Urban legend?????

[Screaming Eagle]

The first time I went to Germany, my dad's friend took us to a town, and in this town, he took us to a shop. He talked witht the owner for a brief moment then she lead us into a back room. Inside, you wouldn't believe what was there!
She had 6 or 8 K98ks, a Panzer Grenadier's uniform, Ammunition pouches, almost 30 Helmets, medals, and all kinds of other German militaria.
I was young then, so I didnt care. All I got was an SS Pocket Knife.

[Fwiesel]

I used to work at Antwerp ship repair when I was a Teenager and remembered that the can we used to clean our paintbrushes in, was an upside-down german M35 with three pieces of iron welded to it to form a tripod.
many farmers used german helmets after WWI as a shovel for bairley or other corn to feed the horses.

I work next to Antwerp ship repair, maybe I can go and have a look if it's still there...

[stuka f]

Next to "Spek En Eieren"...!?

[Schwerpunkt]

In 1995 I worked in a warehouse in Belgium. it was my first real temporary job. They had this large aluminium washing bowl with a Luftwaffe adler stamp. I wasn’t a collector then , I thought hey my dad would like this.

[PaddyD00]

In 1995 I worked in a warehouse in Belgium. it was my first real temporary job. They had this large aluminium washing bowl with a Luftwaffe adler stamp. I wasn’t a collector then , I thought hey my dad would like this.

Interesting how stuff just "hangs" around and was reused in Europe .... also the HUGE impact that the TRs occupation of a few years had 75+ years later. Like a LUFT bowl still hanging around

[phithel]

My father was working in hamburg in the the 60's in a shipyard. One day they surprisingly received a lot of nazi flags as recycled rag for cleaning and so on. At this time, there was a lot of veterans in the team, they played dressing all the workshop with the flags.

[Grimebox]

My mothers friends father was a British paratrooper during WW2, he very kindly gave me his fathers FS knife. He told me that his father brought back a number of guns (including a machine gun, Lee Enfield rifle and a pistol). The guns were kept in the under stairs cupboard and after his mother nagged his father that they were dangerous he agreed to get rid of them. Prior to that my mothers friend, his father and his uncle went to their work yard and set up the machine gun and had an oil drum as the target. Apparently it went 50’ into the air when shot. Unfortunately he didn’t know where the guns were disposed. The pistol was a revolver and my mothers friend set it up as a fox trap (to shoot the fox went it went into the trap), after about an hour he felt guilty that it might not kill a fox instantly so he dismantled it. He couldn’t recall what happened to the gun.
During the late 1950’s/ early 60’s my father was in the Royal Navy / Fleet air arm and he told me how they dumped hundreds of crated WW2 guns, including Vickers, into the Irish Sea. There were also Grumman Wildcats (I think) that were laying idle in Scotland before being scrapped.
As an aside I was once offered a signed photograph of Rommel by another of my mothers friends. Apparently her father had taken it from a German P.o.W in North Africa. Her elderly mother was going to dig it out for me but unfortunately passed away quite suddenly. It wasn’t really appropriate to ask for it at the time so I never got it and don’t know what happened to it.

[HARRY THE MOLE]

When I was a youngster in the late 1950's - early 60's, virtually everyone I knew had something connected to the German war machine. Junk shops were full of it and helmets only fetched the equivalent of about £1.75p in today's money. German militaria even got threw out with the rubbish, and the second Garman Helmet I had, came off the local tip. There used to be a wooden cabin at Shudehill market in Manchester that dealt in militaria, and it was the WW1 stuff that cost the most. SS cuff titles were as common as muck, as were all helmets and caps. The one helmet I always remember above them all was an absolute mint Luftwaffe DD helmet, and that was a bit dearer because of the condition. That would have been about 1965. Another thing I remember is that back in those days I never saw a multi coloured camouflage helmet, they were either painted for theatre of operations, green, or Luftwaffe blue/grey. I used to help out in a Militaria shop in King Street in Manchester when I was 15, and the proprietor - Bernard Marsh - would let me get things off him on tick, my small wage off him going towards the cost of the items. Happy days... and very sensible prices!

[Fwiesel]

Next to "Spek En Eieren"...!?

Indeed! Although it's a Dutch company now at the former site of "Bacon and Eggs"������

[thecyclist64]

During my first job in the early 80's, I worked with an ex USAF guy who settled in England. He told me a story about how the Americans at Burtonwood airbase held a military suplus auction open to the public. One guy wanted a large packing crate to use as a garden shed. The crate was nailed shut and he wasn't allowed to touch it. He paid £10 for it and then realised that he couldn't get it home. The base commnder said they would deliver it to his house on a low-loader, which they did. Upon opening it to make it into a shed, he found inside one complete Harley Davidson motorbike in kit form which had been shipped over during the war. He phoned the USAF to let them know so they could have it back and they told him to keep it as he had paid for it.