Australian gold gilt and enameled veteran’s pin for the 2/1 Machine Gun Battalion Association’s 50th anniversary. Enameled grey, black and yellow triangle insignia of the 2/1 Machine Gun Battalion topped with a white enameled “50” with two Vickers machine guns along each side and a yellow enameled banner below marked “Machine Gun 2/1 Bn. Assoc.” The rear is stamped with an ID member number 195 and maker marked Millers Ltd. Sydney. Pin back. The 2/1 means it was the second 1st Machine Gun Battalion formed during World War II. The 1st Machine Gun Battalion was formed in World War I.
French CSRG Chauchat officer’s team member shoulder patch. Interwar period (1920s). Gold bullion stitched image of flaming bomb above a Chauchat Machine Rifle M1915 on a wool French Horizon Blue uniform background. Worn on upper left arm sleeve.
World War I British shoulder title for the Royal Horse Guards, Machine Gun Guards. White stitching on red wool background with Royal Horse Guards arching over M.G.Gds. A very rare should title, the four Machine Gun Battalions (the three Household Cavalry Regiments, 1st and 2nd Life Guards and the Royal Horse Guards and the 4th Battalion Machine Gun Guards joined and was renamed the 4th (Foot Guards) Battalion in 1918.
Gold Coast Territorial Force machine gun officer’s silver plate collar badge (circa 1920s-1930s). White metal trumpeting elephant atop gold colored banner with “G.C.T.F.” to center atop silver plated crossed Vickers. Rear marked “Firmin London” with two lugs to rear. The Gold Coast was a British colony on the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa
World War II Russian poster “Shoot To Kill!” by Nikolai Zhukov, 1942. Rendered by one of the major 20th century Russian artists, this original 1942 small (10 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches) poster is a rare first edition of this widely reproduced poster. It is one of the best known war-time images in Russia of a determined Russian soldier firing the M1910 Russian Maxim. Additionally, from a poster collector’s viewpoint, it is very rare that a poster shows another poster within the content of the image as is done in this case with the poster on the wall behind the soldier. It shows a mother and child at bayonet point with her plea below, “Soldier of the Red Army - SAVE US!”