41 years ago.....

[Tiger 1]

Hi guys....
Been rummaging thru some boxes and found this old reference packed away. I'm sure we will see the humor in the sage advice contained inside.
I think we can all appreciate how far we've come in the collecting community with the many fine references and the various Internet forums we now have at our disposal.
As usual comments and brick bats welcome.
Enjoy!
Tony

[Tiger 1]

Title page and copyright....

[Tiger 1]

The good stuff....Iron Crosses!

[Tiger 1]

Knight's Cross....

[Tiger 1]

Well there ya go. Enjoy the sage advice from way back.....

[rfleming32]

I can't believe Dietrich didn't put anything in his book about splitting crosses. A huge oversight. If it doesn't look old, it is not real.

[Tiger 1]

We need to get Dietrich on board......must be a 'secret' he's keeping from us.

[Scott C.]

I'm not 100% certain, but the Iron Cross pictured in the booklet may be a reproduction.

[Bob Hritz]

You guys don't split your Iron Crosses and Knight's Crosses? Well, no wonder you need forums to tell originals. A good sharp knife and wooden mallet will split all your original crosses and you can sleep comfortably knowing your bag of parts are all original.

The fact that Dietrich missed this important tool for evaluating crosses is unforgivable!

Bob Hritz

[tgn]

Reminds of Dave Shenkels who used to blow torch badges to see if they were original. If they melted, they were fake. When not testing medals he was busy stripping, re-painting and applying new decals (only the same type decal or decals that were originally present) to his helmets. He even did this to a single decal para helmet.

On the other hand, he did show me the different characteristics about US M1 helmets when no one cared about them. Gave me a heads up on getting some nice WW2 US helmets.

He was quite a character. May he rest in peace.

Tom

[Jean-Claude]

Thanks for sharing Tony

I wonder why I'm missing that gem since I have so many...

- J. A. Sawicki - Nazi Decorations and Badges 1933-1945 (1958)
- Rudolph Kahl's - 4 vol. set of line drawing illustrated books on medals & uniforms (1970/71)
- Littlejohn/Dodkins - 2 vol. Orders, Decorations, Medals & Badges of the TR ... (1968/72)
- J. R. Angolia - 2 vol. For Führer & Fatherland (1976/78)
- Bender/Taylor - 3 vol. Uniforms, Organization and History of the Waffen SS (1969/72)

and many others...

Are you saying my little TR reference library dating back to the 70's might be a bit obsolete?

JC

[George L]

Old school cool books, and thanks for sharing. Damn, I didn't know how to tell an EK was genuine after all these years? Here's another one from 1962, and they had some pictures!

[Ludwig]

Not everything was better in the old days.