The Monuments Men: a new WW2 movie

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George Clooney directed this new WW2 movie coming to theaters in the US on March 12.

IMDB listed it as a story about a US platoon tasked to rescue art masterpieces from Nazi thieves and return them to their owners.

The movie features George Clooney himself (as usual) and Matt Damon, Kate Blanchett, Bill Murray, among others.

Sachsen Anhalt (near Berlin) provides the locations for most of this picture. That should be interesting.

From the description and the trailer, it’s hard to make out if it’s going to be any good. We’ll have to go by Clooney’s reputation.

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Original gauze invasion arm flag

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Small type invasion arm flag printed on gauze cotton fabricI bought this one a few weeks ago. I had wanted to get an original for a long time, but I never found one, until now. That’s why I was prepared to pay for one in such poor shape. It looks like it has been torn from a jump jacket. The left still has the stitching, the other sides have just been torn off. It still has its 7 stripes though. These flags are larger when new (they have a white border), but they were printed on sheets and cut out, as you can see in my article on invasion arm flags. Even so, this type of flag is smaller than the cotton arm flags used by gliders on D-Day, and by others in later campaigns. On the rare pictures of these gauze flags, even in reference books, you can see they are a lot smaller compared to the cotton arm flags. The size of this one is 9 x 5.5 cm. Uncut, the size would have been 12 x 7 cm, including a white border.

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Taylor wrist compass numbering inside

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Quan Hoang sent me these pictures of an opened Taylor wrist compass. It’s the first time I  see one taken apart. He took it apart because it was already damaged anyway. You can see that the actual compass section has a number stamped at the bottom. The question of course, is what this number stands for (serial number, lot number, employee number…), and if all Taylor compasses have this. It would be great if anyone could tell us more about this.

Interesting how new information keeps turning up about this subject!

See paratrooper wrist compass article

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505th 82nd airborne is now Dropzone helmets

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So it has been since this summer, but I was a bit late picking up on this. Adam makes very nice paratrooper helmets. I have been following him for a long time on eBay, but now that he has his own web site he also sells British and German paratrooper helmets. Any custom job is possible and pricing is honest. It’s actually this nice M38 Fallschirmjäger helmet that caught my eye on eBay, and on which he had mentioned the url of his new webs site. I love the worn paint finish and the detailing on the straps, and the fact that it has a size 60 liner.

Dropzone Helmets web site

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Photos Normandy trip

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Here are the photos of my Normandy trip with some friends last weekend. We stayed at Le Grand Hard, at Sainte-Marie-du-Mont. I can really recommend this place. It is run by a really nice couple from Belgium, and the food is really good too!

Highlights of our trip were the Airborne museum, Dead Man’s Corner, the American and German cemeteries and Pegasus Bridge. The American cemetery was closed on account of the shutdown, but this did not deter us. We entered by way of the dune path, and apparently we weren’t the only ones with that idea. Imagine coming all the way from the States and finding the place closed… We also visited the beaches at Utah and Omaha, and the remains of the artificial harbor at Arromanches.

It had been a few years since I last visited Normandy, and I was glad to find some new things: a number of monuments to the 101st Airborne (one of which near where we stayed), a statue of Dick Winters and the extension that is in progress at the Airborne museum at Sainte-Mere-Eglise. The Overlord museum is new too, but I didn’t go inside. At Arromanches, there’s also a small new museum. So plenty of reason to come back another time!

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Wings & Wheels 2013

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Wings & Wheels 2013Yesterday was my annual visit to Wings & Wheels. The focus is increasingly on re-enactment and this is becoming more varied than ever. Vintage is booming with many ladies participating!  I have seen Vietcong, Russians, WW1 re-enactors, and vintage Belgian police uniforms. It’s a real fun day out. The militaria stalls had better merchandise than last year, and I did find a few things I was looking for. My son was really excited about the RC tank demo, and the re-enactment scenario by the ‘2nd War Friends‘. Airsoft is getting more and more popular every year, especially now that it has become legal in the Netherlands. I have seen the prototype of the T5 replica parachute at the Quartermaster Inspector stand. It really looks great. At the end of August, these will become available and you will find a full review here.

In my photo album you’ll see lots of pics of different original and replica .50 Cal. machine guns, as I’m looking for one myself. So if you have any leads, let me know.

View photo album

 

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Taylor wrist compass with metal base

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Joe McCabe sent me photos of this interesting addition to his collection. He’s rightly proud of this special Taylor wrist compass with its bottom part made totally of aluminium. Not plastic, but its a perfect fit.  It still works perfectly and has a nice patina. He has had it examined by many long established dealers and militaria collectors and all agree it is original, although they have never seen one before. It has no markings or date of manufacture on the aluminium part. It’s unlikely that after the war anybody would have gone to the bother of moulding a replacement back at any stage. Too much time, effort and expense required to do that. It looks like it’s either a very early war compass or a prototype. Later in the war all aluminium would have been set aside for aircraft production etc. If anyone has any insights to offer on this, please do.

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Vintage paratrooper postcards

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Here are some shots of 1940s vintage postcards with paratroopers, or ‘parachute troops’, as they were then called. They are depicted in stateside training and you can see old types of parachutes, uniforms and planes being used. These are from the very early days! Look at the rare C-53 variant of the DC-3 Dakota.

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Paratrooper-marked M2 shoulder pads

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These M2 shoulder pads are very special in that they are specifically marked as a “Paratrooper” item. M2 shoulder pads were issued for carrying heavy weapons and equipment (mortar, machine gun, tripod). They can be found in green and khaki, but they are usually unmarked, except for the indication for Left (L) and Right (R). This pair has that, but also the name of the item, a manufacturer name and date:
Pad, Arm, Wool, Paratrooper
A. REIF & CO., PHILA-44
It also has a stamp “I-101” on one side, as can be seen on the photo, but I don’t know what this stands for.

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