Pics : La Gleize Show 2016

[Martin Bull]

Managed to tack a visit to La Gleize onto my 2016 vacation, so here are a selection of photos. Every trip to the Ardennes I've done since 1987 has been via the Marche/Hotton/Trois Ponts road, which always ( always ! ) means a stop at the Grandmesnil Panther.





Up early next morning and off to the Fair. A nice little convoy of Kubelwagen & Schwimmwagen had made the trip...



On the stalls, the usual amount of 'rust', but the near-absence of deactivated munitions was very noticeable ( hardly so much as a deactivated rifle cartridge....) -





Someone had obviously dug up a hoard of relic Luftwaffe helmets, some with remnants of liners. Bit too rusty for me, but about 2/3 of them had gone by lunchtime....



And it's somehow fun to rummage the stalls with a genuine Bulge backdrop as you walk downhill from the village -



It's always amusing to see pricing trends. In 2015, a hoard of 'Panzer'-type blowlamps had obviously been found. There were dozens available for E20-E30. This year, I only saw three - and one was on offer for E160 !

So, by mid-morning I'd bought an S-mine parts box, and a very cheap original two-volume set of 'Tiger im Kampf'. What I'd hoped to find was a fairly good, well-marked and labelled Pak/KwK43 box and I saw four. I was glad to 'keep my powder dry' because right at the bottom of the hill a collector from Lille was selling some choice kisten. The box I chose, without handles but with a very fine label and an affordable price, fit the bill quite well ...





The fun wasn't quite over.....heading for France via Luxemburg two days later, I spotted this and almost stood the car on its' nose......





It's at a tiny place called Heinerscheid. I dimly remembered seeing it in Battle of the Bulge Then & Now years ago, but it's in better condition now. A genuine relic of the Bulge, it would have gone rather nicely with my box. But no, it didn't seem to be for sale !

[harryamb2]

nice post.

[Granatwerfer]

Martin - Thanks for posting the pictures, I am very jealous.

Does your car not have a tow hitch?.

[Martin Bull]

Sadly not ! As you can see from the pics, it's an excellent example of a PaK 43/41 and is apparently one of only two Ardennes 'originals' still on the battlefield ; the other is just a few miles down the road at Clervaux.