10 years of collecting militaria
I started to collect militaria when I was around 14 years old, in the early 90's. The interest in the second World War was not born then, but collecting the regalia of this dramatic event was new to me. It al started with a rusted german helmet and a gasmask, which I found on a local flea-market. From then on, I was sold to this marvellous hobby. Not much later I recieved some belgian ww 2 items from both family members and relatives, I was very enthousiastic about these first "souvenirs" and displayed them on a little shelf, just above my bed. The belgian militaria pieces came almost always with a history, which is the most important thing in my opinion.
Now, 10 years later after the first rusted german M40 helmet, I have a nice, honest and slowly growing collection, nothing really exotic or extremely rare. Collectors out there will agree with me that it is impossible to collect everything about every aspect of the Second World War. Therefore I decided since a few years to concentrate myself only on heer infanterie 'OR' (Other Ranks = Enlisted) uniforms, headgear, fieldgear,etc...and also everything related to the less known german medics, the so called 'Sanis'. This subject, I find extremely interesting, but not many other collectors share this branche, and therefore not much reference-material is available. Although I have some books and I know of some good website, I still need more detailed information on certain aspects of the german medical corps. For example, Sanitater-steelhelmets? If any visitor know of wartime pictures of these in use, please let me know, because so far I didn't manage to find one!
I hope that with this website, I can expand my contacts with international collectors and if possible also collectors who are interested in the same subjects as I am. I'm always willing to buy items for my own collection, so if you have something to offer, please send me an email and I will reply asap!
