DAK S.O.S. Finds!!

[Willi Z.]

Wow! Great items Grant!
Makes me want to stop collecting FJ and take up DAK

[Mooyman]

GREAT items!! Well done!!

Best regards,

Ricardo.

[Richard T]

WOW, Super group

Congrats,
Richard

[Grenadier45]

Grant, it was great to meet you at the show and see some of this fantastic DAK collection in person! Obviously the funds from the SS M44 pants went to a good cause!!!

mike

[besslein]

Wow! Great items Grant!
Makes me want to stop collecting FJ and take up DAK

good Idea Willi,I will be happy to buy few things from your colection

[PANZERPIONIERE]

Grant, what exceptional pick-ups, DAK items are just super! A area I really like especially armored!
Congrats, Steve

Looking for Panzerpioniere items, Panzerpioniere officer side-cap, Pi.Btl.16 and Pz.Pi.Btl.16 items.
Thank you

[Fritz]

...

[william15]

Dak.

A very nice collection that was bought from a U.K dealer. Pity he didn't offer them up on the U.K market i would have been one of the first in line. But hey thats life, i guess another few years of waiting to find nice Dak items isn't going to hurt.
William

[ROBB]

Outstanding after seeing those pictures I think I will need counseling for a few weeks to get over the shock . Those caps are the Holy Grail .Rob

[90th Light]

Here is the cherry of the collection that I bought. It is a textbook example of a Robert Lumbstein M41 Officers "Rifle Regiment" hat. This hat was brought home by a KIWI veteran and was purchased from him about five or so years ago.

This cap was first spotted by a collector here in the North Island of New Zealand about 1976 or 1977. It was already in the possession of another collector who collected Militaria in general and was not particularly attached to DAK but liked it because it was German.

The collector who spotted it in 76/77 offered to buy it because it was the first DAK officers M40/41 he had ever come across. The collector who owned it at the time, said he could not possibly consider selling it because it had been given to him by a neighbor. This neighbor was the returned soldier who had brought it back from the war and the guy who had it, felt it would be an insult to him if the cap was not on display in his collection should he ever call to visit and have a look.

The good thing out of this was that at the time they could ask the old soldier where he had got it. He said it was picked up during the battle of El Alamein when a German supply depot was captured. The cap was picked up mint and had never been issued. Any signs of wear today are from the veteran using it a little and subsequent collectors who have tried it on.

Several years went past and the collectors kept in touch. When the time was right for them the cap changed hands here in New Zealand, although it was in fact a third collector who wound up buying/trading it after being referred by the first collector who spotted it in 1976/77.

It had been in the possession of that third collector for some years now until it was sold recently to a collector in England.

Now as we can all see, thanks to the forum the cap now resides in a a very impressive collection in America.

I must add one final bit of history to all this, I do not know how pleased any Kiwi returned soldiers would be to see something they brought back go to "the Yanks" as they called them. Many New Zealand soldiers did not have a lot of time for the Americans even though they saved New Zealand from invasion in 1942. There were a few reasons why the Kiwis felt that "the Yanks" had to be sorted out and several of them set out to do this. When the 2nd NZEF started arriving back in Wellington in the latter half of 1945 some American soldiers stationed here were murdered and there were some massive punch ups/fights between New Zealand and American soldiers. Several on a large scale, they have even made a movie about one of them.

Its one great cap but lets hope the Kiwi veteran would not role over in his grave if he knew where it was now.

Hope this keeps the history with the cap, Chris

[Hohenstaufen]

Chris,

Hello, Many, many thanks for the information concerning the M41 officers cap. It is good to know where the cap came from (battle zone) and how it was brought back by the New Zealand soldier.
As far as the history with New Zealand and American soldiers, I did not know about the tensions between them. Anyway, who knows, maybe someday the hat will make its way back to New Zealand. Once Again, Thanks for the info. Regards, Grant

[90th Light]

edited because no longer necessary,

Chris

[Hohenstaufen]

Chris,

I did not mean any attacks on the said person, I was just telling the story of how the cap came to be, but apparently the facts has been mis-interpreted somehow. I have removed some of my post per your request. Hopefully, the said person will join the forum and show some of his vast DAK collection. Anyway, hope that no harm is done. Regards, Grant

[90th Light]

Chris,

I did not mean any attacks on the said person, I was just telling the story of how the cap came to be, but apparently the facts has been mis-interpreted somehow. I have removed some of my post per your request. Hopefully, the said person will join the forum and show some of his vast DAK collection. Anyway, hope that no harm is done. Regards, Grant

Thanks Grant, this will cheer everyone up.

I know you are keen to find out about this and you have some great items. I too hope we can get more people who know posting on the forum.

At the end of the day, getting the stuff is great but being able to show and tell to people who know what you have is more than half the fun.

May-be that was what happened to some of the poor Americans who were stationed here in 1945, perhaps the Kiwis just mis-understood. I know that many of those Kiwi vets were men of few words and much action. As kids we did not get too much time to explain before we got a belt round the ear.

Not like it is here today, all Metro-men and wrapped in cotton wool stuff.

Best regards and I look foward to more of your finds in DAK/tropical,

Chris

[tropenmilitaria]

Chris,
Thanks for the details on the history behind the cap. Great to know where and how the cap was taken!
andy