How did we get our addiction to militaria collecting?

[JustinG]

Greetings,

I was thinking about some of the forums and viewing some wonderful collections from flags, weaponry, badges, field gear, etc.....
I'm curious about why each of us have decided to branch off and collect a specific category of militaria memorabilia?
What drew people to establishing a collection of knives, or having a very extensive collection of Luftwaffe combat awards?

I thought it would be a great time to share some of our specific collecting interests and maybe share some of our collections.



Myself,
I got a photo album of a sailor who was on a marine flak battery in Norway around the time of the Narvik Campaign, He later served on the Paul Jackobi. The photo album has some wonderful shots of the boat, some of the crew, training station, and some great general shots. So I began forming a collection of Kriegsmarine items. I have my battle flag, high seas fleet badge, iron cross 1st and 2nd class. Kriegsmarine Tally cap band. I also purchased a Narvik KM shield which spawned my love for the Campaign shields which I just completed my collection.
I am still waiting to complete my naval collection with a Destroyer and a Coastal artillery badge.
I have various pins and have alot of what are considered the basic awards: General Assault, Panzer, Infantry, U-boat badges.
I hope to continue my collection to one day, add a Gold German cross, and Knights Cross.

[pantherv]

[QUOTE=2dresq907;2927389]Greetings,

I was thinking about some of the forums and viewing some wonderful collections from flags, weaponry, badges, field gear, etc.....
I'm curious about why each of us have decided to branch off and collect a specific category of militaria memorabilia?
What drew people to establishing a collection of knives, or having a very extensive collection of Luftwaffe combat awards?

I thought it would be a great time to share some of our specific collecting interests and maybe share some of our collections.


Good question...When I started collecting about 4 years ago I decided only to collect what really interested me....Campaign Shields. Problem is, the field of collecting is just too vast with too many fakes so I concentrated on the shields and learned as much as I could in that area. I bought a EK1 a few months ago and sold it a few weeks later to fund another shield......

Although, like you, I do like the KM war badges possibly because of the Narvik shield connection. I'm tempted to start a small collection...

Post your shields if you can.......Peter

[Van]

It all started in 1969, we just moved into a new home and one of my dad's military trunks was sitting in a room in the downstairs of our house.. well being a kid and full of curiosity I naturally went through it.. I found a lot of cool things from the Korean war(B29 nose are pics, the record book from the armament office showing the bombing missions, bomb load outs and so on...) and then I lifted a pile of papers and SMACK" there it was, a near perfect condition SA Sports Leaders arm band with the RZM tag... under that was a Heer Sports shirt Eagle and under that was an SA dagger blade(no handle or such)...
Weeeellllllllll,, I asked my dad about the items(got in trouble for going through his stuff) but he told me how he came upon the items and the following Christmas, he gave them to me... so every since then, I have been collecting, but in 1987, when I met my soon to be wife, I sold all my items which included a nice infantry DAK tunic with a set of matching shorts, a KM battle flag from a U-boat(dont remember which one) an original Gestapo ID warrant disk( had it authenticated by a survivor/collector/historian of Auschwitz) who had a museum of things I could not and can not imagine owning..) and so on,,, my friends used to say I had a mini museum of TR items... sigh, what love will do to a person...lol.... but anyway, that is how I got addicted to collecting...
Van

[hucks216]

For me it started as a 13 year old, quite a few years ago now. I had always had an interest in reading about WW2 history from an even earlier age (as a 9 year old one of my school projects was about tanks!) and one year my parents decided as an additional Xmas 'treat' they would get me a WW 1 German EK II that they had seen in a local antique shop to go with my growing collection of books. From that my interest in German medals etc was stoked and although I didn't buy much after that until I had joined the Forces 4 years later, that was the moment that set me off on the path. I still have that EK II in my collection and for pure sentimental sake I don't think I will ever sell it even though I only collect WW 2 German items.

[bobcam1]

Mine began while sitting in front of the television in 1962, watching an episode of "Combat!", with my uncle.....
I commented on the fact that the German helmets looked cooler than the American ones, and my uncle went upstairs and came down with a German helmet in his hand. I was blown away!
He talked about the day that he captured this trophy and then proceeded to show me all of the "treasures" that he sent home from the war.....Uniforms, helmets, daggers, flags, medals.....I thought I had gone to heaven!

He talked about his war experiences for the rest of the week, with me, a willing and avid listener. He and his buddies were souvenir nuts, and sent home anything they could carry. They had raided stores and factories on the way to Berlin, and many of the items were pristine, and unissued.
He told the best stories about the "captured" items though, and showed great respect for the soldiers from whom he had captured those things.

Later that week, he came to our house and brought a box with that helmet, a tunic, a bunch of medals and awards, a flag and two daggers as a gift for me.
Over the course of the next year, virtually all of the things he brought home, including his own uniform, helmet, dogtags and papers were handed down to me.
This began a lifelong "obsession" with military collecting, and I treasured his gifts, as well as the countless other items that I amassed over the next 30 or so years, until all were lost in a dreadful house fire that consumed nearly everything I owned. (Thankfully, no one was injured...)

Many things that were lost have since been "found" again, due to my discovering this great forum, along with the wonderfully generous people here, who have helped me in ways that I will never be able to repay.
I must single out two people.....Raymond Griffiths, who is and always will be the consummate gentleman and friend who enabled my "Phoenix Collection" to rise from the ashes, and Chet Sowersby, who is as gracious and kind as they come and provided a wonderful centerpiece to my new collection as well as single-handedly starting my quest for obtaining a Ritterkreuz, sometime in the future...
There are many more of you who have been generous, kind and have given me great deals and more importantly, your friendship.
I'm truly grateful to all that I haven't mentioned, but have thanked privately.

I'm glad I found this place.....

Cheers,
Bob.

[RKarum]

I owe it all to my dad.
He is a Disabled American Veteran (DAV) who served in the 14th Air Corps and was stationed in Kunming China from 1942-1945. He was never awarded the Purple Heart for his wounds (he is 100% deaf as the resaults of an air attack on his base by the Japanese Air Force) but he was awarded the Bronze Star for his Heroic Acheivement during this air raid.
I remember dad and I would watch the World at War television series but he would never talk about his experiances.
When I began collecting at the age of 9 or 10, he of course was against it but later helped me with some of the items I have today.
I started off collecting bayonets from around the world and US helmets and as I got older and with my own source of income, I began collecting all wars with a focus on WWII German.
Sometime in the mid 1980's, dad gave me all the items he aquired while in the service and started to open up slightly about some of his experiances but to this day, he will not reveal how he was awarded the Bronze Star.

These are his/my war trophies.

[colt45s]

I went to Gettysburg 50 years ago, read a few civil war books, wanted to own a piece of it, - an 1862 cavalry sword - an 1832 musket - a U.S. Col. frock coat.. then german things were cheaper and easy to get

[Phil Slack]

how i started

how i started
i was 8 my mum deforced my dad and re married he was polish (all his family died )he was captured by the russians arriving in england in 1943 working in the raf .... but i hated him... even more what he started hitting my mum . so one of his meeting with old comrads i walked in waving a third reich flag and ss armband on (copys)what was easy to obtan as where i was born is a very racist town , i was 11 and angry young kid would do anything hurt him including saying im going to spit on his grave (what i did) and putting lead fishing weights in his dinner and snap crackers in his Tobacco . i started reading anything about the third reich i realy liked the story books leo kessler and sven hassel in one of the books was talking about the iron cross and i wanted one also i wanted it because lemmy from motorhead had one .
my first badges was cheap copys i can remember one of my 1st was a july44 wound badge . and i got my 1st original about 14 years old (war merit cross with swords 2nd class)
in the following years my mum told me about her dad who died in burma 1943
he was in the royal artillery he was shot up by a jap plane and was in hospital when died of Malaria she gave me the bullet that was took out of him and his personal items that was sent back with the paperwork from the forces saying how he died ect
from then on it wasn't a story in a book it was real . real people who faught and died and the people it touched . i started collecting british and german items and started to realise the german medals badges uniforms ect was alot nicer than alot of other countrys as years went on the true hobby and intrest started
finding out my family history helped as well 23 died in ww1 6 in ww2 one on the Hood and another at El Alamein
now im 41 years old and collected properly for 20+ years

[tigertank]

tigertank

o well ...:.... enyway...watchin the world at war in the 80 s...the one where the wehrmacht,,push the frogs over and the wehmacht do the march past at arch de:t;; in paris with o officer on the white horse at the marchpast cool if you can watch it do its

[byterock]

Started with Coin collecting in 77 then met a few other medal collectors and got interested,

Sort of lucked out when I started, the very much older generation of collectors (older WWII vets) were still about then and liked to help a kid out with some good deals (how about a junkers KC for $300 in 84). Very quickly got all the CW medals (save for the hard ones VC etc (did have a unattributed DSO though ) then branched into TR stuff.

Build up what I though was a rather large and almost complete collection of WM and KM medals and badges (the odd ball diamond and High end KC stuff I never even bothered with) untill I have seen some of the collection you chaps have.

Was lucky only got burned badly once by a 100 GA badge for 1200 in 1986 and was very weary after that.

Like a number of others I did the old got married had to sell every thing bit but it did put a nice down payment on my first house.

What I always wanted was a Air raid fist class (examined a few but never had the cash or the trade item on hand to get one when it was up for grabs)

Most odd ball items I had was a complete set of golden wedding jubilee medals for Wilhelm I and a Jerusalem Cross. Got in in trade for nothing really
A year or so later I got a phone call from a chap who hears a rumor I had a gold one.

He drove 1800miles to see them with a stripped medal bar. We tried mine out and it looked good not an exact match but good enough.

Well and after sealing the deal he saw my Jerusalem cross and immediately pulled out another bar that was missing that medal and sure enough it was an exact match.

He left my house almost in tears.

[Ron P]

In the late 50's two vets my older brother knew each gave him a German helmet: one M-42 Heer and one M-40 Luft. In 1963 when I was 10, a vet in the neighorhood gave me a German Cross in Gold mm1 which I lost playing army in the woods. Off and on I have been collecting ever since.

[tropenmilitaria]

Watched the "Rat Patrol" reruns on TV as a young kid and wanted anything DAK related since then.