Where did you get your passion for militaria from?

[Migobeego]

Hi everyone,

I decided to start this thread so we can all share our stories of how and when we got into this hobby and what it means to us. I’m pretty sure we will read some very interesting stories!

Well, what better way to start than with my own?

In my case, I have only been collecting militaria (especifically WW2 German militaria) for four years. The truth is, I have always been interested in history. When I was very young, I started collecting Roman and Celtic pieces of pottery I found scattered around the surrounding land in my hometown in Spain. It was my number one hobby. Every time I found a new piece, it felt like I was unearthing tiny bits of history that had been waiting there to be picked up for two thousand years. History did not only exist in school textbooks, but was there in my hands... What a great feeling!

As I was growing up, I started to develop an insatiable interest for WW2 and the Third Reich. Talking to my father one day, he told me about this forum, as he admitted to be a big WW2 aficionado too (probably I also get that from him) Finding this forum encouraged me to start my own collection, as I had just found an immense community of like-minded individuals who are always happy to help other. I found that fascinating! Ever since I started my collection, I have been studying every day, training my inexpert eyes to look for clues that can tell a fake from an original. Learning about manufacture methods, makers, etc... There is a whole universe to be discovered. I do not only collect objects, but also knowledge. One cannot succeed in this hobby without the willingness to learn from others, and that’s what I try my best to do in this forum.

After only four years, my collection isn’t big or impressive by any means. I firmly believe one needs to crawl before they can walk and walk before they can run. Well, I’m still crawling… And I’m enjoying every bit of it.

Thank you for reading until the end of this long post and thank you all for your help and assistance so far, without them I would not be enjoying the wonders of this hobby!

I am looking forward to reading your stories.

Kind regards,
MG.

[Sensei]

Great story! My dad and i used to watch documentaries together when i was younger (we still do). I always found it interesting looking at footage from WW2 and other moments in history. One time we went to a museum and that's where it "clicked" for me. I finally saw the items for real this time. I decided around a year ago that it was worth collecting these items. And i haven't regretted it once since. My collection is still growing rapidly. I "waste" nearly all my money i get from school every month on it. Just got a Westwall medal today. Will share it on the forum soon.

I have my dad to thank for my interest .

I've leart alot this past year and still have alot to learn but that's the fun part right?

[Rakkasan187]

It started for me nearly 50 years ago.. My parents used to have a vegetable garden (They grew up during the Depression and WW2) so gardening was not only essential to providing food but it also was a relaxing albeit hard labor of love.. To have fresh veggies on the table or canned preserves was something of the time... So when I was around 6 years old I used to help my father in the springtime prepare the garden.. I would go out with my small shovel and turn the dirt and removed the rocks and things.. When we would finish for the day we would come into the house through the cellar so we wouldn't track dirt into the house. My father used to wear his HBT coveralls and brown Corcoran jump boots when working in the garden.. One day I was sitting on a stool in the garage and under the stair case was a large green bag (Army Duffel bag).. I didn't know really what it was and I asked my dad what it was...

He said to me.. " Oh you don't want to see any of that stuff, it's just my old Army stuff"... At 6 years old I only knew about the Army from TV when my mom and dad would watch to see if they would see my dad's brother who was in a place called Vietnam.. (My Dad's brother was a pilot and he did 7 tours in Nam, but that's another story)…

So anyway I asked dad if he would show me what was in the bag.. He took the bag from under the staircase and opened it.. I remember like it was yesterday the first thing he pulled out of the bag was a white box that had a picture of a Chocolate covered maraschino cherry on the cover... (Funny the things you remember).. He opened the box and my eyes lit up... All the different colors and shapes of all his medals and patches and other insignia was in that box.. He served in the Korean War with the 7th Infantry Division. He was in the Finance Corps and all of his collar brass and patches and stripes, (He was a Corporal) were in the box as well as his full size medals and ribbon bars.. I handled the patches like they were an ancient coin and since there were several of the same in the box, I asked dad if I could have one.. He gladly gave them to me and when I got older I put them into a shadow box which I still have today...The rest of the items in the duffel bag were his fatigues, more boots and other pieces of equipment, his pistol belt, compass and pouch, and other items which he carefully packed back into the bag and placed back under the staircase.

I had a special little cedar box that I kept some of my favorite things in and the patches and medals went right into that box..(Which I still have today)... From that day forward I was always wanting to know more about military items and when my Dad would take my sister and I to the public library, I would go the children's section and see if there were any military books. Children weren't allowed on the second floor of the library where the rest of the books were, I had to wait until I was old enough to go up there and see their military section. So in the children's section there were some books that had pictures in them (keep in mind I was only 6 and didn't know how to read too well so I would check out the books to look at the pictures...

When I got a little older and was able to read I started to check out the kids books that were historical in content. "WE WERE THERE" was a series of books that focused on historical events through time.. Of course I focused on the military stories: We Were There at Pearl Harbor, We Were There at the Normandy Invasion, We Were there at the Battle for Bataan" We Were There at the Battle of Bulge" We Were There at the Battle of Britain" (You get the idea...) So in the summer time I would read these books and dream of being in those far of places fighting the battles...

We used to go to flea markets and yard sales growing up and I remember my first Third Reich item was a mess kit for .25 cents.. I knew what it was because I had seen it hundreds of times in the library books I checked out of the library.. Back in those days patches were .05 cents each or 20 or 30 patches for $1.00.. Man what a blast I would have going through the barrels of patches at the surplus shops... Great times growing up in the 70's....

As I grew older my father and I were involved in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts and most of our scouting and camping equipment was old Army and Navy surplus.. Our Boy Scout troop was on the second floor of a VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars Post (Post 8546) Salem, NH... We had tons of Army gear and when we marched in the parades we were outfitted with helmet liners and pistol belts from the veterans of the VFW...

My Scoutmaster was a Navy Gunners Mate on Destroyers in WW2 and when we went to summer camp in the summertime, he would tell us stories of his ship and the Kamikaze attacks that his ship when through in the Battle for the Philippines and off Iwo Jima and Okinawa where they did picket duty.. We stayed up for hours.. Most of the adult leaders in my Boy Scout troop were all in the military at one time and we would listen to their stories and we as younger kids were mentored by these fine gentlemen who saw some of the worst things in history but they endured and survived and were able to teach their sons and other boys in the troop who didn't have dad's the importance of Duty, Respect, Courage, and so many other attributes of growing up..

When I turned 17 I knew my destiny.. To serve in the Armed Forces like my Dad did, his brother and all of our relatives ( some who paid the ultimate sacrifice)… I only wanted to do one thing in the Army.. Infantry, the Queen of Battle.. So that's what I did for 22 years, and all during that time in the service I was still collecting and gathering things from where I was stationed...After I retired from the Army I became a Firefighter/Medic and still served my country and still collected. .When I was injured in the line of duty I was able to retire and I started my third career working in the US Army Museum system as a history specialist and a curator...

My father also collects as he saw how much joy it brought to me and it brought us so close together and although he is in his mid 80s and I don't live near my Mom and Dad now we are still able to share our love and passion for collecting. My father has been asked for several years to set up displays and exhibits at the High School and Junior High School every Veterans Day to Honor our Men and Women and each year the event gets bigger and bigger. He has been recognized and commended by the Governor of New Hampshire as well as many of the City Council staff where he lives..

My Dad is my Hero, My Best Friend, My Mentor... I only hope that someday I will be on the same playing field as his generation....

Sorry for the long winded story,, I have been wanting to share how much I love my Parents and how grateful I am for what they both taught me growing up....

Best regards and Blessings All, Stay Safe and Hang Tough..

Smitty

[HARRY THE MOLE]

Back in the 1950's, virtually every family I knew had someone who served during the war. Our insurance man flew DC3's at Arnhem and was badly wounded when shot down. My dad's friend Syd Fuller, served in the Para's at Arnhem and he always wore an SS belt he took off a soldier during the fighting there. Another friend of the family just up the road also saw action with the Para's at Arnhem, and my neighbour just a few doors down was a former WOP/AG. Around the corner lived a former Lancaster pilot, and across the road was a former Chief petty Officer on the Ark Royal. All my uncles served in the army, and nearly all my friends had dads and uncles that served. On top of that was the older generation that had served in the Great War, and so from a very young age I used to be enthralled by tales of their exploits. A friend of the family gave me a Luger pistol when I was just eight years old... the trigger was missing, as was the magazine, and probably a few other bits too. But I wasn't bothered, after all... I had a REAL Luger - and not many kids of my age could say that! Everybody I knew seemed to have something from the war... tunics, Nazi flags, helmets, you name it they had it. So under such circumstances it was hardly surprising that I got the collecting bug.

As I got a little older, I took a much bigger interest in the Great War. And then when I joined the Army Cadets in 1964 the chance to meet up with veterans from both world wars became a common occurrence - especially at the Armistice parade in St Peters Square in Manchester. I was always in the city centre of a Saturday where there was a militaria dealer on the market at Shude Hill. Stensby's gunsmiths was there too, and I used to spend time drooling over all the military weapons which were on sale. I was an avid reader of military books, and used to spend hours in the local library. Then I joined the regular army in 1969, and for several years my interest in militaria seemed to die a death. It was only rekindled around 1980, and since then I have collected on and off. Some years later I took up writing and had three books published, plus a few articles and private commissions for individuals who wanted to know about their ancestors. So my passion for collecting has spanned some 60 years, and has covered almost every subject you care to mention. That passion is just as great now as it was then, but the days of expensive purchases are long gone. I get more enjoyment from research than anything, and also meeting up with the many dealer-friends I have made over the years at arms fairs. I try to stop myself collecting, because when you reach a certain age you cannot be sure how much longer you will be around to enjoy your latest purchase... but I find that I just cannot stop... because my passion for collecting is that strong.

We don't really own the things we purchase, we are merely custodians of the objects until they pass to the next generation of collectors. And as custodians, it is our duty to look after them as best we can. Some collect for the money and see it as an investment, but I collect because I see each object as a tangible link to a past which is rapidly receding from living memory. Medals are a link to the brave acts performed by servicemen and women, and weapons are a reminder of tools used to kill an enemy... and how savage war actually is.

Cheers,
Steve

[Jb4046]

Very interesting guys! I will attempt my story as well.

When I was 8 I saw my sister (11) (who has no interest in army stuff at all) build a HMS Hood model and a ME-262 Airfix kit. Since at that age you like to “copy” your siblings I then picked up a Airifix 1/72 Hurricane model! Another strong factor that started my interest was probably due to the fact my dad was in the British army so being exposed to lots of random army stuff kicking around the house probably helped familiarise me with it.

What was a interest in models branched off into a genuine interest in the planes of ww2 but that then quickly changed into Tanks of ww2! For most of my ages 11-15 I frequently built tank models and spent my paper round money on buying ww2 tank books. I also played games like “World of tanks” and “war thunder” which also spurred on my interest. This was enough of interest in tanks that for my birthday I got tickets to tank fest 2017! Although back then it was amazing to see such tanks in person as I had never seen one with my own eyes up to that point, but then my eyes caught glimpse of a indoor stall selling items. One of these items was a 88mm flak gun fuze. I had saved up my money beforehand and after 10 mins of debating should I get this real flak shell fuze I went ahead and got it. My first piece of militaria and it felt pretty cool to actually own such an item. Then half an hour later seeing the tanks go around the track and walking around the living history section I saw another stall selling shell cases. I then also bought a 57mm nordenfelt cannon shell from 1916 (same Gun as on the A7V tank) . It’s funny to look back on. Everyone back home when they saw these items were freaked out thinking they could be live! But nowadays when I get more ordnance it’s just “how much did that one cost you” . After showing my dedication to collecting my grandparents gave me 2 sets of relatives medals since they trusted I would keep good care of them.

I joined this forum on the same year as tank fest 2017 when I was 15. Being 18 now it feels like that was a long time ago but that’s nothing to most members here! My collection has certainly came a long way since then. Although I collect a multitude of items now. Ordnance is still my strong point!

I sometimes wish I could relive the excitement of buying my first few pieces again. Everything was soo new to me...

[bittaker]

When an old friend of my father (both R.I.P.) told me about finding an old shed with ww2 german gas masks in it. They just kicked them around and let them to decay. He told me he should have taken them home, but at that time they did not care. After telling me this he opened his gun safe... And wow Lots of goodies in there. Then my addiction for militaria history kicked in.
Stig

[Migobeego]

These are such heart warming and thought provoking stories! I loved reading them all so far, thank you so much for taking your time and sharing a part of your most cherised memories with us.

[The Devil's Bank]

I think I got my interest from my Grandfather, who was a "Air Raid Warden" during the Blitz on Liverpool.
When he told me some of the horrific things her saw, when I was a lot older, it must have set me on my way.
I also remember walking up the road near to where I lived, and there was a shop that sold the usual model Spitty's and Hurricanes, but I remember my Grandfathers stories of the German bombers and in that shop window was a He 111, and I just had to have it..
Pocket money saved, glue bought, paint brushes with the Humbrol Luftwaffe blue paint in the bag and away I went.
I got more glue and paint on my clothes than on the actual model, but it did resemble a He 111 to be honest.

Not long after, going to this local shop again, I spotted some thing that would play a huge part of my life in future years?
In a small see through plastic bag, stapled to the cardboard top, a picture of this model was on the front with some small details of the kit. It was a model of the famous heavy panzer, the Tiger tank.
I just fell in love with that tank, and it has took me to tank museums like Bovington and Saumur in France.
I read books, watched documentaries, any thing to do with that tank.
As I got older, I wanted to get some parts of a actual Tiger, just as a piece of history in my hands.
And so I did, and here they are, I'm delighted to have every one of them

[BrodieBartfast]

Collecting has always been a part of who I am. I've always had the 'collecting gene', if such a thing exists. Before militaria, it was antique coins and banknotes. When I was a lot younger, I collected rocks and fossils. I always had to have a collection of 'something', close to hand, to look at whenever I felt bored.

The Second World War captured my imagination from the moment I first learned about it at school. It is a unique and pivotal moment in human history, and one that shaped the world we live in today. There's a reason it still captures the hearts and minds of so many people, I think, because we're all connected to it in some way, however loosely. Growing up, everyone knew at least one person, or had at the very least heard of a person who fought in that war. It's become a core part of the British cultural identity, and over the years has become somewhat romanticised. It's no wonder I was drawn to it!

When I was first learning about the war in school, my grandparents took me to visit my great uncle, a man whose eccentricities I've come to mirror. He is also a collector, and -- until his advancing age caught up with him -- he was also a keen metal-detectorist. He led us down the garden path to his shed, which is where he kept most of his finds, and inside were huge buckets of shell shrapnel, bomb fragments, pieces of aircraft fuselage, spent bullets, empty casings. All relics of the battle waged in the air over seventy years previously. That was the moment I realised this stuff was still around, tangible, rather than simply existing as pictures in a history book. When I left my great uncle's house that day, I was allowed to take a few of them with me. Some anti-aircraft shrapnel, and a climb/descent gauge from the dashboard of a Mk1B Spitfire. I still have them today.

Then, as you get older, your curiosity leads you to look into your own family's wartime history (if you haven't already, that is). I've since learned the wartime stories of my great grandparents, and their parents who fought in the Great War. That has further refined my interests and fields of collecting. The idea that a piece of militaria in your collection might have been carried or worn by one of your ancestors -- however small that chance might be -- is as wondrous as sitting there, staring at all these dusty old things you've collected over the years, and wondering what stories they'd be able to tell, if they could only talk.


Regards, B.B.

[kekel]

hello friends collectors and history fans! My story started collecting when I was 13, I was on the attic of our old house for the first time, where I found a German dynamo for a field phone (Kurbelinduktor) and I brought it to my father and asked what it was? my father told me it was on the floor and rebuked me for putting it back. about two years later, when I was 15 years old, we reconstructed the house and came to clean up the land, and my father wanted to throw out the dynamo, but I pulled it out of the rubbish with an old newspaper that was interesting to me at the time. I hid things and forgot about them for 3 years. I studied in high school for those 3 years. there I met a friend who already knew something about the Third Reich and was interested in artifacts, and told me to go to the military exchange with him. so I decided to go (I didn't know anything about the Third Reich just what we learned in school) when we came there I was most interested in the cold weapons of the sword dagger, and at one point I thought to myself "I would liked it in the display case "but at that time these things were unavailable to me as a student because I didn't make any money, but at one table I saw the dynamo I found on the ground and asked the gentleman who sold it there what the thing was, the master willingly explained it to me. to get to the heart of the matter - what my lord told me began my passion, because I was born in the Czechoslovak Republic and right where the German troops passed, there were various war artifacts in every house nearby but only Russian and German, Americans did not get where I live , but the people (old) did not want to talk about the war and mostly sent me to a neighbor and it happened again.I had no choice but to go to the library (the internet was not as widespread in our country as it was now) and I asked for a chronicle of our village in which I read what terrible things the Germans were doing in our village and its surroundings. for example, a kilometer from our house in the woods is a monument to two tortured guerrillas who were buried alive. I had no idea because I was not interested in the war at all. then it was clear to me why people did not want to talk to me about this topic at all (the war affected every family in my area) another artifact that ran my collection managed to dig an excavator near our house my friend and it was a bayonet (German) which was marked: paul weyersberg solingen and on the other side the number and RP. unfortunately, during the excavation, the bayonet broke and I was left with only the blade that I still have as a dynamo. I am now 31 years old and I am happy to be a member of this forum which helps me a lot in studying and collecting. I would like to thank the members: LarryC, Stonemint, MAP,
rbminis, Rakkasan187, Anderson, Friedrich-Berthold, frogprince and others for their advice and amazing threads and knowledge that enrich this forum. I hope you like my story. Michael