NEW THIS WEEK – MONDAY 24 MAY 2010
Hi and welcome to what’s new on Miliblog this week. Well after getting our feet wet last week, it’s back onto firm ground again as we head East once more for some more photos in our Eastern Front Collcetion. I can never understand why there are so many photos around of German forces in WW2 taken by the servicemen themselves. Is it because German cameras in the 1930′s were noted as being the best in the World, and cheaper and more available or what ? It’s always very hard to find photos taken by British or Commonwealth troops or indeed US servicemen while serving abroad.
So for starters this week, we have two knocked out Soviet tanks, with one providing valuable information for our modelling friends who are into super-detailing their models. Following on is a good shot of some German infantry marching past another knocked out Soviet tank. Looking at their dress, I think this is in mid-Summer and makes a contrast to many of our photos which show Winter scenes. Just look though at all the equipment they are loaded up with.
Next we have another group of German infantrymen marching along in the Summer, with one shouldering an MG34 machine gun. Following on we have a complete opposite of the previous two photos with a nice shot of Winter camouflage oversmocks in a Christmassy scene !!! Lastly we have an enlarged photo from a small snap of a German infantryman. Useful for a close up on the uniform and the rubber bands on his helmet, used for attaching camouflage, usually items found in the field such as tree branhes, twigs or leaves.
So next week, we’re off to Wolverhampton West Park Show, where weather permitting, we’ll have a good turnout of military vehicles to bring to you.
Cheerio !
Simon
Eastern Front Collection No 1159
Eastern Front Collection No 1171
Eastern Front Collection No 1188
Eastern Front Collection No 1206
Eastern Front Collection No 1218
The sun shone brightly and a hot for the organisors of this relatively new show near the town of Evesham, in Worcestershire. Organised by the South Midlands Area of the Military Vehicle Trust, it was held at the Ashdown WW2 Camp in the village of Badsey. It was a two day event held over the weekend of 26 and 27 of June.
Paul Valiadis, a good friend of Miliblog and the Chairman of the South Midlands Area, was seen around with his high-viz jacket either ushering vehicles into the arena or having a chat to other enthusiats. Paul’s own Austin K9 Wireless Truck was there in fine condition. Sorry Paul we weren’t able to take a photo as a wire fence was in the way ! Paul’s very much a fan of Austin K9′s by the way, running the K9 Register, and no, nothing to do with either dogs or Dr Who robots !!! Sorry Paul, but we couldn’t catch up with you for a chat !!! …….but we’ll be in touch
Well, what did we think of the show ? Absolutely brilliant !!!!!! Nice display areas, a fantastic selection of vehicles, plenty of room to move around in between them, good parking and a good selection of trade stands. What also was nice to see was that there was a small selection of civilian vehicles as well, The title said Wartime in the Vale, meaning the Vale of Evesham, and of course wartime tractors, cars etc were a nice addition. There were also a number of groups of re-enactors, with the one group portraying a USMC unit making an impression with some excellent groundworks.
Well who did we meet ? We met a great bunch of chaps with the Champ Camp of the Austion Champ Owners Club. After all these years of owning a watimr Ford Gpw Jeep, Phil Plumb made a very sound case indeed to add a Champ to our collection. He’d taken a group of Champs over to Germany last year along with some old soldiers visiting the old camps they were stationed, Around 150 miles a day over 10 days and never a complaint. Also a hello to the three guys who wanted to know if we were like the beach photographer who’d take their photo and then be back for £5 for the photo next day. Well you’re here free of charge !!!
So we’d read last year that the show had the making of becoming a great show in the future, and all we can say is that we agree 100%. There’s the room to grow and communications to get there are good to. So a highly recommended show for next year’s diary.
NEW THIS WEEK – MONDAY 17 MAY 2010
Welcome to this week’s newsletter with something a bit different. Miliblog started off with lots of photographs of military vehicles and badges. Then we were asked by some model makers if we had any more photos of Jet Provost aircraft by any chance, having seen our museum report of the Boulton and Paul Museum. So we added to our aircraft collection.
Not to be outdone, the senior service, the Royal Navy has come on the radar, with some further requests for any ship photos. So just for you, gentleman, this week is one for our naval enthusiasts. However there is also an aircraft connection with two of our samples below as you can see.
We start with one of the largest ships afloat in the form of the American aircraft carrier, USS Theodore Roosevelt. Just look at the size of it. Following on is another giant of the sea, the USS Ronald Reagan.
Our third photo shows HMS Southampton, a Type 42 Destroyer commissioned in 1981. Rather sadly, after being decommissioned in February 2009, she now lies off Whale Island in Portsmouth awaiting disposal.
Our next ship of the Royal Navy is HMS Enterprise, a Survey Vessel, Hydrographic Oceanographic and one of the Echo Class. Photographed in Dartmouth in Devon while we were on holiday, you probably recognise it from the Miliblog home page. Following on is HMS Brocklesby, one the Hunt Class of mine sweepers.
Lastly is the streamlined Danish Navy ship Esbern Snare, a Command and Support ship launched in 2005. Just looking at the lines of this ship, it just has to be a Scandinavian vessel.
So I hope you’ve enjoyed looking these sample photos and may at an area of the military that you may not have usually looked at before.
Have a great week !
Cheerio !
Simon
CVN-71 USS Theodore Roosevelt
CVN-76 USS Ronald Reagan
D90 HMS Southampton
H88 HMS Enterprise
M33 HMS Brocklesby
L17 Esbern Snare
NEW THIS WEEK – MONDAY 10 MAY 2010
Hello and welcome to this week’s newsletter where this week we’re cranked up the old scanner and entered on some more photos of life on the Russian Front in our Eastern Front Collection. These photos have been added to over the years and now we have nearly 1,500 photos to share with you.
So as usual, we have five samples below to give you a taster of what is in the collection. We kick off with a Panzer III set in what looks like a damp and cold winters day. A real winters day is next with a German patrol marching off complete with skis and full winter camouflage. Our third sample shows a Soviet KV-2 Heavy Tank that’s had it’s turret redesigned. Image the force of explosion that shifted that amount of metal with one blow.
Our fourth sample shows quite a cheery looking chap out for some exercise and it makes you think what happened to him. Did he survive to go on to have lots of grandchildren or did he lose his life in one of the major battles ? Finally we have an early Soviet T-34/76 tank, with a 76mm gun. From this angle it hardly looks damaged. Maybe it just broke down with mechanical problems.
So I hope you are all still enjoying visiting Miliblog and with over 6,500 photos now on the website, there should be something new to find each visit.
Have a great week.
Cheerio !
Simon
Eastern Front Collection No 1098
Eastern Front Collection No 1104
Eastern Front Collection No 1135
Eastern Front Collection No 1137
Eastern Front Collection No 1154
NEW THIS WEEK – MONDAY 3 MAY 2010
Welcome to this week’s newsletter
Monday this week was a national holiday in the UK, like many European countries. In Moscow, the Soviets held their annual May Day parade, but this year it was a very different one indeed. For the first time, forces from foreign countries were invited to join the parade, and so there were soldiers from the USA, Poland, France and of course dear old GB. We saw on the news the Ist Battalion, the Welsh Guards parading in Red Square, which was a most unusual sight to see on television.
Earlier this year, a book was published all about our dear friend the AEC Matador gun tractor. Whether it be famous as an Aifix plastic kit when we were growing up, in wartime service, used as transport for various circuses or fun fairs and then as a forestry worker. On Miliblog we have nearly 150 photos of these wonderful lorries and this weeks newsletter is dedicated to them. So please enjoy the samples below showing the Matador in a number of guises. Look at the last photo if you want to see a modified Matador !!!To visit all our photos, the look under British WW2 Gun Tractors on the photo menus.
Have a great week and I’ll see you soon !
Cheerio !
Simon
AEC 0853 Matador (002 NS)
AEC 0853 Matador (192 TT)
AEC 0853 Matador (511 AY)
AEC 0853 Matador (554 OR)
AEC 0853 Matador (MTG 491 E)
AEC 0853 Matador (SLT 154 F)
AEC 0853 Matador (XUO 718 K)
NEW THIS WEEK – MONDAY 26 APRIL 2010
Hi and welcome everyone to this week’s newletter.
This week after a cool week, Miliblog ventured out to the town of Stafford, just 30 miles North of Birmingham to visit the new Ex-Mil show. Held at the Stafford County Showground, just North of the town and close to RAF Stafford, which is famous for it’s huge underground stores and famed as still holding stocks of wartime motorcycles and other wartime goodies. Organised by Amanda and Graham Lycett of Jeeparts fame, who also are behind the successful Militaria Convention at Malvern. This was their first show at this location and we wanted to see how it was going. Initially it was disappointing from the number of people visiting the show and by lunchtime when we arrived, many of the stallholders were just chatting to themselves. However they were all most enthusiastic and agreed with us that it has the makings of a great show. For a full show visit and further photos, have a look at our show report under Show and Museum visits. I’ve just popped on a few samples below. It was interesting to see examples for sale of both the Soviet and German machine guns that are featured so much in our Eastern Front Collection. In fact it was quite spooky !
We did try and have a chat with Amanda herself to see how it was going, but I think we were seen as the Paperazzi, as she was surrounded by security guards !!! See the picture below !!!
Still we wish them both success for the next show and we ask our fellow military enthusiasts to visit the show and support them. The stands were excellent and we could have spent a fortune on some rare and interesting militaria.
So have a good week and we’ll see you soon !
Cheerio !
Simon
Amanda being protected from the Paparazzi !
British WW2 Vickers Machine Gun For Sale
Pair of German WW2 MG34 Machine Guns For Sale
Soviet WW2 Machine Gun
Some Pocket Sized Ammunition
The Malvern Militaria Convention held at the Three Counties Showground has long been established and is in all our diaries. Run by Amanda and Graham Lycett of Jeeparts fame, it’s a great show to find lots of military bits and bobs from uniforms, vehicles, parts, badges etc.
With this successful show behind them, Amanda and Graham organised their first show held at the Stafford County Showground, just North of the town of Stafford and only a stone’s through away from RAF Stafford. Held on Sunday, May 2, just before a bank holiday here in the UK, Miliblog ventured out into the damp weather to see how it was.
There were many regulars from Malvern there and a good turnout of stands with some very exciting things for sale. Just look at some of the photos below to see. However, whether it was the weather or what but there didn’t seem to be many people there looking round. Chatting to some of the stallholders, they said it had been a little slow and by mid afternoon, most of them were just having a talk about all sorts of military things. I know i took part in quite a few myself !!! But it was the first show there and it definitely has the makings of being as good a show as Malvern. It certainly deserves the support of all us military enthusiasts and of course all the stallholders to return next time. So we wish Amanda and Graham good luck for the next one.
The War and Peace Show were there selling dvd’s of a selection of year’s shows along with a raffle to win a full size Jeep at this year’s show. Monty’s Locker were selling a fantastic range of repro wartime British army cloth badges, but were rather sensative when we tried to take a photo. Perhaps they thought we were going to copy them ! Jeeparts had a massive stand their along with Universal both selling a whole range of parts and accessories for your wartime Willys or Ford Jeep or even your postwar Hotchkiss Jeep. We even looked at some tyres for my old Ford GPW and nearly got my credit card out. Also it was quite unusual to see a Soviet WW2 machine gun, you know the one on wheels ! Especially having seen so many in our Eastern Front Photo Collection of the gun in actual wartime settings.
So enjoy the photos below and hopefully soak up the atmosphere. We did try and speak to Amanda a couple of times, but she was surrounded by hunky security chaps. Perhaps we were classed as the Paparazzi !
After last year’s horrendous heavy rain, this year’s Wolverhampton Steam Fair and Transport Rally was a complete contrast. Warm and sunny it brought the crowds back like it did for the 2008 show. As usual, it was organised by Wolverhampton City Council over the weekend of June 5/6 and held right in the city centre West Park, a glorious park dating back to the early Victorian times. Along with loads of classic cars and commercials, there was an excellent turnout for the military vehicle section, with some new local Midlands vehicles attending for the first time. Spread over two days, the Saturday includes a parade through the city centre where even the ring-road is partially closed for a convoy of vehicles to snake it’s way along, including some early steam traction engines. We attended just the first day this year, as the family had plans for my gardening skils the next day !!!
First we spoke to Christopher Tallents with his superb Land Rover S3 Shorland Armoured Car which had a Ulster Defence Force flag flying from it. He’d had it a number of years and bought it from Budge’s over in Nottingham. He said they had a whole row of them at the time wedged in between two buildings, but the best one, which Christopher chose, had to be lifted out by a giant crane. He’s traced the history and it was used by one and then another regiment of the UDR in Northern Ireland.
It was also good to see Phil Palmer once again with his marvellous Dodge Weapons Carrier in US Navy colours and also his Leyland Hippo 10 Tonner, which seems to get better each year like a good wine or a fine Stilton cheese.
Paul Wallis and his crew of two made a fine appearance with his rare GKN Simba armoured car. We asked if it was a development of the Saxon armoured car, but Paul said only the wheels and axles wrer common to it. This actual vehicle was used by the GKN sales force for demonstrations and for exhibitions and was in just like new condition. We watched and listened as they drove of at the end of the show on Saturday and it had a lovely deep throat growl to it. Fantastic !!! Other photos taken last year of the Simba have proven from our statistics to be one of the most viewed, and especially with our Japanese visitors, which we mentioned to Paul. No surprise, he said, as most of the sales of Simba’s were to the Far East.
We ventured over to the commercial section and found an ex-RAF Dodge Commando RG13 Coach that had been converted to an ambulance which you see below.
Also was a lovely Bedford OL 3 Tonner truck, which at first I walked by until I noticed on the back it had ‘ex-WD’ painted on. So I set about looking for the brass plate on the chassis that would reveal the old army registration number. Round the corner came Peter and Judith Bott, the owners who wondered what I was up to ! We then had a chat about the vehicle’s history. It had been bought from an ex-army sale in 1966 by Peter’s father and used in the family coal delivery business until being retired and renervated by Peter. Since the show we’ve emailed Peter with the details of the Royal Logistics Corps Museum at Deepcut Barracks so he can trace the service record of his Bedford.
So once again a great show and we can’t wait for next year !
Welcome to this week’s what’s new and we have another selection of photos from our Eastern Front Collection that were added this week. When you really look into the photos in the collection, it makes you wonder as to the horros that both sides incurred during this bloody campaign. Not only battling with the enemy but also enduring the terrible weather conditions.
The first photo shows a column of Soviet POW’s being marched off to a prison camp. It does make you think how many of these poor devils survived captivity to return to their families. Following is an illustration of the conditions with these two Mercedes Benz 3 Tonners struggling to get going.
Another one for our aircraft modellers with a Soviet Polikarpov I-16 fighter that looks like it’s just flown into the ground. Here we have another excellent photo of a knocked out Soviet KV-2 Heavy Tank. And finally, we have another winter scene of a German soldier in the snow in front of an Opel Blitz truck.
So I hope you’re all enjoying your visits to Miliblog and we’ll see you again soon.
Cheerio !
Simon
Eastern Front Collection No 1072
Eastern Front Collection No 1073
Eastern Front Collection No 1074
Eastern Front Collection No 1085
Eastern Front Collection No 1087
NEW THIS WEEK – MONDAY 12 APRIL 2010
After a few weeks away from adding to our original WW2 section, our dear old scanner has been busy once again. We’ve added some more to Volume 5 of the Eastern Front Collection and below are 5 samples to tempt you to visit that area of the website.
Our first photo shows a very smart German officer standing by an Opel Staff Car. Some of these were made especially for the military, but more often than not they were civilian vehicles that had been pressed into service. Our next photo shows an abandoned Soviet KV-2 Heavy Tank by the side of the road. A useful photo for any model maker with an interest in Soviet equipment.
If anyone thought a sheepskin jacket was a recent invention, then this photo of two German soldiers proves them wrong !!! Looks a most efficient method of keeping out the cold. Another photo of a knocked out Soviet KV-2 Heavy Tank follows next, which gives another angle of this huge beast. Last example this week is one for our aircraft enthusiasts in the shape of a Messerschmidt Me-110, with some unusual nose-art.
So my friends it’s back to the scanner and see what we can find for next week !
Cheerio !
Simon
Eastern Front Collection No 1051
Eastern Front Collection No 1055
Eastern Front Collection No 1062
Eastern Fron Collection No 1067
Eastern Front Collection No 1069
