Hi there and welcome to this week’s newsletter of what’s new on Miliblog.

Well to start with, as promised last week,  we have scanned and sorted 60 photographs of German WW2 servicemen from all areas of the forces. I’ve included 4 samples below to illustrate them. To find them simply look at Gallery of Photo Collection/Original WW2 Photos/German WW2/Studio Photos.

As we said in the header, we hesitated at first in putting these photos on the website, but fealt justified in that there are many enthusiasts all over the world who have an interest in uniforms. Whether it be in making accurate model figures, collecting uniforms or even battle re-enactors. As we continue to say, we are NOT a political website and so these photos are shown purely for the historical interest.

We also visited the Classic Car Show at the NEC Exhibition Centre near Birmingham this weekend and armed with my old digital camera we set off early to beat the crowds. Got there to find the **** camera chose not to work again. So an easy answer to the question ‘what do I want for Christmas !’ However despite asking our daughter to take some photos of nice green machines rather than the shiny American Mustangs, the light in the NEC was pretty bad and so hardly any of the photos came out good enough to share with you. So I am very sorry to the team on the Ex-Military Land Rover Association stand, who I promised one lady especially her photo would be on our website, we let you down. I can say however that their display of Landies of all sorts was fantastic. The fully kitted Land Rover 101Vampire was especially impressive with the interior all kitted out. The guy there told us it was used in the Cold War days and sat by the border listening into the East German and Russian radio traffic. Also a big thank you to Andrew Baker of the Alvis Fighting Vehicle Society who was exhibiting one of his superb Alvis Scorpion CVRT Tanks on the Alvis stand. He told me he has over 40 similar tanks at home and has a unique collection of evry model produced by Alvis in the CVRT range, including some pretty rare ones. My daughter said it took me at least an hour until I closed my mouth again after hearing that !

Next is a big thankyou to Martin, I’m sorry I don’t know your surname, who emailed us asking if we had any military coaches on Miliblog. Not yet was the answer, but a quick look in the ‘to scan’ box came up with a few that I couldn’t yet identify. I quick email back to Martin came back with a whole load of detail on the coaches and their history. So we have now been able to add another area of military vehicles to the website. If you read this Martin a big thank you for all your help ! A lovely photo of a Bedford SB3 Coach is shown below and if you look closely, you will see it’s from RAF Wildenrath in Germany. Another photo, also a Bedford SB3 but with a later Strachans body with a certain 1970′s faded photo look on a nice sunny day. Finally a Leyland Leopard Coach carrying the Queen’s Colours Squadron of the Royal Air Force. In fact he us a lovely photo of one such coach at the end of it’s service life, up for sale at the auction.

So as we mentioned last week, we will soon be showing a huge collection of original photos from the Russian or East Front of WW2. These were mainly taken by the troops themselves rather than any official government photographer and show the horror on warfare. Some may be a little graphic in detail, and if you are offended by this I apologise, but that was what went on at the time. We have called it the Eastern Front Collection and can be found under Original WW2 Photos. 

So back to the scanner which much work to do !

Have a great week !

Cheerio !

Simon 

German Tank Crew Member

Kreigsmarine Sailor

Luftwaffe Staff Sergeant

Prussian Officer

Bedford SB3 Strachans Body Coach (36 AC 64)

Bedford SB3 Strachans Body Coach (43 AC 42)

Leyland Leopard PSU5D/5R Wadham Stringer Vanguard Coach (50 AC 00)

Dodge Commando G13 Wadham Stringer Vanguard Body Coach (93 KF 92) on Demob