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Any real ww1 helmet cover is exceedingly rare and difficult to locate. My understanding is that they rotted and fell off. I have never seen a real GERMAN cover. I have held a real AUSTRIAN one and seen photos of 2 more. For what it is worth, this does not match the AUSTRIAN manufacture in any form. The Baer (?) book shows black and white photos of a white cover that has unassailable provenance. This does not match that form.

Thanks for the kudos guys. And, I just found out that the "LS" logo stands for Linnemann & Schnetzer as the steel shell maker.

The next SOCALMICS show in Bellflower is this Sunday July 28th. Located at the Bellflower Eagles Club 9816 Cedar Street, Bellflower Blvd, at the corner of Cedar & Bellflower. 7:45am to about 10-10:30 AM. Dealer tables are $20.00 and general admission is $5.00. One of Southern Californias best kept secrets. www.socalmics.com

Yes, a very nice helmet in nearly mint condition. Thanks for sharing!

Nice helmet. Rich A. in Pa.

Gents, I just picked up a nice example of the postwar Bavarian barracked police steel helmet that I thought I would show. Shown as the Bavarian steel helmet worn after 1967 with this police star decal on the left side of the green painted helmet. Earlier helmets worn prior to 1967 (from 27 October 1950) had a different shield without the police star. The decal on my helmet is a large colored metallic star with the Bavarian shield in the center. These postwar police helmets can be seen in Ludwig Baer, "The History of the German Steel Helmet 1916-1945", pp 274-308. Similar steel helmets with state or city police decals were worn by barracked police forces such as BGS, Baden-Wurttemberg, Bremen, and Hamburg. Notice the liner and chinstrap and the maker marking in the metal shell.

Renningers, Shupps Grove and Black Angus had good stuff. But get there early like all flea markets. Rich A. in Pa.

I set up At Renningers for over 20 years almost every weekend. My experience is that anything worthwhile is gone very early I haven’t been since 2011 but I found some great stuff at 4am.

No, just the indoor antique malls. You just don't find much military stuff. When you do, it is the typical garbage or overpriced. -Ski

John Mayall, pioneering British blues musician, passed away today at 90 years old Three years of National Service including duty in Korea "Back From Korea", John Mayall "Serving your country they tell you is fine Give you a gun and go kill But when you come back for civilian work Sorry your job has been filled..." "They're speaking of the glory of the uniform Smiling and shaking your hand But when you get released They turn their backs on you Something I don't understand What does it mean to the ones that stayed home That you came back from Korea" John Mayall was born in 1933 and grew up in the town of Cheadle Hulme, outside of Manchester. His parents divorced when he was a boy. The best-known exploit of Mayall’s childhood was that he built a treehouse out of window frames and tarps in a sturdy oak behind his mother’s house, outfitting it with a bed and paraffin lamp. This, he said, “became my room, my world.” (In 1970, he wrote a song about it, “Home in a Tree.”) His father made a hobby out of jazz guitar and, the young Mayall, at age 12, had likewise begun to play the instrument, along with the piano. By the late 1940s, he had become besotted with jazz, Hoovering up 78 rpm records. And then he stumbled on the blues—the genre that would transfix him for the rest of his days. As a white suburban kid growing up in England after the war, listening to the blues brought Mayall face to face with the genre’s outsized personalities and the harsh conditions they often sang about. As Mayall told the Guardian in 2021, “So-called ‘race records’ told the story of the vile lynchings and racial injustices in the south that were a black man’s reality in the early 20th century. Not many other people I knew were all that interested in this music, but it was something I was really passionate about.” In 1956, Mayall had returned from national service in Korea to attend art college in Manchester, forming his first band, the Powerhouse Four. This was followed by the Blues Syndicate, which traveled to London in 1961, whereupon Mayall met Korner, who encouraged him to move south. Mayall threw himself into the London blues scene, forming his Bluesbreakers and becoming a mainstay at such clubs as the Marquee. If the blues-infused Rolling Stones were on a trajectory of international pop stardom, the Bluesbreakers were musician’s musicians, all about integrity—the spirit of the blues. They were the perfect band for record-collecting blues trainspotters, a group that would never be tainted by huge commercial success: the stuff of the purist, not the tourist. Mayall’s Bluesbreakers were a clearinghouse for generational talent. Eric Clapton quit the Yardbirds and joined the band; his playing was featured on its debut LP, released in 1966. When Clapton left, Peter Green, later to found Fleetwood Mac, joined. And when Green left, Mick Taylor, later of the Rolling Stones, joined. Mayall was to British blues guitarists what Leo Castelli was to New York painters; his group was the blue-chip gallery you wanted to show your work in. The bassist Jack Bruce met Clapton in the Bluesbreakers, then went on to found Cream. Other future rock stars who were Mayall alumni: Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, later of Fleetwood Mac, and the well-traveled drummer Aynsley Dunbar. In these Bluesbreakers incarnations, and in many more that would follow, Mayall moved between guitar and keyboards, with spotlight moments to demonstrate his prowess on harmonica. Even so, Mayall’s chief talent may have been his uncanny, unselfish capacity for spotting it in others. In the late ’60s, Mayall expatriated to California, moving into a house in Laurel Canyon that became affectionately known as The Brain Damage Club, based on the kind of personalities and diversions one could find there. The house burned to the ground in the 1979 Kirkwood Bowl-Laurel Canyon Fire, which consumed all of Mayall’s archives, along with the trove of vintage erotica his father had amassed. (“My father was a pornography collector,” Mayall would unabashedly say. “A totally irreplaceable collection.”) Throughout the ensuing decades, there were more concerts, tours, collaborations, and albums, as Mayall became invariably known as the Godfather of the British Blues. In 2005, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire. A 35-disc boxed set of Mayall’s work was released in 2021. Three years later he was inducted, at age 90, into the Rock & Roll Hall of fame. Mayall married twice; he had six children and several grandchildren. A cornerstone of the Mayall songbook was “Room to Move,” powered by his propulsive, almost orgiastic harmonica. But if one song defined him, it was perhaps “All Your Love,” a mambo-inflected Chicago blues classic by Otis Rush, which was the Bluesbreakers’ calling card and an early showcase for Clapton’s fretboard pyrotechnics. (Peter Green recast “All Your Love” as “Black Magic Woman,” which became a 1968 single for Fleetwood Mac and a subsequent signature for Carlos Santana.) In February of 2020, on the eve of the coronavirus pandemic, Mayall, shockingly spry at 86, sang “All Your Love” with gusto at the London Palladium as part of an all-star tribute concert organized by Mick Fleetwood to celebrate Green’s music. (Green died about five months later.) It would be difficult to conjecture how many times Mayall performed that number and others like it—typically three-chord, 12-bar blues songs. When a reporter once asked John Mayall about his unwavering fidelity to the blues, the music that took him from a tree house in a Manchester suburb to concert stages around the world, Mayall responded, “There’s nothing else I can play.”

Cool! I sure hope I can make it this time. Thanks! mikie

NO GUNS OR AMMO !! Print ad for entry discount

Thanks for the ID Charlie. I'll print off your description and keep it with the photo.

Did you go to any of the outdoor flea markets? And if you did what were they like? Many dealers? Lots of very old stuff? Thanks

I have never seen one, but there is a possibility they were used on the Eastern front. There were covers made, but I have only seen grays & browns. It could be a total fantasy piece.

Looks like a motorcycle cap & goggles. Do they have any markings or labels?

I dropped by Adamstown PA for a couple days on my way to Niagara Falls to watch the eclipse and after going through what seemed like an endless stream of antique malls, I didn't find squat. So, to find this was refreshing. Thanks for the comments! -Ski

The bag is for the German gas cape and the rain coat is civilian.

Hey new to this place but, a few years ago I bought a ww2 German gas mask at an auction and it came with a small satchel attachted to it and a raincoat. The rain coat is dated on the 8th of May 1978 way after the mask is dated and I was wondering if it was even military related as well as the bag. Thank you

You deserve this find and should get out more because you’re on a roll.

Great find. I've noticed quite a bit of militaria is coming out of the woodwork lately.

Gents, I have a WWII (wartime) French Paris Police uniform that is missing a medal. I found a broken section of the double needle attachment of the ribbon to the uniform still stuck in the pocket flap. Now I know he was wearing a French medal but I have no idea which one. Were there specific medals for the Police Service? What medal would be appropriate for a Paris Policeman to wear during the war?

Hi everyone, I just wanted to share some photos I have of my grandfather, who was one of the other men alongside Edward Mastronardi of the 2nd Battalion A Company of the Royal Canadian Regiment. I hope you enjoy my share.

Hi Thanks for your help. I would assume that the wording would have been changed for many government offices, not only for ships. Duncan

I'm trying to find out the official Australian designation for the combination intrenching tool. These tools were manufactured by Trojan, Tulloch, Bilco, and perhaps others, from 1960 (!) onwards. These tools seem to be identical to the U.S. M - 1951. Any information, such as other manufacturers, will be appreciated.