For you militaria collectors out there (dated 2009)
Treasures in a scrap yard This is more a "scrap yard" find than an "attic" find. It happened 12 years ago.
I was visiting an industrial zone in the suburbs of Madrid with a fellow collector where all the scrap yards of the area are concentrated. These huge scrap yards have mostly old crashed cars and some metal leftovers for recycling. We used to make visits once a month just in case we found interesting military vehicles for sale, as someone had told us that only a year earlier you could buy ex-spanish army american MB willys jeeps or WC-52 trucks, saving them from the torch.
We were driving around and suddenly from the distance we saw what was literally a mountan full of helmets! The adrenaline rush was something i´ll never forget. Upon closer inspection, we discovered the mountain consisted of some spanish civil War m-21 and M-26 helmets, some post war american M1 type helmets, but mostly spanish Z-42, german look alike helmets.
We were nevertheless excited, as the lot looked really old. We started climbing the mountain and joking about how nice it would be if they would be german helmets. After all we knew Franco had received some amount of war material, including helmets, from Nazi Germany. Suddenly, I stepped on a huge, german M-35 helmet. Yes, it was a real german M-35 helmet!
As you can imagine, after finding that gem, we decided to "dig" for more. We spent the next fifteen days coming back every afternoon and literally moving the mountain from one area to the other by the system of climbing on the top and inspecting every helmet, one by one, and throwing the helmets to a side, thus forming a new, filtered helmet mountain.
We managed to find 38 german M-35 helmets of different sizes, complete with original liners but with post war chinstraps. Some had the Spanish eagle attached to the front, but others were perfectly clean.
I kept one specimen for me, an ET 68 sized helmet, only having to add an original chinstrap. The rest were sold for a good amount of money to a militaria dealer.
The owner of the scrap yard did not know what he had, and he thought we were crazy when we asked him permission to "look" in the helmet mountain. "Why would you do that?" he said. "All the helmets are the same. Just take as many as you like from the base of the mountain". Nevertheless, he agreed, and charged us the equivalent of 9 euros for each helmet.
The second photo shows the two mountains, the one on the back had already been checked. The last two photos are of the helmet I kept (and still have, of course). I really felt as if I was in an allied depot in 1945. The experience was magnificent.
By the way, we also found some well marked german bags, of which I kept a couple. They are black leather bags with shoulder straps that I think are ordnance related, maybe to store a telescopic sight, but never bothered to find out. I will take them out of the boxes and photograph one for you folks to help me identify them.
I apologize if my story was too boring and hope you like the photos.
Amazing. Who dumped them there is the bigger curiosity for me Where were they all that time before showing up at the local scrap yard Interesting bit of history for sure BobT
Who knows? I did some trading with a guy several years ago and I ended up a very nice M-35 "apple green" double decal helmet (refurbished). As we were standing around talking, I noticed stacks of German helmets in the back of his truck. I bet there were 150 or so. They were rough and some were rusted together. When I commented on them, the guy said look at this, He then showed me a photo where there were hundreds and maybe thousands of helmets stacked outdoors by chain link fence. He told me the picture was taken in Norway where these helmets had been used by the Norwegians during and after the war. I imagine many countries did the same. He was buying helmets from a guy in Norway and having them shipped over here where he then refurbished them. He said sometimes he'd use a little paint remover on the Norwegian paint and once it came off there would be good German paint and sometimes decals underneath. He'd put a liner and chinstrap on those and they were good to go.
Kids today have no idea what surplus stores used to be like, post WWII when they were chock-full of genuine U.S.G.I. stuff left over from "the big one" and dirt-cheap prices. None of this Chinesium re-pop stuff. Not to mention buying surplus rifles and pistols of all kinds for a few bucks shipped direct to your door, no paperwork, no muss, no fuss. Oh well. It was nice while it lasted.
Not boring at all, love stories like this - and hope Gus posts more photos
ReplyDeleteAmazing. Who dumped them there is the bigger curiosity for me Where were they all that time before showing up at the local scrap yard Interesting bit of history for sure BobT
ReplyDeleteWho knows? I did some trading with a guy several years ago and I ended up a very nice M-35 "apple green" double decal helmet (refurbished). As we were standing around talking, I noticed stacks of German helmets in the back of his truck. I bet there were 150 or so. They were rough and some were rusted together. When I commented on them, the guy said look at this, He then showed me a photo where there were hundreds and maybe thousands of helmets stacked outdoors by chain link fence. He told me the picture was taken in Norway where these helmets had been used by the Norwegians during and after the war. I imagine many countries did the same. He was buying helmets from a guy in Norway and having them shipped over here where he then refurbished them. He said sometimes he'd use a little paint remover on the Norwegian paint and once it came off there would be good German paint and sometimes decals underneath. He'd put a liner and chinstrap on those and they were good to go.
DeleteKids today have no idea what surplus stores used to be like, post WWII when they were chock-full of genuine U.S.G.I. stuff left over from "the big one" and dirt-cheap prices. None of this Chinesium re-pop stuff. Not to mention buying surplus rifles and pistols of all kinds for a few bucks shipped direct to your door, no paperwork, no muss, no fuss. Oh well. It was nice while it lasted.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely, "One man's trash is another man's treasure"!!
ReplyDeleteAnd that is some serious treasure. I would like to have one.
DeleteGreat post Jeffery.