Militaria for sale

Lenny Warren trawls the internet to find bargains, rare, interesting or bizarre items of militaria

Lenny Warren takes a trip around the internet in search of rare, interesting and desirable collectables.

Hopefully by the time you read this, the Covid lockdown will have been relaxed and we can start to get back to some sort of normality. I’m personally missing museums and militaria fairs, but it’s anyone’s guess when we’ll be able to visit these again. Until that time, I’ll just have to keep browsing the militaria websites and drool at some of the amazing items that still turn up, this month it’s all WWII German items.

This first item is pretty unique, I’ve never seen another like it. Here we have a NSFK Icarus emblem that appears to have been cut from a staff car. The National Socialist Flyers Corps (NSFK) was a paramilitary organisation of the Nazi Party that was founded in 1937 and conducted military aviation training in gliders and private aircraft. When Nazi Germany formed the Luftwaffe, many NSFK members transferred. The NSFK existed throughout WWII, but mainly performed air defence duties such as anti-aircraft service.

This Icarus emblem seems to be a decal kind of application, with about 70% of the total emblem remaining. The reverse is painted yellow and there are screw holes around the perimeter. This piece is believed to have been salvaged post-war and was repurposed for other use, thus explaining the irregularity of the cutting and yellow on the reverse.

The screw holes exit through the NSFK side, meaning the emblem would have been hidden until it was removed years later.

Overall, this is a super interesting piece which would look best mounted on a wall. Priced at $2,895 from www.wehrmacht-militaria.com.

Period printed military manuals are always collectable, but this example is really desirable. The Panzerknacker (meaning Armour breaker) enemy tank destruction manual, issued in

1944 is a really nice and complete period publication with instructions on engaging enemy tanks. The pages are complete and in excellent shape, these are getting really scarce to find and were very popular amongst the troops at the time. Priced at €845 from www.lux-military-antiques.com.

Combat helmets are always very popular with collectors, but here we have something which is a fair bit rarer. This WWII German lightweight double decal Heer helmet is made from aluminium and intended to be worn as a parade helmet, thereby not needing the weight and protection afforded by a combat helmet. With its original liner, showing initials from a former owner, an early style chinstrap and most of the paint finish present it shows very little damage which these helmets tend to pick up due to the lightness of the shell material. A superb helmet, getting harder to find, a must for every German helmet collector. Priced at €2,495 from www.imcsmilitaria.com.