personal iconic pictures

[karlo]

hi...when i was a child in the seventies going thru purnells history of the second world war magazines that my father had collect in the late sixties...one image has stuck out...this picture ..and under it read..THE SS IN GREECE. YOUNG, TOUGH AND COCKY
it is of course kurt meyer but it and its caption laid the foundations for the "interest"....anybody care to share how it happened for them??...k

[Bcarver]

Part of the interest for me was the same series, but the one that had the SS dagger, Luger, and other badges laid out in color. I said to myself "I want to own things that were there." That was 35 years ago.

[garyv]

I`ve always had an interest in ww2 germany.As a young child I remember having a small grey plastic german tank I played with often.Then 1 day it was gone,I still wonder what happened to my little tank.The 60`s tv show Combat really got me interested in collecting.I thought man those germans sure knew how to fight and dress as well..lol

[DennyB]

The 60`s tv show Combat really got me interested in collecting.I thought man those germans sure knew how to fight and dress as well..lol

"Knew how to fight"? lol! I saw Sgt Saunders wipe out several German snipers in an orchard with his trusty Thompson with a 16 year old botany student directing his fire!
I will admit they did win the Fashion war though.

[ralfsnart]

I got hooked in the early 70's on WWII also. I started off with the comics and the old metal planes and tanks you could get back then. Grandpa had tons of books on WWII also that I would sit and look at the pictures...too ADD to read at that time LOL. I loved that time life series.

One day while going through the family history I stumbled across some interesting information. It turns out I had relatives on both sides. At the time I was strictly a "Germany is the evil bad guys and the Allies are supermen" phase. That lead me to start researching the German army of WWII and I got really interested.

I had spent my youth doing competitive shooting and buying guns with every dollar I had. Once out of shooting I started to look for another hobby and found WAF. The rest is history

[MeinhardcFJR2]

Hello,

Action Man (GI Joe to out cousins across the pond!) "The German Stormtrooper" back in the 1970's!

That was a definite moment in my childhood and initiated my love for all things WH

Cheers,

Mark.

[Coburg]

Me collecting Mein Kampf from the local library for my Dad did it for me.
Been obsessed with the whole thing since, and that has to be 40 years ago

Jim

[Mil-Archive]

My interest in that period also began in the 1970's & 80's as a kid with comics like Warlord, Commando and Victor. 'The World at War' documentary series. A steady stream of WW2 action movies with people like Lee Marvin, James Coburn, James Mason, Richard Burton, Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood etc. Also having tons of those little green vs grey plastic soldiers with jeeps, tanks and halftracks etc. I also remember the marching song Erica which Rté radio used to play constantly back then. I had a couple of history teachers gowing up who were probably more even handed in their approach to the subject, all on 'Folens' schoolbooks There was the magazine series called 'War monthly' & I think reading Alan clark's 'Barbarossa' also had a lot to answer for.

[karlo]

yes...mike murphy played erica alot...thats were i first heard it..i rang them up and they told me who had sang it....and i bought the record ( the band and choir of the 11th panzer grenadiers) in waltons the following saturday....still play it...brilliant

[StonedLandser]

At first, it was really the uniforms and helmets that got my attention. That's when i was really young, like 14 and stuff. But then it gradually got into more and more, and i had an interest as i found out about the whole "Ayran" theory Hitler had. I wasn't taught anything about that at school !

But more recently, it would probably be a documentary series i saw by one of my favorite historians. I saw like a film clip of this German soldier, sitting beside a destroyed gun emplacement, and he just looked totally finished. It was like all hope was lost, something you wouldn't expect a German soldier to feel. I put the pictures below...



Close up


To me, this really gave me the ambition to learn more about the German side of the war. You know that saying a picture is worth a thousand words? Well i guess it's true

[tigertoby]

Both my father and his father served during WWII, so I've been around WWII stuff all of my life, but what hooked me was those dang, cool looking German combat helmets.

[sellers34]

The symbols the Germans used during the war have always fascinated me. My interest is purely historical as I do not approve of their conduct ......I was 16 years old back in 1977 and attended my first gun show which had a large number of vendors selling German medals etc, (remember those low prices) and I wanted something that had "been there" as the war years were a curiosity to me many of my uncles fought and most "old people" that you knew had served. At this gun show I bought my first Ost and westwall medal and a screwback EK1 from an older gentleman, and the rest is history.....