Veteran Bringback Belt with 12 Helmet Insignia

[LetsGo82nd]

I picked up this unique veteran bring-back belt recently and it was instantly one of my favorite Pacific Theater items. The veteran used this captured Japanese Army belt to display his captured helmet insignia. Now I know why there always seem to be helmets missing insignia , veterans must have liked to collect these things. As another collector pointed out, for a front life grunt it must have been much easier to carry around some small insignia then an actual helmet. Another fellow member was also nice enough to point out the the belt was a Japanese Army issue, as I had just thought it was a regular belt at first. The belt itself hasn't aged well and is hard as a rock, zero flexibility at all. Here are some pictures. -Jeremy

[LetsGo82nd]

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[LetsGo82nd]

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[Papa Nambu]

In the tradition of the old WWI "Hate Belt".

[Striking 9th]

Really nice!! There are several painted over nickel naval badges pictured. This is the second one I have seen like this. The other being the 2d Marine div lot on ebay some time back. The quality of the badges on this one are far superior to the other. Like said before most all line infantry groups I have seen consist of cut insignia, helmet badges, and flags. All things that could be carried with ease. The badges esp the Navy ones were sought after. This is why you see so many Naval helmets w/o insignia. Very nice pickup. Thanks for posting.

The other thread: http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ight=hate+belt

[Paul G]

Just What I was thinking, a WW2 hate belt. Nice! haven't seen one like it before.

PG-

[Ryukyutunnelrat]

Now thats pretty cool. Nice pick up

David

[Milton]

GREAT piece! I've got a few and they're really unique. Congrats!

[alessio cammelli]

A super and moving item form the Pacific front....thanks for sharing with us...

Alessio

[Larry F.]

I wonder if the vet was keeping score?

[JCB]

awesome!!

Jim
JapaneseOrdnance(at)yahoo.com

[GeorgeP]

Very cool! you sure don't see that everyday.


Tom

[aircrew76]

Verry nice

has to be one of the best japanese items I have ever seen each nlf anchor is worth an easy 500.00 you got a deal !!!!!

[blinky]

First belt I've seen

Several years ago I bought a flag the vet had pinned stars and anchors to but somewhere along the line they were removed so all that remained were holes and the outlines. Since then I've been looking for something similar but un-futzed with....but no luck!

[peleliuexplorer]

Nice item, thanks for the pics.. Do you know where the veteran fought during WWII?

-Eric