbag and a replacement NVA belt just today.

My oldest things are a 37 pattern waterbottle in a cavalry skeleton frame on a sling which I used to use for hiking when I was a teenager, I also used to wear my Dads old ammo boots and greatcoat and had an ex BW splinter smock (one of the early pattern ones before they went OD). I also have his heliograph, which he acquired from somewhere or other.

I am also the custodian of all my family's medals from WW2, and have a moderate collection of original and repro manuals.

I have my grandfather's medals, collar insignia and dog tags from WWII, and a minié bullet and musket ball from the ACW that I collected as a boy.

I've got quit a few coins and unit insignia that were given to me by service members who are fans of our products. Those mean a lot to me.

Shawn.

Among some items of my "Collected Stuff", (not including my personal stuff) are:

1: A 1:50,000 US Military Map of an area in Vietnam dated 1966.

2: A 1939 Copy of "The ROTC Engineers Manual", along with a map of the Germantown PA wargames.

3: An accompanying copy of a military field administrative manual, showing how to write reports, etc…

4: Some dug musket balls from various ACW battlefields and a couple of pieces of grape/cannister shot that I use for historical discussions at reenactments.

5: My Uncle's WWII records showing his Army Service in Italy and his injuries in the Rome-Arno campaign.

6: My Stepfathers WWII records showing his USCG Service.

7: Somewhere around here I have a Bundeswehr Panzer Badge.

8: A Russian (Iraqi) Tankers Helmet that I brought back from Desert Storm.

9: Some North Korean Propaganda Leaflets.

10: A lot of ACW reenacting gear….

11: Some Confederate Money, a CS Loan Boan (with all the redemption coupons), and some letters the CW years, including a multi-page one written by a young girl in upstate New York a week before Sharpsburg telling about the local small town life and wrapping bandages for the war effort.

12: A Nazi Reichspfenning.

13: Some WWII Nazi Germany Postage Stamps.

I sold off pretty much all of my WWII Collection years ago….Mostly US and Wehrmacht. I had no desire to collect SS crap….

Probably a few other items around here I don't remember that are long boxed up….

I own a Royal Artillery cap badge (spinning wheel version), a St. Helene medal and six field manuals from the 18th and early 19th centuries (all in original bindings). The Hardee's saw action.

I have my dad's WW2 "Ike" jacket and his ribbons, flight book, "blood chit," and escape map. He was an 8th USAAF B-17 flight engineer and top-turret gunner. My wife has the M1911 that her father, also a USAAF airman, picked up in North Africa while walking in the desert near their airbase. He was transiting to the CBI Theater where he ended up teaching aerial gunnery to Chinese air crews.

The rest of my military paraphernalia is my own from the early 1970s to the early 1990s. Oh, I do have a couple of late 1980s Dutch army hat pins I got on trade while working a REFORGER exercise with the I Dutch Corps.

Jim

Two French bayonets that my grandfather brought back from WWI, an 1860 pattern heavy cavalry dragoon sabre made in 1863 that my parents gave me for reasons I can no longer remember, and a Short Magazine Lee-Enfield No.4 Mk1*. I used to have my father's pea-jacket from his naval service in WWII but my mother gave all my clothes to Goodwill while I was in Vietnam so I suppose it's being worn by a homeless guy somewhere which, given that he's probably a veteran, is fine with me.

LT

Ancient Greek arrow heads, 300 year-old Malay kris, 1860s Prussian infantry sabre.

Other stuff.

David F Brown

British Army Field Service Regulations part 1 Operations 1909. (Reprinted with Amendments 1914)

British Army Infantry Training. (4-Company Organization.)1914

I don't collect militaria. Somehow it seems-- sacrilegious.

Interesting. I know some collectors (thankfully few) who consider themselves "keepers of a sacred trust", as if they were preserving holy relics for future generations to venerate. Most of us, however, neither fetishize our collections nor idolize the men and women who originated them. Respect and appreciation for the people and the history is certainly there, in spades. Also, the notion that these small bits of material culture, from an admittedly marginal subset of human activity, should perhaps be spared from the rubbish heap. Because that's where most of it ends up.

A Turkish Gallipoli Medal. I don't know the story behind it. I don't think it is from my father's family though.

A German Luftwaffe pin my Uncle liberated somehow. Something like this one below.

My Uncle's escape map on silk.

None at all.

Just a bayonet that my Dad "liberated" from the USMC

I could probably kit out an infantry section from my basement.

I've got some bits and bobs collected from over the years…

Best one I have is a Glengarry from 1/Royal Scots (when it WAS 1/Royal Scots) from my time in Bosnia working with them.

Never mind the re-enacting stuff, or my own stuff, I've a few family things as well.

Eric

I used to collect swords and bayonets, had quite a collection at one time, including a sabre carried at Waterloo, a British 1796 pattern light cavalry officers.

Sold all of those then started on uniforms. Sold most of them as well. I still have three post WW2 Canadian ones.

Presently a framed British surrender leaflet dropped on German and Italian troops, signed by General Alexander.
A WW1 British helmet, one of the first issues with just a leather strap, no liner.

I have my grandfathers WWII British service medals plus the Soviet medal he, like a fair number of other Allied veterans, were awarded as 40 year survivors of the war (this one I am pretty sure link )

An M1 made of period parts. An original dress uniform 1944.An original WWII helmet. Repro field uniforms. An original canteen. I also have a period 82nd airborn patch. After CW re-enacting I did a few WWII events with some buddies. Glider Riders 325th, 82nd airborn.
"Let's go!"

Personally, no, but several years ago I had a girlfriend who kept a box of machine gun ammunition under her bed: a souvenir from a previous relationship (she was a fiery Chilena). Eventually she and her mother sortied out one night and tossed it over the ex's (a former Chilean navy officer) mother's back fence.

I have an old French sword bayonet plus some bullets I picked up from Isandlwana when I lived in S Africa as a young boy.