My thanks again go to Simon and Christine Briggs for kindly sharing with us John Staple’s photographs from Salonika, Egypt and Turkey and for taking the trouble to photograph his interesting collection of ‘trench art’ souvenirs. These photos are reproduced below with notes from Simon.
On the shell case is engraved, in an elaborate script, “Souvenir Balkans 1915 – 19” and the initials “JS” [John Staple]. On the base of the shell case, it says “DUSSELDORF” and also “RhMF 1912” and it appears to be for a 75mm weapon.
The airplane is a rifle cartridge with wings and tail plane made from sheet brass (the rudder is missing). On the top wing is engraved “Souvenir from Salonika 1917” and under that “JS”.
There are 2 matchbox covers, one with a German belt buckle – “GOTT MIT UNS”.
The copper one has lettering on both sides but I don’t recognise many of the characters although it does say “1918”.
Is the script Russian or Serbian? If you know and can tell us what it says please leave a comment.
