Archive for August, 2010

Question Arisaka Chambered in .30-06

Hi All,
A friend of mine came across an Arisaka chambered in .30-06 while performing a house cleanout. I assume it was a Type 99 as when I showed him my Type 30, he described the one he saw as being shorter and lacking the anti-aircraft sight .

I know these, along with other military rifles, have been converted by civilians for personal use to shoot more readily available ammo. I did some research and found that in addition to being re-chambered by civilians, the ROKA re-chambered roughly 130,000 Type 99’s to .30-06 to be used by them during the Korean War.

He however is stating (although his information is from a 3rd party) that towards the end of WWII, when Japanese ammo supplies were limited, the Japanese manufactured last ditch rifles so they could shoot .30-06 ammo as they had stock piled ammo captured from the US.

He is also saying that the estimated value on the rifle (again from the 3rd party) was $3000-$4000.

I was unable to confirm that the Japanese did re-chamber their rifles for .30-06. Was this the case? On the chance that this was one re-chambered by the ROKA and not for civilian use, would it be this valuable? I assume there would also be some type of armory mark to show the ROKA reworked the rifle, or am I mistaken?

He unfortunately was unable to retain the rifle as the family of the persons house he was cleaning out kept it, which means no photos to share, but this has now peaked my interest.

Thanks in advance for your replies!

Lufty Landing strip light.

Guys,

Another of these heavy lamps.

Note the FL number.

Jock:)
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LAH versus HAL

Guys,

I got these today and remember a debate in the Armourer Mag about Hapag Lloyd versus LAH silverware. They were not too dear but I had to pay for the silver.

The rougher looking of the two is dated 1914 and as such has little to do with what followed. The house clearance bloke I got them from said they are the last couple of bits from a sailor that nicked them when he worked for Hapag Lloyd.

Jock:)


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Question about upgrading a Reproduction M1940

I have a reproduction German helmet bought way back in the early eighties. It cost me £40 which good money then. The same shop had ‘genuine’ helmets for sale for £50. Even though I knew nothing about German helmets back then. I wasn’t that stupid.

It essentially represents an M40. I got some decals for it back then and now it’s a double decal M40 with plenty of wear so on first inspection it can look genuine to the unitiated. The problem with it is the liner which looks good until you find that it’s plastic rather than steel or aluminium. Plus I fancy getting a camo cover for it.

My problem is that the helmet is not marked as a size, so I would be taking pot luck in buying a better liner. So does anyone know how the helmet size was measured. Is it external or internal or is there some other way?

Plus does anyone have any recommendations for good liners. I would assume it would be steel to match the period it represents. Plus who does good camo covers with a properly authentic pattern?

Any ideas?

Panzer hat

Saludos, este sombrero se ha vendido en Ebay por 631 euros según su dueño , dice , y dice que es original, estuve tentado de hacer una oferta, pero me encontré con un montón de dinero para que te crea , y el precio de venta para este tapa se parece bien o muy alto ?

Excuse my poor English, a translator


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ww1 tranny restore, well kind of!!

hi guys i have had this lid over the past few months it was my fathers and hes had it about 15 years+ he says it had a original dull metal finish on places and black post war paint here and there so he painted it AGAIN but green this time and put some of his club insignias on the sides etc (hes a biker) and is a bit of a doofus for doing this :shok_yikes:

he says it had the ww2 liner band in it when he got it but no liner he also remembers it was hard to come out the lid when he primered it and painted it so inlisted the help of a screwdriver so the liner band is bent in a few places he then wrapped an old leather jacket color around the band and taped it up.

well today i set about it for 20 mins with some nail varnish remover and found the base metal to have a nice old dark patina also found under the bottom coat of black a nice sheild outline of the decal its mostly well gone to time but it has alot of bits sparkling all over the shot defo silver or gold metal like, you can see it in hand no problem.

its marked in the skirt ET66 cant see a lot number did these trannys have lot numbers?maybe under the paint the liner band is also maker marked and dated 1941 also has 66/59 which i take to be the shell/liner size marks.

real sad this old lid had to go through all this, then have me attack it with nail varnish remover yet again which i dont reakon i should have done, well with nail varnish remover anyway, it would take years to come of with that alone can anyone please tell me what would be better to use? once all the postwar paint is off it will look much better!

i figured it had already been messed with anyway so what the hell?

cheers for any infos i sure wish i had somebody that knew what they were doing :D

regards,ewan


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Then-and-now photographs… rolled into one

Hope this has not been posted before somewhere.
I find these images quite interesting: Sergey Larenkov, a Russian photographer, digitally combines parts of wartime images with present-day pictures of the same locations, shot from the same angles.

As a preview, here is a direct link to the large version of a typical image:
http://pics.livejournal.com/sergey_l…v/pic/000608bd

And here is the homepage to four galleries, including more images from Berlin as well as besieged Leningrad:
sergey_larenkov’s galleries

Question Digging up the remains of a German fighter from the Jagdstaffel 11./III./JG 5. (Crashed 9 febuary 1945).

Friday 9 Febuary 1945 a German plane was flying to Herdla airport and it got shot down and crashlanded on an island called Toska(Which just happens to be where i was born), the airplane got shot down by friendly fire from a fortress in the area and the pilot bailed out and was brought into the nearby town of Manger. The people thought he was British and tried speaking english to him, but he kept his mouth shut, they even asked the priest to talk to him, but he kept his mouth shut until the Germans came and picked him up. The next day, the Germans came and gathered the big parts of what was left of the plane.

And eyewitness i talked to said: "I was out working on the farm, when i hear cannons firing and i see tracers, even though it was in the middle of the day. The plane almost hit our farm and came down really low over the farm, until it crashed in a field. There was a big explosion and a part of the propellor landed next to a fence outside our home, i wanted to go get it, but it was during the war so i didn’t dare".

In the 1980’s they made a new road on the island and they removed the fence and probably a lot of parts. But even though my father and a lot of other people said "There is probably nothing left". I decided to look for parts after all, i got a permission from the woman that owns the field. And i started digging, the first couple days i detected in the bottom of the field and the only thing i was able to find were parts of an old barn the tore down. But one day when i was digging, a good friend of mine who saw the plane crash told me to search higher up, and boy did i hit the jackpot. I had found exactly where the plane crashed and in just 1 small hole i found 80 rounds, i also found a couple of 20mm rounds(Empty ones of course, most of the 20mm shells were destroyed, or badly damaged in the crash. I did find 2 intact explosive parts of the 20mm which i had to dump in the ocean).

And i was wondering if anybody had any information about Uffz. Herbert Schäfer of the Jagdstaffel 11./III./JG 5 . And what he had done before it got shot down(A lot of the 7,92 rounds have been fired, so i am wondering why).

Question White band on soldiers head cap?

As a spin off to an earlier question about No. 6 Batalionie Telegraficzny what is the significance of the white band on the head cap of the soldier with the phone? It's not a trick of light.

Image is from http://www.rkd.friko.pl/gora.html

Regards
Chris............
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ND M40 on Ebay

Now, I don’t really bother with Ebay these days, but whilst I was browsing leisurely earlier today I came across this one, and I like the look of it. Anyone got any thoughts? If I had the money, I think I would be bidding.Maybe some of you are?!;)
the link - German helmet from Normandy on eBay (end time 01-Sep-10 12:41:20 BST)


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