Table of contents for June 2022 in The Armourer

The March auction at European specialist Ratisbon’s offered a treasure trove of Third Reich militaria. Let’s get things going with a Heer M40 Inf.Rgt.186 field tunic with medals which came directly from the veteran's estate. The shoulder boards were slip on boards for an infantry Unteroffizier serving with Inf.Rgt.186. Incredibly, all the medals and awards were still attached to the tunic! It sold for £2,909 (includes Buyer’s Premium of 22.5%). Now, how about this, a Heer Panzer jacket, for an Obergefreiter which came straight from the widow of the wearer. It featured late war shoulder boards, EM type, with silk lining. There were matching collar tabs with zinc skulls, silk piping, attached by machine. It featured a machine-wounded woven breast eagle and a hand-attached Iron Cross ribbon. There was a…

We recently featured the E-Boat War Badge, for sailors on those speedy and dangerous Schnellboot, but here we have an award for crews of the biggest German ships of WWII. The Das Flottenkriegsabzeichen, otherwise known as the High Seas Fleet War Badge, was instituted on 30 April 1941, to reward and recognise the crews of, primarily, battleships and cruisers engaged in actions against the British Royal Navy. To qualify for the Badge, the basic requirement was 12 weeks at sea with good conduct but it was also awarded if a sailor had been wounded in action against the enemy, or was on board a ship that sank. Other criteria also included leadership and engaging in successful actions against the Royal Navy. The crews of Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz…

We are heading for the Pacific next month and the crucial Battle of Midway that put the Japanese on the back foot for the first time and gave the American fleet a resounding victory. We’ll have all the collectables you can look for from this naval and air encounter as well. Now, you asked for it, and John Walter has written it, it’s a guide to collecting Air Rifles of the 1920s and ‘30s. Ray Westlake also chips in with a feature on regimental badges, while author Neil Storey takes a look at Wartime Industries in Britain. We have the next in the Warsaw Pact webbing series, this time examining what the forces of East Germany were kitted out with while Graham Priest takes a look at the weaponry of…

EXHIBITIONS The Queen at war The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee at IWM explores over 70 years of crown and conflict through photography, film and objects. Marking the Platinum Jubilee this spring, Imperial War Museums (IWM) will present a programme that explores the role of The Royal Family in conflict, tracing The Queen’s personal experience of war through poignant items, including rarely seen film and photography. As Princess Elizabeth, The Queen’s first public duties were during the World War II, which broke out when she was 13 years old. Upon joining the Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1945, she became the first woman in The Royal Family to enlist as a full-time member of the armed services. Crown and Conflict: Portraits of a Queen in Wartime IWM London, 27 May 2022–8 January 2023…

Antique arms at Hermann Historica The next clutch of auctions is coming up at Hermann Historica on 17 May, so let’s start with the Antique Arms and Armour catalogue. Here’s a nice looking, silver-mounted Ottoman khanjar from the latter part of the 18th century. Featuring a double-edged, slightly curved (minimal notched) blade made of grained Wootz-Damascus with a central ridge on both sides. The silver grip and the scabbard decorated with richly embossed flowers and tendrils, with a shell-shaped end. Starting price is €600. A little longer, but still with the Ottoman’s, this one is a silverin-laid yatagan, dated 1802. It has a slightly broadened steel blade towards the tip, decorated on both sides with inscriptions or cartouches almost entirely inlaid in silver. Florally embossed silver grip and blade mount…

14 MAY Temple at War. The show returns this year showcasing some of the very best military re-enactment, vehicles and vintage displays and ephemera. There will be the usual trade stalls and an appearances by Corporal Nauyokas of the TV show Bad Lads Army compliments what should be a cracking show this year. Location: Cressing Temple Barns, Witham Road, Cressing, Braintree Essex Contact: www.templeatwar.co.uk 11-12 JUNE Folkestone and Ashford Military Show. A great day out for all the family which encompasses military displays, re-enactments, trade stalls the Battle of Britain memorial flight are due to put in an appearance (weather permitting). Location: Sellindge Showground, Sellindge, Ashford, Kent TN25 6HH Contact: info@faams.co.uk 24-26 JUNE Tankfest 2022. This is another huge event in the military show calendar which takes place at Bovington…

By the mid-1820s the Zulu kingdom, located north of what became Natal on the eastern coast of Southern Africa between the uKhahlamba (Drakensberg) mountains and the Indian Ocean, had become both economically and militarily strong under the leadership of Shaka kaSenzangakhona. At around this time the Zulus first came into contact with the British when merchants established a small trading post at the Bay of Natal. 55 years later, the fiercely independent Zulus would suffer a decisive defeat at the hands of the British. During the 1830s, Dutch settlers, who had suddenly found themselves under British rule following the latter’s possession of the Cape earlier in the 19th century, attempted to escape the British authorities by trekking north into the interior of Southern Africa. This prompted the British to annex…

During the early part of the war the Waffen-SS had fought with fanatical determination and bravery, even when greatly outnumbered and other units had withdrawn. As a result of its reputation and success on the battlefield, it had expanded from one Waffen-SS division to five in less than a year. However, as the war against Russia loomed, further large-scale recruitment continued. This included yet another new SS battle group or Kampfgruppe. For this the men were initially drafted from the concentration camp guards or SS-Totenkopfverbande, and created into what was known as SS-Kampfgruppe Nord. Later this new SS unit began recruiting more men, mainly volunteers from Hungary, Romania and a few Norwegians, all built around a German cadre. The SS-Kampfgruppe Nord’s first duties were to guard the border with Russia…

The first two permanent companies/batteries of artillery of the British Army were organised in 1716 and were structured for the first time as independent corps. In 1720 they received the official denomination of Royal Artillery, but in practice they were an autonomous military force since their creation. Very soon the two original companies were increased to four and were assembled – at least from an administrative point of view – with the artillery companies that were of garrison in Gibraltar and Menorca since the end of the War of the Spanish Succession. As a result of these organisational changes, in 1722 it was possible to create the socalled Royal Regiment of Artillery. This had the numerical consistency of a single battalion, but very soon its members became famous for their…

As I type this, we have been remembering the Falklands Conflict. Although not actually classed as a war, as nobody declared war, just like the Malayan Conflict, to all intents and purposes it was indeed a shooting war. I can remember as a 15-year-old staying up every night to watch the updates on the TV and hearing about local boys not much older than myself who were on the taskforce sailing south. As a boy who grew up reading Commando comics and playing with Action Man, it was captivating. Carry On Yomping! is the second volume of a series of cartoons drawn by three Royal Marines about the Falklands crisis. The cartoons were initially intended for private circulation amongst the task force, to maintain morale by raising a chuckle. This…

The March auction at DNW was full of interesting lots, particularly for medal collectors. Let’s start with some from the collection of the late Roy Painter, firstly with three from Captain JFC Boyle, 38th Foot, who carried the colours at the battle of Alma in the Crimean War. There was the Crimea 1854-56 medal with three clasps for ‘Alma’, ‘Balaklava’ and ‘Sebastopol’; an Indian Mutiny 1857-59 medal with one clasp for ‘Lucknow’; and a Turkish Crimea 1855 medal, Sardinian issue. The three medals sold for £6,440 (includes Buyer’s Premium and VAT of 28.8%). Next, a pair of medals to Captain HJ Johnson who fought in both India and Zululand, including the final engagement at Ulundi. Johnson served with the 80th Foot. The medals were the India General Service 1854-95, one…

PART 2/6 In the second part of this Cold War series on the webbing of the Warsaw Pact we turn to Poland. The Polish People’s Army had been created by the Soviets in 1943 and was to remain the army of the state until the fall of communism in 1989. For a population of around 36 million people, the Polish people’s Army was quite large, with a standing force of 400,000 men for most of the 1980s. This was an obvious drain on the nation’s resources, but reduction in the manning of the force would only come after the end of the Cold War. Despite its large size, the Polish People’s Army was reasonably well equipped, certainly when compared to its Soviet counterpart. Towards the end of the 1960s, the…

PART 3/3 With the end of World War II in 1945 America and Soviet Russia, uneasy allies during the conflict, went their separate ways, while maintaining a deep distrust and suspicion of each other’s lifestyles and motives. The result was a Cold War that lasted until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Espionage, during this time, was rife on both sides, and cameras formed major tools of the trade. Unfortunately, for camera collectors today, there is a somewhat blurred line between what was genuinely made for spying purposes and equipment that might have been manufactured later, purely for the collectors’ market. Nevertheless, the era has produced, or sometimes merely influenced, a significant number of curious cameras. By and large Cold War cameras fall into two camps. Existing equipment…

The 1st Administrative Battalion of Berwickshire Rifle Volunteers was formed with headquarters at Duns in November 1863. Included in it were the county’s seven numbered rifle volunteer corps: 1st (Duns), 2nd (Coldstream), 3rd (Ayton), 4th (Greenlaw), 5th (Lauderdale), 6th (Earlston) and 7th (Chirnside). Headquarters moved to Coldstream on 1 November 1876. Consolidation in 1880 saw the battalion designated as the 1st Berwickshire Rifle Volunteer Corps, serving as a volunteer battalion of the Royal Scots until 1887 when it was transferred to the Kings Own Scottish Borderers. With the move came the new title of 2nd (Berwickshire) Volunteer Battalion.…