WW1 / WW2 / 20th Century
Original 1930’s Third Reich Portrait of Rudolf Jordan Hitler's Personally Appointed Gauleiter of Halle-Merseburg & Magdeburg-Anhalt and Former General of the SA, Gruppenfuhrer der SA. Likely Commissioned & Paid For By Adolf Hitler Personally
Most rare surviving example of the official portrait of one of Hitler’s personally appointed district political leaders known as a Gauleiter, as almost all of around 450 original, 1930’s German portraits of Hitler’s inner circle and high command are now in the U.S. Army Center of Military History in Washington. Each portrait could have cost up to 12,000 Reichmarks each, a most considerable sum in 1939. Approximately 114 men held the highly esteemed position of Gauleiter. Many shared a common background. Most of them, particularly during the early years, were drawn from the cadre of "old fighters" that had helped Hitler forge the Party during the Kampfzeit (Time of Struggle). The rank and power of these men was shared equally and was only four below Hitler himself. Their power was thus highly significant within the echelons of the Third Reich.
Many of these portraits were either commissioned, or acquired by Hitler personally, and they are all part of the record of Hitler and his elite commanders rise to power, in order to satisfy his determination to conquer the world and subjugate and destroy all who resisted.
No dictator can effectively govern a nation on his own. This was certainly the case with Adolf Hitler who had little time for or interest in the day-to-day regional administration of the Nazi Party.
For that purpose, he appointed his most loyal, charismatic and brutal subordinates: the ‘Little Hitlers’, officially known as Gauleiters.
Firstly, after the NSDAP gained power over Germany the Nazi Party adopted a new framework, which divided Germany into regions called Gaue. Each Gaue had its own leader, a Gauleiter. Each Gaue was then divided into subsections, called Kreise. Each Kreise then had its own leader, called a Kreisleiter. Each Kreise was then divided into even smaller sections, each with its own leader, and so on. Each of these sections were responsible to the section above them, with Hitler at the very top of the party with ultimate authority.
As almost all these oil portraits of Germany’s ‘Little Hitler’s’ were removed from Germany in 1945/6 and transported to America, it is estimated that just a very few, perhaps as few as between five or ten remained in Europe and in private hands. This is one of those tiny few. An incredibly rare example of the original, historical, visual record of the power structure organised by Hitler himself. Which makes this an incredibly rare original artifact that is an historically important representation of likely the most important and radical political events of the past thousand years. From those three decades of the 20th century that has changed the very structure of the world for all time.
The US high command in 1945/6 realised just how important it was to keep and save as many such portraits of his gauleiters as possible, as a permanent record and reminder for the future, of the monumental fight and sacrifices in order to subdue the axis powers from their schemes of world domination, during the two most significant decades of the past 300 years..
This is original portrait, in oil on canvas, of Gauleiter Rudolf Jordan (21 June 1902 - 27 October 1988). He was a Nazi Gauleiter in Halle-Merseburg and Magdeburg-Anhalt during Hitler’s socialist Third Reich. One of the notorious and prominent high command of Hitler’s Third Reich. An original Nazi oil portrait from the 1930's. Most similar in the new Aryan style of the Nazi portrait painter Fritz Erler, and his painting of 'Minister and Gauleiter Adolf Wagner', 1936. It was exhibited in the GDK, the Great German Art Exhibition, in 1939, in room 23. It was bought there by Hitler for 12.000 RM. In fact he bought two paintings by Fritz Erler: Portrait des Staatsministers und Gauleiters Adolf Wagner and Portrait des Reichsministers Fricke.
They are now in the possession of the US Army Military Center of History. Possibly this portrait was also in that exhibition with the two other Gauleiter Wagner and Frick. Erlers similar style portrait of Hitler, also painted in his SA uniform, in 1931, is currently valued for sale at 725,000 Euros. Around 450 portraits depicting Hitler and other Nazi-officials and symbols are currently stored in the U.S. Army Center of Military History in Washington
From 19 January 1931, Jordan was appointed Nazi Gauleiter of Halle-Merseburg, and then began rising within the Party ranks, acting as member of the Prussian Landtag between April 1932 and October 1933 and being appointed to the Prussian State Council and made an SA Gruppenfuhrer. In the same year began the publication of the Mitteldeutsche Tageszeitung newspaper, led by Jordan. In March 1933 came his appointment as Plenipotentiary for the Province of Saxony in the Reichsrat and in November 1933 his election as a member of the Reichstag. On 20 April 1937, Adolf Hitler personally appointed him Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) in Braunschweig and Anhalt and NSDAP Gauleiter of Magdeburg-Anhalt. Jordan was succeeded as Gauleiter of Halle-Merseburg by Joachim Albrecht Eggeling.
In the same year came Jordan's promotion to SA-Obergruppenfuhrer. In 1939, Jordan became Chief of the Anhalt Provincial Government and Reichsverteidigungskommissar (Reich Defence Commissar, or RVK) in Defence District XI. On 18 April 1944 came Jordan's last leap up the career ladder when he was appointed High President (Oberpresident) of the Province of MagdeburgIn the war's dying days, Jordan managed to go underground with his family under a false name. He was nonetheless arrested by the British on 30 May 1945, and in July of the next year, the Western Allies handed him over to the Soviets. Late in 1950 after four years in custody in the Soviet occupation zone Jordan was sentenced to 25 years in a labour camp in the Soviet Union. Only Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer's visit to Moscow managed to persuade the Soviets to reconsider Jordan's sentence, and then he was released on 13 October 1955. In the years to come, Jordan earned a living as a sales representative, and worked as an administrator for an aircraft manufacturing firm. He died in Munich. The Gardelegen massacre was the cold-blooded murder of inmates that had been evacuated from the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp and some of its sub-camps on April 3rd, 4th and 5th. Around 4,000 prisoners had been bound for the Bergen-Belsen, Sachsenhausen or Neuengamme concentration camps, but when the railroad tracks were bombed by American planes, they had been re-routed to Gardelegen, which was the site of a Cavalry Training School and a Parachutist Training School. The trains were forced to stop before reaching the town of Gardelegen and some of the escaped prisoners had terrorized the nearby villages, raping, looting and killing civilians.
The man who is considered to be the main instigator of the Gardelegen massacre is 34-year-old Gerhard Thiele , who was the Nazi party district leader of Gardelegen. On April 6, 1945, Thiele called a meeting of his staff and other officials at which he issued an order, which had been given to him a few days before by Gauleiter Rudolf Jordan , that any prisoners who were caught looting or who tried to escape should be shot on the spot. In 1932, Nazi Gauleiter Rudolf Jordan claimed that SS Security Chief Reinhard Heydrich was not a pure "Aryan". Within the Nazi organisation such innuendo could be damning, even for the head of the Reich's counterintelligence service. Gregor Strasser passed the allegations on to Achim Gercke who investigated Heydrich's genealogy. Gercke reported that Heydrich was "... of German origin and free from any coloured and Jewish blood". He insisted that the rumours were baseless. Even with this report, Heydrich privately engaged SD member Ernst Hoffman to further investigate and deny the rumours. The last two pictures in the gallery of Jordan with Hitler and his Gaulieters at his 50th birthday examining his convertible Volkwagen Beetle, and the Erler painting of Gauleiter Wagner, bought by Hitler. 2 foot x 3 foot unframed. Water stain at the rear of the canvas. Surviving original portraits of Third Reich leaders are now very rare for at the end of the war thousands of paintings, portraits of Nazi-leaders, paintings containing a swastika or depicting military/war sceneries were destroyed. With knives, fires and hammers, they smashed countless sculptures and burned thousands of paintings. However around 8,722 artworks were shipped to military deposits in the U.S. From 1933 to 1949 Germany experienced two massive art purges. Both the National Socialist government and OMGUS (the U.S. Military Government in Germany) were highly concerned with controlling what people saw and how they saw it. The Nazis eliminated what they called Degenerate art, erasing the pictorial traces of turmoil and heterogeneity that they associated with modern art. The Western Allies in turn eradicated Nazi art. Whatever one considers about the actions of all of the entire third reich, art is art, and every piece is a representation of a portion of history, good or bad. One thing we learned very well from the tragic 1930s and 1940s is that classifying art as non-art and forbidding books or art for political reasons is a dead-end street. No matter how much one dislikes or despises the infamous despots and dictators of history, such as Hitler, Caligula, Pol Pot & Stalin, and no matter how much their depictions were used as propaganda, a painting or sculpture of them cannot be re-classified as 'non art'. This painting depicts a member of Hitler’s notorious inner circle, that for a brief period of world history very nearly placed the entire world in subjugation to the will of Germany and it’s ally Japan. It is the embodiment of why the preservation of such art can remind the thousands of its observers, for generations to come, that those people such as Rudolf Jordan, who were just ordinary looking nondescript individuals, that if left unchecked would have condemned the entire world to a nightmarish dystopia, of slavery, starvation and misery. And thanks to great leaders such as Winston Churchill, who had the talent and skill to embolden a solitary nation, racked by trepidation, facing the free world’s greatest foe alone, they were utterly routed and deposed by the near defeated and subdued great democracies. Part of the theory of Hannah Ahrend Johanna "Hannah" Arendt, 14 October 1906 - 4 December 1975 was a German-born Jewish American political theorist. Though often described as a philosopher, she rejected that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with "man in the singular" and instead described herself as a political theorist because her work centres on the fact that "men, not Man, live on the earth and inhabit the world." This portrait would nicely improve with some cosmetic restoration and cleaning. read more
4950.00 GBP
A Very Good Deactivated Smith & Wesson .38 Cal. 6 Shot Double Action Revolver 5" Barrel Superb Tight Action With Much Original Mirror Blue Finish Remaining
The Smith & Wesson Model 10, previously known as the Smith & Wesson .38 Hand Ejector Model of 1899, the Smith & Wesson Military & Police or the Smith & Wesson Victory Model, is a K-frame revolver. In production since 1899, the Model 10 is a six-shot, .38 Special, double-action revolver with fixed sights. Over its production run it has been available with barrel lengths of 2 in (51 mm), 3 in (76 mm), 4 in (100 mm), 5 in (130 mm), and 6 in (150 mm). Barrels of 2.5 inches (64 mm) are also known to have been made for special contracts.
In 1899, the United States Army and Navy placed orders with Smith & Wesson for two to three thousand Model 1899 Hand Ejector revolvers chambered for the M1892 .38 Long Colt U.S. Service Cartridge. With this order, the Hand Ejector Model became known as the .38 Military and Police model.5 That same year, in response to reports from military sources serving in the Philippines on the relative ineffectiveness of the new cartridge, Smith & Wesson began offering the Military & Police in a new chambering, .38 S&W Special
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) supplied thousands of these .38 5" barrel model revolvers to resistance forces.
They have been used in more movies than we are able to list here, but two exceptional examples would be our old customer, the late and much lamented 'Chuck' Heston, in 55 Days in Peking in which he starred with David Niven and Ava Gardner, and by Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. Photographs of both actors with their .38 DA S&W we show in the gallery {for illustrative purposes only}
We show a WW2 photograph of a Milice officer with his S&W pattern revolver, note his German wound badge worn upon his left uniform breast pocket
The Milice française (French Militia), generally called la Milice, was a political paramilitary organization created on 30 January 1943 by the Vichy régime (with German aid) to help fight against the French Resistance during World War II. The Milice's formal head was Vichy France's Prime Minister Pierre Laval (in office 1942 to 1944), although its chief of operations and de facto leader was Secretary General Joseph Darnand. The Milice participated in summary executions and assassinations, helping to round up Jews and résistants in France for deportation. It was the successor to Darnand's Service d'ordre légionnaire (SOL) militia (founded in 1941). The Milice was the Vichy régime's most extreme manifestation of fascism. Ultimately, Darnand envisaged the Milice as a fascist single-party political movement for the French State
Deactivated with certificate but fully actionable. Not suitable to export. read more
650.00 GBP
Private Purchase WW2, 1941, "Taylor's Eye Witness" Desert Rat Commando Knife 'Afrika Korps Campaign' Against Rommel At Tobruk. With North African Scabbard With WW2 Hand Made British Service Belt & Strap Loop
Around 25 years ago we bought another identical Taylors Eye Witness fighting knife from a Desert Rat No 8 {Guards} Commando veteran that also had the very same form of North African made scabbard with the same military service belt and strap loop. The blade still has its original cross-grain polish, and is near razor sharp. There are a few rust stains which we have left untouched. Overall it has remained unmolested since the war.
During World War II, the "Taylor's Eye Witness" Sheffield-made stiletto double edged bladed fighting knife, a private purchase item, gained popularity among British commandos and US troops stationed in Britain, particularly prior to D-Day.
The Twin Pimples was a feature in the Axis lines surrounding Tobruk. It was a defensive strong point consisting of two hills very close together that dominated the opposing Allied lines and at the time of the raid was held by units of the Italian Army. The 18th King Edward's Own Cavalry, normally part of the 3rd Indian Motor Brigade, held the line across from the Twin Pimples when it was decided to take out the Italian position. The No. 8 Commando was selected to carry out the operation and for some days prior they conducted patrols with the Indians to get to know the lay of the land.
The plan called for three officers and 40 men of No. 8 Commando and a small number of Australian Engineers (to deal with ammunition dumps and gun emplacements) to cross the Italian forward positions to the road that they used to bring up supplies and then follow the road to the rear of the Twin Pimples and engage the position from behind. The 18th Cavalry were to carry out a diversionary raid just before the commando assault to divert the defenders' attention. The man chosen to lead the raid was Captain M. Keely, the second in command was Captain Dunne and the third officer was Lieutenant Lewes On the night of the raid, 17/18 July, half the Commandos were armed with Thompson submachine guns and the other half with Lee–Enfield rifles with bayonets fixed. All carried hand grenades and every third man wore a groundsheet slung bandoleer fashion to use as a stretcher.
The Commandos left their own lines at 23:00 hours on 17 July and crossed the Italian forward positions and main lines undetected. Upon reaching the supply road they had to take cover and wait, as the attack was planned for 01:00 hours on 18 July. They moved closer to their objective just prior to the start of the diversionary attack by the 18th Cavalry. The diversion was a success, and Italian machine-gun fire and very lights were directed towards the Indian cavalrymen. The Commandos managed to get within 30 yards (27 m) on the Twin Pimples before being challenged. The challenge was answered by a frontal attack by the Commandos. So as not to confuse their own forces with the Italians in the darkness, the password Jock was used when a position had been taken. The fire fight lasted about four minutes and the Australian Engineers planted explosives on several mortars and an ammunition dump. The planners had estimated that the Commandos could spend no longer than 15 minutes on the Italian position before it was engaged by the Italian artillery. The raiders had only got about 100 yards (91 m) from the Twin Pimples when the Italian artillery started to come down onto their own position.
Aftermath
The cost of the raid to the Commandos was five wounded, one of whom later died of his wounds. The No. 8 Commando, together with the rest of Layforce, was disbanded soon after. The operational difficulties that had been exposed, combined with the inability of the high command to fully embrace the commando concept, had largely served to make them ineffective. Two members of No. 8 Commando, David Stirling and Jock Lewes, would form the Special Air Service by the end of July 1941. Tobruk would remain under siege until relieved by Operation Crusader in November 1941.
The only soldier to be killed on this raid was Corporal John “Jackie” Edward Trestrail Maynard of the Duke of Cornwall's light Infantry and No 8 (Guards) Commando
These knives were often purchased from private/commercial suppliers and were favoured by British and US troops.
The knives featured a double-edged blade, a grip made of pressed leather washers, and a brass pommel. The original leather scabbard was often missing its small retaining strap, so local made replacement were often made and used
More and more photographic evidence has emerged showing these knives being used by British/Commonwealth and US troops, making them more sought after.
Due to the increasing evidence and the rising value of Fairbairn-Sykes knives, this pattern of fighting knife has become difficult to source.
The story starts in 1820 when John Taylor founded a small pocketknife & edge tools workshop in the very heart of Sheffield, the ancestral home of cutlery in Great Britain. As was normal back then, makers would seek the use of a symbol by which their products would be recognised, even by those unable to read. In 1838 Taylor was granted the "Eye Witness" trademark for his goods, accompanied by an illustration of an all-seeing eye, hence the Eye Witness name.
The last photo in the gallery is of a US sergeant sharpening his eye witness fighting knife in his tent before his departure for D-Day, with another picture of an eye witness fighting knife, in its regular scabbard, that appears in Ron Flook's book {12.1}
See 'The Fairbairn Sykes Fighting Knife And Other Commando Knives' By Ron Flook , page 179 {12.1} read more
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1907 King Edward VIIth Wilkinson Sword Enfield Bayonet For the Early SMLE Rifle in Original Scabbard & Canvas Frog. issued To The 2nd Bt. Lancashire Fusiliers
Just returned from 12 hours of hand polishing and conservation to reveal at last its completely original, near as new, condition, with original leather and steel mounted scabbard and its early canvas frog, with regimental stamps for the 2nd Bt, Lancashire Fusiliers. Numerous ordnance inspection stamps at the ricasso from 1909, 1910,1911,1913 & 1914 alongside the service pattern 1907 date Wilkinson maker stamp and ER Crown
2nd Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers were in Dover with 12th Brigade, 4th Division when war was declared in August 1914. 4th Division was held back from the original British Expeditionary Force by a last minute decision to defend England against a possible German landing. The fate of the BEF in France and the lack of any move by the Enemy to cross the channel, reversed this decision and they proceeded to France landing at Boulogne on the 20th of August 1914, arriving in time to provide infantry reinforcements at the Battle of Le Cateau, the Divisional Artillery, Engineers, Field Ambulances and mounted troops being still en-route at this time. They were in action at the The Battle of the Marne, The Battle of the Aisne and at Messines in 1914. In 1915 they fought in The Second Battle of Ypres. On the 4th of November 1915 the 2nd Lancashires moved with 12th Brigade to 36th (Ulster) Division to provide training over the winter months and returned to 4th Division on the 3rd of February 1916.
In 1916 moved south and were in action during the Battles of the Somme. In 1917 they were at Arras, in action during the The First and Third Battles of the Scarpe, before heading north for the Third Battle of Ypres, where they fought in The Battle of Polygon Wood, The Battle of Broodseinde, The Battle of Poelcapelle and The First Battle of Passchendaele. In 1918 they were in action on The Somme, then returned to Flanders fighting in the Defence of Hinges Ridge during The Battle of Hazebrouck and in The Battle of Bethune, The Advance in Flanders The Second Battles of Arras, the Battles of the Hindenburg Line and the Final Advance in Picardy. The 4th Division was demobilised in Belgium in early 1919.
On Wednesday 4th July 2007 four soldiers from the First World War were laid to rest in Belgium. One was clearly identified as Private Richard Lancaster of the 2nd Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers who died on the 10th November 1914. He was found with two other bodies who may have been LFs but there was not enough evidence to prove it. The other body was that of a soldier, possibly and officer from the TA Fusilier Brigade in the 66th East Lancashire Division. He was killed on the 10th October 1917 during the battle for Passchendaele read more
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A Good Collection Of Original British WW2 Enfield No4 Rifle Spike Bayonets MKII’s In MKI Scabbard.{ Plus 200 Other Mixed Antique & WW1 Bayonets Yet To Be Added }
In very nice condition, all from one collector, kept in storage since the 1950’s, including the rarest of all a MKI in MKI scabbard {sold separately}. All were originally in full storage grease and slightly different forms and makers of the eponimous WW2 British armed forces Enfield No.4 bayonets, MKII’s, used in WW2.
We also acquired, just two days ago, within the collection over 200 early and mid Victorian British bayonets, including early 20th century mixed world bayonets, and these MKII Enfield No4 bayonets, all from within the entire single collection, that he {the late collector} acquired in the 1950’s and 1960’s, all of which will be sorted and catalogued, when we have time, over the next six months. The antique and WW1 bayonets will likely vary in price from £120 to £395.
Here, and now, we show under stock code 24589, these eight WW2 issue Enfield No.4 Bayonets MKII’s. Act fast the collection was made available yesterday and four have been sold already so far, yesterday morning in the shop and last night online. Only 4 MKII’s with regular MKI scabbards are still available.
They are now priced each, at £45.
British troops pulled off a number of bayonet charges in the brief campaign to drive Argentine forces from the Falkland Islands in 1982. Grunts from the Scots Guards and the Gurkhas chased 500 enemy troops off the summit of Mount Tumbledown in the pre-dawn darkness of June 14. The British suffered 63 casualties in the battle; 160 Argentine soldiers were either killed, wounded or captured. Two weeks earlier a 2 Para private by the name of Graham Carter led his comrades in a bayonet charge against a force of enemy troops across Goose Green.
In the last 20 years, British troops have resorted to the bayonet to break impasses in combat both in Iraq and Afghanistan. In May, 2004, a detachment from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders surprised a force of 100 insurgents near Al Amara, Iraq with a bayonet charge. British casualties were light, but nearly 28 guerrillas were killed. And as recently as October of 2011, a British Army lance corporal named Sean Jones led a squad of soldiers from the Prince of Wales Royal Regiment in a bayonet charge against Taliban fighters in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. After being ambushed and pinned down by militants, the 25-year-old ordered his squad to advance into a hail of machine gun fire. “We had to react quickly,” Jones remarked. “I shouted ‘follow me’ and we went for it.” He was awarded the Military Cross for his actions. Even in an age of GPS-guided bombs, unmanned drones and network-centric warfare, 300-year-old technology — like the simple bayonet — can still carry the day.
A couple of years or so ago Burundi was preparing to send a peace keeping contingent to the Congo and Somalia yet they knew that their army was not up to it and begged for a UN training team to come and train it. On being asked who they would like, they decided to look at the Americans, French, Canadians, Germans and Swedes but it was the British that they chose to train their army because they said they wanted to be trained by the best.
The last photo in the gallery of lance corporal Sean Jones recieving his Military Cross for gallantry from the former Prince of Wales, now H.M.King Charles IIIrd, for his famous heroic command of the bayonet charge in Helmand read more
45.00 GBP
Very Rare & The Most Collectable Bayonet of WW2. A WWII British Lee Enfield No 4 MK 1 Cruciform Spike Bayonet By ‘SM’ (Singer Manufacturing Co) With MK 1 Scabbard. The Earliest, & Briefly Issued Bayonet Of The No4 Rifle in WW2
The No. 4 Mk. I was the first beautifully made bayonet for the earliest Enfield No.4 rifle, with its distinctive cruciform blade. The bayonet and socket were one solid forging.
Only thousands of the MKI bayonet were made, before it was simplified in 1942 as the new MKII bayonet version of the MKI, in order to enable the saving of production costs. Over 3,000,000 were made of the new MKII bayonet for the Enfield No. 4 rifle, up to one hundred times more than were made of the MKI. Production initially occurred for the MKI during the latter half of 1941 and into the early months of 1942. The only maker was the Singer Manufacturing Co. (the famous sewing machine people), at their Clydebank, Scotland plant. One influence in the selection of Singer was that Scotland was felt to be safer from German bombers than England. No. 4 Mk. I markings were reminiscent of how Pattern 1907 bayonets were marked, with the royal cypher, type, and maker.
Socket: "G (Crown) R" over No 4 Mk I" over "S M"
Sheffield Steel Products of Sheffield, Yorkshire. Sheffield Steel Products produced approximately Mk. 1 scabbards. Stamped N64 = Sheffield Steel Products
One of the most interesting points about the Mark l bayonet was the likelihood that near all were used in the desert campaign against Rommel or at the D Day Normandy invasions, by such as the commandos, due to their date of manufacture, but the later MKlls may, or may not have have been used as they were later made and many made post war .
It is further relatively certain they were the issued bayonet used in the ill fated Dieppe Raid in 1942 which meant almost all those MKI bayonets issued were lost due to capture by the occupying German forces.
As an aside, for decades since the war it was assumed the Dieppe Raid was a rehearsal for the Normandy landings, and in many respects a terrible and tragic failure involving tens of thousands of men, mostly Canadian heroes, lost or captured, including many ships lost by the Royal Navy.
Information has now been recently released to reveal that the raid was in fact an incredibly super top secret planned diversion in order to capture the highly secret German cypher machine in a safe within one particular building in the town. Organised by an ultra top-secret section of the SAS and SIS, even the men chosen by the British Secret Service to take part were not even told of the raids purpose until minutes after they arrived to actually carry out the operation. All of the sacrifices made by thousands of men were to ensure the secrecy that the ultra top secret purpose of the plan, that it was actually a diversion, and not a rehearsal, that may, and in fact did, sacrifice thousands of men, in order to save hundreds of thousands, or even millions of lives, in the later planned Normandy invasion. This plans true aim was never revealed, until very recently. And many in command of the war in Britain, were, as such, blamed by the families of the lost, and felt the unending guilt of the terrible losses. Regretably , in the cold hard reality and truth of war, just like in medical surgery, sometimes a limb must be sacrificed and lost in order to save the body. And the unenviable thankless task of making such decisions, can often create a massive tactical victory, yet from those viewing from outside the circle of knowledge, it appears to be a tragic mistake.
Lord Louis Mountbatten, as the chief of Combined Operations, and Ian Fleming, a future James Bond author and naval intelligence officer, were involved in the allegedly disastrous Dieppe Raid (Operation Jubilee) in 1942, a so-called failed Allied amphibious attack on the German-occupied port of Dieppe. Even today you can find blame still being apportioned to Mountbatten and his aide, Ian Fleming, for the raid’s failure. It is a mark of the stature of such men that in their lifetimes they never revealed the truth, and lived with scorn and admonition, and even unto death still do by many. read more
310.00 GBP
A Good Silver Parachute Regiment Officer's Cap Badge 3rd Battalion Parachute Regt. Suez Campaign. Operations Telescope & Musketeer. A Franco-British Victory, Confounded by a Political Blunder
Circa 1853. Superb quality and condition with traditional officer's split-pin twin mounting loops.
Operation Telescope was a Franco-British operation conducted from 5 to 6 November 1956 during the Suez Crisis, consisting of a series of parachute drops launched by the British Parachute Brigade, in combination with French paratroop forces, 24 hours before the seaborne landing on Port Said during Operation Musketeer. Troops dropped onto Gamil airfield and Port Fuad to secure airfields and prevent Egyptian forces from providing air defence. It was put forward by the deputy Land Task Force Commander General André Beaufre under the original name Omelette which included many more drops but was adapted due to British fear of another failure like Arnhem and a lack of aircraft able to deploy paratroopers.
The capture of the airfield at El Gamil and the surrounding area was an essential element in Operation Musketeer, the joint Anglo-French airborne and amphibious assault on Port Said, with the ultimate aim of gaining control of the Suez Canal. The French 2nd Colonial Parachute Regiment were to land at Er Raswa while the 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, part of 16th Independent Parachute Brigade, were tasked with the attack on El Gamil, which would be the first British battalion parachute assault since World War II and the last to date. At the insistence of French commanders, the airborne assaults on El Gamil and Raswa were to take place a full 24 hours before the arrival of the seaborne element, in order to preserve the element of surprise, as it would be difficult to conceal the approach of the large invasion fleet.
Before the landing, the British launched airstrikes on Egyptian defensive positions around the battlefield, effectively neutralizing many of them. Still, as 3. PARA landed at 0515 GMT, they came under fire, unable to return it until they had retrieved the caches with their weapons. Egyptian fire was inaccurate however, and ultimately the British suffered very few casualties.
At 0515 GMT on 5th November 3 PARA conducted the first and last battalion sized operational parachute assault since the Second World War. Despite vigorous defensive fire El Gamil airfield was captured in 30 minutes. Vicious close-quarter fighting developed as the paratroopers continued the advance through a sewage farm and cemetery nearby, rolling up Egyptian coastal defences. Covering fire was provided to support the amphibious landings that arrived the next day and a successful link-up with 45 Commando achieved.
The British lacked heavy support equipment, but the small arms and light AT and support weapons they had were more than adequate to take the airfield, the AT being particularly effective at knocking out four concrete pillboxes. Other than these bunkers, the Egyptians withdrew to favourable terrain to avoid annihilation at the hands of the superior British forces. The Egyptians' three SU-100 self-propelled guns proved to be particularly difficult for the PARAs.
3. PARA then moved onto Port Said, surviving a friendly fire incident with French planes who strafed them. B Company captured the sewage works which provided cover from Egyptian snipers, however, not wanting to push forward and storm the highly defensible Coast Guard Barracks, they called in air support in the form of Wyverns who dropped bombs on the position for the loss of one aircraft and inflicting heavy casualties. Running out of ammo however, the British retreated to the sewage works.
16 km to the southeast, the French 2. RPC achieved a lot more success, managing to take the Western span of the Rawsa Bridges (rendered inoperable by damage) and the Said waterworks, cutting off the supplies into the city. With supplies cut off and a potential chokepoint captured by mid-morning, the French had achieved all their objectives on the first day.
Following the unsuccessful negotiation of a ceasefire during the night, C Company was sent to capture the cemetery at 0510 GMT, which was completed without opposition. This was followed up by an assault on the Coast Guard building from which a considerable amount of sniper fire was coming. The building was captured by 0800 with no casualties whereupon they were ordered to capture a hospital to complete the link up with 45 Commando.
In the closing stage of the battle, a patrol of four men was ambushed and injured by Egyptian fire whereupon a medical officer, Captain Elliot rescued them under heavy fire for which he was awarded the Military Cross.
‘Our quarrel is not with Egypt, still less with the Arab world. It is with Colonel Nasser. He has shown that he is not a man who can be trusted to keep an agreement. Now he has torn up all his country's promises to the Suez Canal Company and has even gone back on his own statements. ‘We cannot agree that an act of plunder which threatens the livelihood of many nations should be allowed to succeed. And we must make sure that the life of the great trading nations of the world cannot in the future be strangled at any moment by some interruption to the free passage of the canal.’
PRIME MINISTER SIR ANTHONY EDEN — 8 AUGUST 1956
Not hallmarked. read more
140.00 GBP
A Stunning Italian 'Order of the Crown of Italy' in Gold; Knight's Cross Medal. With Polychrome Transluscent Enamel Of The Crown Of Savoy
In Gold and enamels, 37 x 39mm, enamels superbly intact without chipping, original ribbon, extremely fine condition. Gold-edged white enamel cross pattee alisee with gold knots between the arms, on laterally-pierced ball suspension; the face with a circular central deep blue translucent enamel medallion bearing the gilt crown of Savoy with red, with white and green jewels, encircled by a gold ring; the reverse with a gold circular central medallion bearing a crowned black enamel eagle, an oval red enamel shield with a white enamel cross on its breast; The Order of the Crown of Italy was founded as a national order in 1868 by King Vittorio Emanuel II, to commemorate the unification of Italy in 1861. It was awarded in five degrees for civilian and military merit.
Compared with the older Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (1572), the Order of the Crown of Italy was awarded more liberally and could be conferred on non-Catholics as well; eventually, it became a requirement for a person to have already received the Order of the Crown of Italy in at least the same degree before receiving the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus.
The order has been suppressed by law since the foundation of the Republic in 1946. However, Umberto II did not abdicate his position as fons honorum and it remained under his Grand Mastership as a dynastic order. While the continued use of those decorations conferred prior to 1951 is permitted in Italy, the crowns on the ribbons issued before 1946 must be substituted for as many five pointed stars on military uniforms. Following the demise of the last reigning monarch in 1983, the order, founded by the first, is no longer bestowed. Notable recipients of the order were; Major General Robert A. McClure, father of U.S. Army Special Operations, Director of Information and Media Control at Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) during World War II
Brigadier General Billy Mitchell, United States Army air power advocate.
Charles Poletti, Governor of New York, and Colonel in the United States Army; served in Italy during World War II. Painting in the gallery by Karel Zadnik (1847-1929), painted in Bilowitz in 1912 of Count Hugo II Logothetti who is wearing his Italian Order of the Crown of Italy around his neck. Silk ribbon with small old staining. read more
225.00 GBP
A Fabulous and Extremely Scarce, Original, WW2 German Third Reich 'Nebelwerfer 41' Un-Fired or Failed Detonation Rocket. D-Day 'Operation Overlord' Vintage
Empty, inert and perfectly safe. This is one of the very last few we have seen in over 30 years and the first three we sold straightaway, we only have two remaining.
From a superb collection of German ordnance that has arrived. This is one of our last Nebelwerfer Rocket from this collection. Nicknamed by the allies the 'Moaning Mini' due to it's unearthly scream as it flew. An original unfired example, and a simply remarkable piece of history, from the early German Third Reich's rocket technology, and part of a superb Third Reich collection we have been thrilled to acquire. An interesting statistic, it is estimated 75% of all German hi-explosive launched combat in Caen, the Normandy campaign, primarily involved the Nebelwerfers, the rest were fired by the panzers and luftwaffe. Beautifully waffen amt marked and with original paint decoration. The Nebelwerfer ("Smoke Mortar") was a World War II German series of super weapons. They were initially developed by and assigned to the Wehrmacht's so-called "smoke troops" (Nebeltruppen). This weapon was given its name as a disinformation strategy designed to fool observers from the League of Nations, who were observing any possible infraction of the Treaty of Versailles, into thinking that it was merely a device for creating a smoke screen. However, they were primarily intended to deliver poison gas combined with smoke shells, although a high-explosive shell was developed for the Nebelwerfer from the very beginning. And then as an offensive/defensive long range battle weapon the Nebelwerfer and its crews truly came into their own. Initially, two different mortars were fielded before they were replaced by a variety of rocket launchers ranging in size from 15 to 32 centimetres (5.9 to 12.6 in). Nebeltruppen smoke troops are general chemical warfare troops, who were trained for both smoke and gas operations, and in the event of chemical warfare breaking out, the offensive role will be borne primarily by them. Specifically with reference to the use of smoke, it should be borne in mind that when smoke is required in limited areas it is produced generally by smoke-producing ammunition fired by the combat units' organic weapons, such as artillery and mortars; in operations involving the use of smoke in large quantities the specially trained and equipped, smoke troops are used. A number of these units was reported destroyed at Stalingrad. Three smoke batteries were also reported in North Africa. It was known that the Grossdeutschland Division and probably 20 divisions formed since December 1941, include a Nebelwerfer smoke battery.
"It is well to point out here that the Germans distinguish between the blinding screen and the area screen, a distinction not specifically made by General von Cochenhausen. The blinding screen is laid to blind hostile observation. The area screen is laid over an extensive area and fighting is carried out within the screen under conditions similar to a natural thick fog." The previous details were in part taken from a report on German smoke tactics in WWII, from Tactical and Technical Trends, No. 32, August 26, 1943. US War Dept.The thin walls of the rockets had the great advantage of allowing much larger quantities of gases, fluids or high-explosives to be delivered than artillery or even mortar shells of the same weight. With the exception of the Balkans Campaign, Nebelwerfers were used in every campaign of the German Army during World War II. A version of the 21 cm calibre system was even adapted for air-to-air use against Allied bombers. The name was also used to fool observers from the League of Nations, who were observing any possible infraction of the Treaty of Versailles, from discovering that the weapon could be used for explosive and toxic chemical payloads as well as the smoke rounds that the name Nebelwerfer suggested.
Rocket development had begun during the 1920s and reached fruition in the late thirties. This offered the opportunity for the Nebeltruppen to deliver large quantities of poison gas or smoke simultaneously. The first weapon to be delivered to the troops was the 15 cm Nebelwerfer 41 in 1940, after the Battle of France, a purpose-designed rocket with gas, smoke and high-explosive warheads. It, like virtually all German rocket designs, was spin-stabilized to increase accuracy. One very unusual feature was that the rocket motor was in the front, the exhaust venturi being about two-thirds down the body from the nose, with the intent to optimize the blast effect of the rocket as the warhead would still be above the ground when it detonated. This proved to greatly complicate manufacture for not much extra effect and it was not copied on later rocket designs. It was fired from a six-tube launcher mounted on a towed carriage adapted from that used by the 3.7 cm PaK 36 and had a range of 6,900 metres (7,500 yd). Rocket-projector troops are employed as battalion and regimental units, in keeping with their task of destroying hostile forces by concentrated fire. One of the advantages of the Nebelwerfer 41 is that it can mass its projectiles on a very small target area. By means of a shrewd disposition of the batteries, a carefully planned communication system, and a large number of observation posts with advanced observers, the infantry can assure for itself manoeuvrability and a concentration of its fire power upon the most important points. Projectors are placed well toward the front almost without exception, at points forward of the artillery so that they will be able to eliminate hostile command posts, destroy hostile positions, and even repulse sudden attacks effectively. The firing positions of the projectors are always carefully built up so that the weapons can give strong support to the infantry.
In Russia, during the winter of 1942-43, many breakthrough attempts by hostile forces were repulsed by direct fire from rocket-projector batteries. The projectile itself resembles a small torpedo?without propeller or tail fins. The base is flat, with slightly rounded edges. The rocket jets are located about one-third of the way up the projectile from the base, and encircle the casing. The jets are at an angle with the axis of the projectile so as to impart rotation in flight, in "turbine" fashion. The following note on the operation of the Nebelwerfer 41 is reproduced from the original WW2 German Army periodical Die Wehrmacht.
The Nebelwerfer 41, is unlimbered and placed in position by its crew of four men. As soon as the protective coverings have been removed, the projector is ready to be aimed and loaded. The ammunition is attached to the right and to the left of the projector, within easy reach, and the shells are introduced two at a time, beginning with the lower barrels and continuing upward. Meanwhile, foxholes deep enough to conceal a man in standing position have been dug about 10 to 15 yards to the side and rear of the projector. The gunners remain in these foxholes while the weapon is being fired by electrical ignition. Within 10 seconds a battery can fire 36 projectiles. These make a droning pipe-organ sound as they leave the barrels, and, while in flight, leave a trail of smoke. After a salvo has been fired, the crew quickly returns to its projectors and reloads them. Only its original empty steel shell casing and parts, no propellant, no ingnition system, thus completely safe in all regards.
No restrictions to ownership or personal display, but only for sale to over 18's.
Not suitable to Export. 38 inches long approx.
Copy and paste for original film of Nebelwefer in use on youtube; www.youtube.com/watch?v=loNLz1_Zf1c read more
895.00 GBP