Coming soon: The Pacific HBO series

This week saw the start of the long awaited new 10-part series The Pacific on HBO, also known as 'Band of Brothers - Pacific' at Prime TV in Belgium, only 2 weeks after the start of the series in the US. The first reviews are very promising, saying Spielberg and Hanks have surpassed themselves again. I can't wait to see it.

Review: The Last Drop

I got this DVD for my birthday and only just watched it this past weekend. The title and description were promising: something with British paratroopers in a secret WW2 operation. But the movie sucks every way you look at it. The movie starts out with a console game quality (not silver screen quality) 3D animation of a train of C-47s towing Horsa gliders. Then we are treated to a mix of hard to understand Cockney, Irish, etc. accents which I assume were intendend to add to the realism of the colorful mix of British glider troops.

It gets really bad when the Americans come into the picture. Michael Madsen, who we all know from Reservoir Dogs, plays a 101st Airborne Major. Absolutely no effort at realism has been done when it comes to his uniform. He wears Vietnam era pilot's sunglasses, some type of postwar belt and helmet, and lateron he even wears a Belgian officer's cap with a US eagle device on it. Not to mention his Elvis-type hairdo. His fellow paratroopers wear embroidered 50-star arm flags. More uniform goofs in this movie can be found here at IMDB.

All that may be forgiven if the storyline were surprising or funny, but even Allo Allo had a better plot about art treasures stolen by the Germans. I rest my case.

Exhibit: From D-Day to V-Day

Several collectors have organized a unique expo of WW2 militaria at the For Freedom Museum in Knokke-Heist, Belgium. Opening days are 6-7, 13-14 and 20-21 March 2010, from 10-17h00.
The proceeds of the exhibit go to the museum.

More info can be found in the article at Nieuwsblad.be

Denix M1 Garand now takes bayonet

In my earlier review of the Denix M1 Garand I wrote that it does not take a genuine bayonet. But with some patient filing away at the pot metal bayonet lug and barrel shroud, it will. All you need is a small flat metal file as shown in the photos (these are commonly sold in sets of 5 files). Most of the filing is needed at the bottom of the bayonet lug. A bit less at the inside of the bayonet lug at the sides and at the front. A lot of filing is also needed on the barrel shroud. In the photos you can tell by the blank metal where I have filed. The trick is to be patient and to keep trying to fit the bayonet until it easily slips on. The last part I filed at was inside the front of the bayonet lug, so now the bayonet even clicks in place as it should.

Read the updated review

Book review: Uniforms, Weapons and Equipment of the WW2 GI

I bought this book mostly because of its curiosity value as the very first collector's guide, published in 1982 (first and only print). It is of course in black and white and contains a lot of photos and interesting explanations which show the authors have researched the topic quite well. It is written more as a history book than a collector's guide, but still interesting for the collector. Not a book you need to search for though, as later publications are much more comprehensive.

Review: reproduction paratrooper leg bag

I ordered this leg bag from The Military History Workshop back in November. These are the people who made them for Band of Brothers. Most orders are custom made, so it takes about two months, but it's worth the wait. This reproduction British-made type leg bag is a dead ringer for the original. I compared it to good pictures I had on file from an original, and it is amazing. The same material (rivets, fabric, felt, rings, press studs, everything). It came with a reproduction quick release buckle, but I managed to find an original to replace it, so now it is as good as indistinguishable from an original. If I really must name one gripe, is that it is in unissued condition with just the slightest aging done to some of the khaki webbing and the white release tape. The brass rings also need to dull a bit with age, although they are not shiny. But come to think of it, a leg bag should look unissued when you put it on display on a mannequin with a parachute. That's because US paratroopers never got to train with these bags prior to the Normandy jump (which is why so many lost their leg bags and all the equipment in it during the jump), and because these bags were discarded after the jump. So, in conclusion, and perhaps for the first time in any of my reviews, I have to say that this reproduction is perfect! The price of 200 GBP (plus about 50 for an original quick release buckle) is also very reasonable, especially compared to the 5000 EUR you can expect to pay for an original (if you can find one).
View the photo album

Update: purple ink marking on gas detection brassards

The photo below was sent to me by Paul Smith. His brassard looks authentic, but he was wondering about the color of the ink of the stamping inside. This was an aspect I had not considered when I first wrote the article. But when comparing his picture to others I have on file (yes, I am one of those tireless auction pic hunters), I found another one with the marking in purple ink. Also including 'SL' in the code. I still have no clue what these codes stand for, except for the month/year part. I surmise that 'SL' is the manufacturer code and that the ink was originally black too, as on the others shown in my article, but that the ink discolored over time. You may have noticed similar discoloration from black to purple on WW2 period documents. So I am putting it down to a different ink used by that particular manufacturer.
Full article

Review: Museum Dezember 1944

I must have been a teenager when I last visited this museum at La Gleize in the Ardennes. It is one of the many museums in the area about the Battle of the Bulge. Most started as private collections that grew into museums open to the public. Some larger than others. All of the ones I have visited have American and German mannequins, but most focus on a particular part of the Ardennes offensive. Dezember 1944 focuses on the battle at and around La Gleize. Nearby is the famous village of Trois Ponts, where the 505th PIR of the 82nd Airborne managed to push back the advance of the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler of the 1st SS Panzerdivision.
I visited the museum again last weekend, and found it pretty much as I remembered it. Quite small, but with some interesting pieces. To name a few: 82nd Airborne uniforms and helmets (which were mostly unmarked by the way), M1 and M9 bazookas, a 75mm pack howitzer, a white tongue 101st Airborne patch, some M1A1 carbines, and an SS paratrooper with a spotted camo jumpsmock (Knochensack). I am no specialist at that, but I think that must be very rare. This is the second museum with a repro FG42 on display (the other one is at Ambleteuse in France). This repro is really awesome, and perfectly acceptable to show in a museum, but I think they ought to point out that it's a copy. Anyway, the museum is really worth the 5 EUR visit. But don't buy the guide in Dutch, which is another 5 EUR. The translation is terrible.

Updated: dated Taylor wrist compasses

I always thought that the Taylor wrist compasses were never dated, but Henry Behrendt send me pictures of two Taylor wrist compasses which he opened up. He found out that the spiral inside is marked at the bottom. One is clearly dated JUN 15 1944.
Full article...

Link: Para Research Team

Surfing on a snowy Sunday, I stumbled upon the nice web site of Para Research Team by Donald Van Den Bogert. A guy who knows a lot about paratroopers and has put a lot of time (much more than me!) in research. Some very interesting uniform and equipment pictures can also be found on this site.

Also check out my updated Links page. Some sites have disappeared, but I added some new ones too.