Western Front Relics
Hi everyone, I just wanted to show my collection of British, German and French relics all from France, and almost all from The Somme.
I love items like this as they are peices of history straight from the battlefield. I did not find them myself, but I have visited the former battlefields. Any comments welcome. Doug
An interesting collection Doug. The SMLE looks like it is cocked... So you would have to assume there is one up the spout! The hole in the side of the magazine suggests that this was an early magazine. It looks to be in the area where you expect to find the catch. I also see the remnants of the cut-off. An early Mk 111 rifle.
Cheers,
Steve.
Hi Steve, thanks for your comment. I am of course well aware of this. It is indeed still loaded, but I drilled a small hole through the chamber and was able to empty the propellant out of the round in the breech. It was not a very satisfactory situation and reminded me to be more careful when buying in the future, but at least its safe now.
My late friend - Stan Dobson, once nearly blew himself up with a WW1 Toffee - Apple mortar round. He had years of experience of dealing with ordnance, and one of his tricks for a final clean-up was to put them on a large barbecue fire in his garden. he used to live in a large Victorian five bedroom house overlooking Lymm Golf Club. Well, this day he put the bomb on the Barbie to burn off some residue - only there was more than he thought. The fuse in the tube was ignited, the bomb shot in the air and went off with a terrific bang. Burglar alarms were set off in all the adjacent properties and Stan was blown across the garden. His wife Nicole thought he was dead when she found him - but he was unharmed apart from being seriously embarrassed. After that he was never allowed to put grenades and the like on the Barbie ever again!
A nice lot Doug, relics are something I enjoy looking at. Do you put anything on them to slow down the rusting or just leave them as is?
Just noticed you have a citron foug with wooden plug, is the plug original or a replacement? I'm after one of the plugs and don't mind having a modern repro but am having trouble finding where they're sold.
Tony
Just done a search and see I've asked the same question in the past. Doh!
Last edited by ynot; 08-07-2015 at 06:40 AM. Reason: Bad memory
Nice relics and an interesting thread!....
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