Whats the best site for South Vietnamese and Cambodian army stuff

[Bob Chatt]

Here is one of the photographs I have been looking for to posts. This shot was taken in Hanoi in a movie costume warehouse. This shot was taken in the early 90's. There are piles of ARVN erdl, BDQ, tiger stripe, etc. From what I understand this was all sold to some of the early dealers that were going over.

[Patrick Dempsey]

Bob,


that almost leaves me speechless....amazing photo.

Can you remember this hoard hitting the US?

Makes me wonder what Vietnamese movies these were destined for, and if they made it into production?


Thanks for the image.


Patrick.

[Bob Chatt]

Patrick-I remember some of these coming over at that time. But, in the whole scheme of things, that really is not that many pieces, and was quickly sold to collectors. Someplace, I have a photo of a mound of NPFF camo and real painted BDQ & QC helmets, all also from this warehouse.

[hochiminhtrail]

WOW cool , thhanks Bob or sahring i ll hope you will find the other pictures. I think that there must be more stored items, i can imagine that the Goverment must have a lot of stuff.


Cheers

Alex

[nguoi tien su]

Actually the cinema warehouses are (or used to be) full of original equipments.
The Giai Phong studios (northern studios based in SGN as well) were one of the best customer of the biggest dealer in Saigon back in the late 80's and beginning of the 90's.
The tendency is now for the same dealer to try to get what was sold to the studios 15/20 years ago and sell them back to the collectors. I have bought some very nice thing through that channel.

Many high quality movies have been produced in the years following the war and in the 80's. At the time, the victorious north was not afraid about displaying SVN items, ie flages, fully badged uniforms, etc. but also flying helicopters etc.
When I say high quality, I don't speak about the senario ! But it is really great and vivid propaganda.

The week of the 30th of april, you have loads of those films on TV, especially on the countryside channels.

Now the equipments shown are really low quality on the "modern" movies and they tend to avoid any rememberance of the glorious south !

NTS

[hochiminhtrail]

Hi Bob Hi NTS

yes it s through what NTS says, the ARVN uniforms they are showing now have nothing to do with the real deal, sometimes they play with modern cambodian uniforms, they look like US jungle jackets.

I remember seeing an early Propaganda movie with flying Choppers in the mekong delta, those movies are from the mid 70s.

Maybe the vietnamese dont fit the old uniforms anymore, probably gained lots of wait after the peace

The diet has changed a lot, and junk food like Kebab, Burgers ect... are appearing in the big cities.


Cheers

Alex

[nguoi tien su]

One important point that might revive this topic :

Jeff, coming back on post #1038

I have NEVER seen a correct beret with the Hung Dao label withouth the D.T number. As I have seen literally hundreds if not thousands of berets over the last 10 years I know what I want to see in an original piece. I have also purchased several berets from veterans with the Hung Dao paper label and all had the D.T number.

I have been yesterday night to 447C Tran Hung Dao. The house number still exists but they are building a new house. I will come back to try to locate the 60's-70's owner, and with some luck we might know more.

Interesting point is the location of that shop. It is about 200m from the biggest police station in this part of the town. The police station still exists, its inhabitants are a little bit different though...
But this is obviously a reason why we get many police berets coming from that shop.

And today I was doing some researches on the web, to get some new photos.
Please have a look at http://www.tf116.org/vgallery5.html and scroll down to Darrell Halford. I guess his beret is a good one? And there is no telephone number.
Like I said, I believe that the 9##### digits were late war, at least after 69. This needs anyway to be confirmed.

I guess you can start buying berets with no telephon number, it is safe.

NTS

[Jeff Ashenfelter]

Hi NTS,
Good research you have done, from what I can tell by the photos both of those berets certainly look good to me. However without the opportunity to examine the berets in person there still remains some doubt in my mind!
I have always hoped to find some concrete proof of these labels being correct. I think this is a good start in that direction. Still however with the abundance of these fake labels in the market we must be very carefull to not assume that these are all correct. I think that if they are eventually proven to be period labels even then, they will be a small minority and not as collectable as the labels with the D.T number. I would like someday to be able to examine one of these in person to satisfy my own mind, until then I must remain very skeptical of them. Jeff

[hochiminhtrail]

Hi

NTS great research,

where is it on Trang Hung Dao?, i know one very big police sation, and it s also the local fierebrigade for saigon. it s on the right side when you drive direction cholon? is it that one?

Alex

[nguoi tien su]

Alex,

Correct, when you come from Ben Thanh, the Fire station and the Police station are on your right. But the tailor shop used to be in between, on the opposite side of the road (on the way to Cholon).

Cheers.

NTS

[Satcong101]

Currently being offered on ebay, I was wondering what some of the expert opinions on here think of it. As I'm a little curious as to whether this is a genuine period badge or something else. And is it Army or Police, as I can't yet get my head around the SVN headgear insignia?

Thanks Simon.

[Bob Chatt]

It is a army cap badge. Not sure about if it is real. You should get a copy of Gary Murtha's book on South Vietnamese metal insignia and cap badges.

[Jeff Ashenfelter]

Simon, from what I can tell from the poor quality photo, I would not buy it for my collection. Too many indicators of a repro and no examples of this type in collections with the same backing and construction technique. The vendor is also one to avoid! Jeff

[Satcong101]

Many thanks Bob and to you too Jeff, I thought it was army, but I'd seen one listed before as SVN Police! So was a little confused to say the least and unsure of myself

Glad you guys are around to help folks like me out. I still can't get over the bewildering amount of different South Vietnamese insignia there is, especially when you consider the Country has a relatively short Military History compared to some other Armys!

Best get that book by Gary Murtha

Thanks Simon

[nguoi tien su]

I do agree with Jeff, avoid this dealer...
The material is very strange.
One good point is the way the writings were done.
But not to be trusted, for sure.

A few days ago, copies of the metal version were available on ebay...

NTS