Granatwerfer and myself too, as usual.....gluttons for punishmentby Composite
Granatwerfer and myself too, as usual.....gluttons for punishment
That’s great news MB...at least I’ll be able to use the jump leads on yours if my mobility scooter gets low....
Your ears must have been burning - we were just saying earlier - "Wonder if Poor Old Composite'll be there...? "
Many a true word.....it might be my last.....please forgive the smell of urine and cats......
Have you chosen your 'forever' nursing home yet?
Detling yesterday was interesting - the only 'big' fair of the year in the UK, certainly since COVID/Br*x*t.
The queue to get in was huge - the largest I've seen at this event. This pic shows the scene as the gates opened at 9 - the queue stretching to the back of the car park.
We could find no Continental/Overseas dealers so British kit was much in evidence, also a lot of post-WWII militaria.
Some nice Allied re-enactor displays ( the Germans seemed to have retreated )...
A special mention for the Men of Arnhem woodland display. Superb, I thought...
Not strictly a 'Continental dealer', but it was nice to see Kradman's familiar stall...
Finding any interesting German WWII stuff at affordable prices was hard work. I especially liked this, from a UK dealer. Note the PaK/KwK43 shellcase.....
The asking price was......wait for it......£500 ! Yep - Five Hundred Pounds. I came home, looked at my example, bought at La Gleize in 2014 for 60 Euros ( with an exchange rate of E1.6/£1 ) and felt a warm, fuzzy glow inside....
But there was some good humour as always...
Granatwerfer and I enjoyed a long chat with one of the Men of Arnhem guys ( GW is restoring a Horsa glider ) and one of the highlights of the day for me was when he took us away from the display to show us 'something nice'. A very salty, original Denison smock found in a chicken coop on the north side of Oosterbeek. He very kindly allowed us to examine and handle it. Having visited Oosterbeek many times, it was something very special to me. ( And before you ask...it is NOT for sale !! )
And of course, another highlight of the day ( OK, they paid me to say that..) was bumping into a dodgy-looking group of WRF members whose ringleader seemed to be someone known as 'Composite' ... actually it was great to catch up face to face since Stoneleigh '20.
So there it was. We left with a feeling that, even without COVID, the days of the Continental dealers filling a van with recently-found German relics and hopping over the Channel to Beltring or Stoneleigh is past. Looks like if that's your area of collecting, you'll just have to get in the car, drive over there and get it for yourself (and hide it under a rug in the boot , hoping that HMRC don't tear the car apart ). Back to the 1970s....
Happy collecting !
Brilliant Martin! a wonder to see THANK YOU!
For my first big English militaria fair I was very happy! I got quite a nice haul, I am not home yet but I will post pictures of that soon as possible
Will definitely aim to be back next year for either war and peace or odyssey!
I wonder if we walked past each other…
Edit / the food was great! Didn’t get to see the reenactment battle but did see the American and German recon plane fly in
It was a good show and nice to catch with all of you guys again after the Covid Break
where did this take place?
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