Kees Smulders sent these very clear pictures from a Canadian made luminous disk in his own collection. He bought it 30 years ago at an army surplus store in Arnhem. It’s a Canadian disk, marked R.L.I. 1942 (RLI stands for … Continue reading →
Bob Esposito kindly sent me this picture of the pillow cover that his father in-law Cosmo Barbieri sent to his parents while training at Ft. Bragg. He was a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne, serving in WWII during the years … Continue reading →
This picture is from a WWII manual about aircraft survival equipment. It is dated 23 November 1943, and it clearly shows a Superior Magneto wrist compass with a canvas wrist strap. That’s much earlier than the earliest-dated Superior Magneto compass … Continue reading →
If you own a TL-122-B flashlight, chances are you noticed white residue on the olive drab plastic body. Maybe you even tried to wipe it off, only to find that after a while this white sheen reappears. What causes this? … Continue reading →
Announced in the media worldwide today, Col. Ed Shames passed away on Friday at the age of 99. May he join his brothers and rest in peace. We all know Ed Shames from the epic HBO series ‘Band of Brothers’, … Continue reading →
Timothy Brown is the author of the very interesting story “When West-Point’s Football Helmets Went to War“, which was published last week. He used some of my own research, which is how I heard from him. Timothy has uncovered a … Continue reading →
It’s been a long while since I got any new WWII magazines with parachutists or glider troops on the cover. These 3 were sent to me by Darren from the UK and are very nice. The New York Times magazine … Continue reading →
Thorsten Becker sent me photos of this minefield marking chest he found. It’s dated 29 September 1944, and it’s in great shape and it still has the packing list on the inside: 200 batteries (compartment B)42 flashlights TL-122-C (compartment C)40 … Continue reading →
There has been quite some debate about how dangerous it is to keep these luminous disks in your collection. So I was very glad to finally get some concrete scientific advice on this. Jon Korsmo finally provided a clear and … Continue reading →
These photos were sent to me by a collector called Mathieu. This flashlight is probably post-war, but I think it’s an interesting variation to inlcude anyway. AB-BL stands for Armée Belge – Belgisch Leger. Mathieu still has an open question … Continue reading →