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00:00In this episode, there were actually two types of dagger.
00:04There was a roundel dagger, and then there was another one called a bollock dagger.
00:08That sounds like a loader.
00:10Yeah.
00:10It's absolutely true.
00:11I can see now why they call it the medieval times.
00:14There's nothing nice about it. It's medieval.
00:17How terrifying it would be surrounded knowing you're going to die.
00:21Oh, here we go.
00:22Are they similar to what you've used in your experience?
00:30Welcome to Battle Treasures. I'm Jason Fox, a former Special Forces soldier.
00:35And next to me is the collector extraordinaire, a man who could launch an invasion from his own shed, Mr.
00:40Bruce Crompton.
00:42Thank you, Jason. My mission is to get everybody to become a collector.
00:46Now, today I've been able to have somebody search round and find wonderful artefacts.
00:53So what we got today, Ed?
00:54The theme of this episode is all about battlefield relics.
00:59And actually, the best place to find these relics is in your museum, Bruce.
01:04Thank you very much.
01:04You've got the most amazing collection.
01:07And so me and the team, we went round just picking out some of our favourite items.
01:12Oh, it should be a right know-it-all then.
01:14Yes, let's hope so.
01:15Freddie, would you mind getting out the first one?
01:18Ah.
01:20What do you reckon, Jason?
01:21Well, it looks old. It has seen some action, I should imagine.
01:29It is a, what, a knife, a dagger?
01:32Yes, it's a dagger.
01:33Right.
01:33Please, please enlighten us.
01:35Okay.
01:35There are a lot of things I'm very interested in history in the past.
01:39But one of the areas that I'm absolutely fascinated is the War of the Roses.
01:44Ah.
01:45Okay?
01:45Between the Lancastrian and the Yorkists.
01:47And this is what's called a roundel dagger.
01:51Now, this particular dagger has come from the Battle of Towton.
01:54Fought south of York on Palm Sunday, 1461.
01:58You haven't got a map at all, have you read?
02:00I have.
02:01I have.
02:01Stand by.
02:02Bring us in.
02:04All right.
02:05Towton.
02:06All right, guys, I've got some absolutely amazing medieval pictures,
02:12which have come from a manual, a knight's fighting manual.
02:16And I think they'll show you just how brutal warfare, medieval warfare was.
02:23Actually, that must be the scabber for the roundel dagger, but that's a typical roundel dagger.
02:27Now, again, he's got his arm up.
02:29So these knives were designed to go underneath at all the points that you could bleed through your visor.
02:36Yeah.
02:36Terrible thing.
02:36I can see where he's messed up.
02:38He's dropped his dagger.
02:39Yeah, yeah.
02:39He's dropped his dagger.
02:40He's had a stinker.
02:41Yeah, yeah.
02:42So there were actually two types of dagger.
02:44There was a roundel dagger, and then there was another one called a bollock dagger.
02:49That sounds like a loader.
02:50Yeah, but it's absolutely true.
02:52So they had two large bulges made out of wood both sides, and they were designed to up, and it
02:58was called a bollock dagger.
03:00And I've got another great image here.
03:02There you go.
03:02Lovely.
03:03Yeah.
03:04Great for who?
03:06Yeah.
03:07Not your mate, is he?
03:08Yeah.
03:08And again, you can see the roundel daggers.
03:11Both of them have got them.
03:12That's their secondary weapon system.
03:17But when you look at this, they're engaging in proper close quarter battle.
03:23They're grappling.
03:24They're literally locked.
03:25They're locked shoulders, locked heads, but they're still employing their main weapons.
03:30It's dirty.
03:31It's disgusting.
03:32You're going to hear that guy screaming in your ear, begging you not to cut his obvious off.
03:37Yeah.
03:38It's going to be nasty stuff.
03:39And quite frankly, I can see now why they call it the medieval times.
03:43Yeah.
03:43Because there's nothing nice about it.
03:46It's medieval.
03:47Yeah.
03:47Where did that come from?
03:48So this actually came from the Croc Bec.
03:51Now that's a river that was positioned at the back of the battle.
03:56And when the Lancastrians started to flee, they had to flee across this river.
04:01That's where you had all the casualties with the Bridge of Bodies.
04:05The Bridge of Bodies?
04:06Yes.
04:06So the Bridge of Bodies.
04:07So many of the Lancastrians, and it was part of this thing called the Route, and then
04:11the Yorkists followed them down the intercarpment and they were trying to flee across the river.
04:16But so many were killed going down the intercarpment over the river that they piled up.
04:22And the river actually had a bridge full of people and other Lancastrians trying to escape
04:28were climbing over the bodies.
04:30There were so many bodies there.
04:31When you're a soldier, like we all know this, if you can keep your feet dry for as long as
04:36possible, you're a happy chap.
04:38The minute it looks like you've got to get them wet, life changes.
04:42You know, if you're in the field for a period of time, you could go a couple of days, and
04:45if your feet haven't got wet in two days, you're laughing.
04:48Right.
04:48That's what's going to affect you.
04:50And it destroys you.
04:52It destroys people.
04:53I've seen grown men cry because of the state of their feet.
04:56Yeah.
04:58Honestly, every soldier gets wet.
04:59It's a part of being a soldier.
05:01And actually, that's the bit that I loved.
05:03I loved doing stuff that I knew other people couldn't quite stomach.
05:07I took pride from being the person that was uncomfortable.
05:10But it is horrible.
05:12Yeah.
05:12Getting back to the item at hand, and it is an ominous looking item.
05:18That has got death written all over it, quite frankly.
05:21What sort of damage would this do to your wallet?
05:25A relic like that with the provenance it's got, you'll pay up to about £1,500 for something like that.
05:32Not too expensive.
05:33You can find a round or dagger, obviously a lot cheaper, but something with a bit of provenance.
05:39I mean, this is very badly worn.
05:41Something that's in much better condition, you'd pay more for.
05:45But could you get something in better condition from that period?
05:47Yes, you can do.
05:48I mean, there are big collections.
05:50The best collection of town and weapons is at the Royal Armouries,
05:55but other people have got fantastic examples in their collections.
05:59The things that are expensive from places like the Battle of Town are the Warhammers.
06:03They're very expensive, but a lot of museums got them.
06:07For me, that's very important because it's from that Battle of Town in the Lochman with other relics I've got
06:12from there.
06:13That's been there, seen there, done it. Not very nice.
06:17Just quickly, as a point of interest here, I found an actual roundel in pristine condition.
06:24This is the replica.
06:25Yeah, replica roundel.
06:26Freddie, do you just want to quickly hand it over?
06:30Yeah.
06:31Wow.
06:33I mean, it is a nasty piece of work.
06:35It is, it really is.
06:36And again, a lot of the, certain at Town, a lot of them had heavy visors on, and you could
06:41get that through a visor.
06:42Yeah.
06:43That's, you know, Agincourt, they have these Agincourt, Cressy, all of them.
06:47Any, any advancement on Bruce's valuation?
06:51Yeah.
06:52So we, as you know, we have everything independently verified and 1,500 bang on.
06:581,300 to 1,500 our experts said.
07:00Yeah.
07:00But you can pay more for ones that are in better condition.
07:04And they come up.
07:05They come up.
07:06Apart from your illustrious collection, where can people find them?
07:11Okay.
07:12Places, obviously, like the Tower of London, you can see them.
07:14They've got a lot of those items there.
07:16Places like York, Castle, they've got items like that up there.
07:21Certainly the best collection of town and things are at the Leeds Armouries.
07:26But I must say, and we've said it once before, but the Combined Military Service Museum have got a fantastic
07:32collection of these.
07:33Great artifact.
07:34Great battle relic.
07:36What have we got next?
07:38The next piece we've got comes from a battle where there are almost no survivors and one of the worst
07:45British military defeats.
07:48Coming up, an extraordinary revelation.
07:51I had a playlist that I listened to whilst we were flying into battle.
07:55What was on your playlist?
07:57All sorts of embarrassing stuff.
07:59A little bit of Kylie Minogue.
08:10Welcome back to Battle Treasures.
08:13Ed, what's up next?
08:15An absolute cracker.
08:16Go on, Fred.
08:17Open up the safe.
08:18Right.
08:18Oh, this looks noisy.
08:20Oh.
08:21This here is a, now I'm not an instrument expert, but it looks old.
08:30A trumpet?
08:31Cornet.
08:32Cornet.
08:33Okay, it's a cornet.
08:34Have a look at the front on the other side.
08:3713th of June, 1879.
08:40Absolutely.
08:42It's actually a cornet and it's a relic from the Battle of Isandawana, which was part of the Anglo-Zulu
08:48War in 1879.
08:51Now this item belonged to a band member of the 24th Regiment of Foot, the 1st Battalion.
08:57Bruce, can you tell us what actually happened at Isandawana?
09:02Isandawana turned out to be one of the greatest defeats we've ever experienced.
09:06It was a situation where 20,000 Zulus overwhelmed between 1,300 and 1,400 soldiers.
09:14About 850 Imperial soldiers from the 24th Regiment of Foot and raw people from the Royal Artillery and other units
09:21were there.
09:22But it was so bad that it eventually brought down the British government under Disraeli.
09:27It was a disaster.
09:29But why would they take band instruments into battle?
09:32Because again, they took the band, they took their instruments, but they were really stretcher bearers as well.
09:37So all the band instruments there, they didn't realise that they were going to be attacked by 20,000 Zulus
09:43and overrun.
09:45So that was primarily taken for morale?
09:48Yes.
09:48So they could listen to music?
09:50Yep.
09:50Ah, right.
09:51Yeah, I've got an amazing picture of the battle if you'd like to see it.
09:54Yeah.
09:54Very famous portrait.
09:58There we go.
09:59Fripp.
10:00Unbelievable.
10:01There's a few talking points for this picture actually.
10:03Like firstly, how terrifying it would be being one of them surrounded knowing you're going to die.
10:11Like what are you thinking about?
10:13I mean, to put it into perspective, not like this, but I've been told and felt surrounded
10:19and I've thought about my daughter and thought about will I ever see her again.
10:23They know that they're not going to see anyone again.
10:26All the ammunition boxes had eight screws in and they only had two screwdrivers.
10:31So they were trying to unscrew these.
10:34Now I've got artifacts from that battle.
10:38There is a copper band that goes around the ammunition box and in pure desperation they've wrenched them with bayonets.
10:45And you can put a bayonet of that type in it and you can see where they're trying to rip
10:50a moment.
10:51Absolute terror.
10:52And because of that, the British Army never screwed down ammunition boxes after that.
10:57So the guy that was in charge of this, this was his corner.
11:01He blew it.
11:02He was a member of the band.
11:04What happened to him?
11:05Because like you said, most people, there were a few people that escaped.
11:08Yeah, a few.
11:08So did he?
11:09No, he didn't.
11:10Unfortunately, of all the band of the first and the 24th, only two of the band members got home.
11:16Or got away, got to help a marker place close by.
11:20Do we know the guy's name?
11:21Yes.
11:21This guy's name was George Conboy.
11:24And he was a member of the band.
11:26And have you been able to find anything about him at all?
11:29I have actually.
11:29I've got, incredibly, there is a photograph of George.
11:36And you can see him.
11:37So that corner there.
11:39That is him.
11:40That's this corner.
11:41Okay.
11:42That's Conboy holding that.
11:44And I think he was down at Jamestown prior to moving up to Natal to take part in the Zulu
11:50War.
11:51Only two of those guys survived.
11:53I can hazard a guess at what that poor bloke would have been doing.
11:56But he probably wouldn't have been like the band of the Titanic playing as it went down.
12:01Absolutely not.
12:02What would he have been doing?
12:03So the two members of the band that survived gave detailed testimonies.
12:08Oh wow.
12:08So we know.
12:09And they had actually set up a hospital tent there.
12:11And most of the band members were assigned straight away as the Zulu attack happened to go into the hospital
12:18tent to receive casualties.
12:20He would have probably been in the camp as the Zulus just overwhelmed it.
12:25And he would have just been.
12:27Run through.
12:28Run through.
12:29He'd have been.
12:30Terrifying.
12:30Absolutely terrifying.
12:31I want to talk more about the band, you know.
12:33And Jason, you've told me several times before, you know, that when you guys are on Ops, you'd be listening
12:39to music.
12:41My era, we had the old iPod Shuffle.
12:46I used to have one of those in my side pocket, put it on.
12:49And then I had a playlist that I listened to whilst we were flying into battle.
12:53Really?
12:53Yeah.
12:54What was on your playlist?
12:55All sorts of embarrassing stuff.
12:57A little bit of Kylie Minogue.
12:58A little bit of Metallica.
13:01It was mad.
13:02It was a mixed array.
13:03You'd be surprised at some of the things that I was listening to just prior to getting shot at.
13:08Anyway, moving on.
13:10The next thing I want to know is, is this going to blow your bank?
13:14Okay.
13:15I've had this for about 15 years now.
13:18And I believe I bought it at Sphinx and I probably paid about £4,000 for it.
13:24So for me, it was worth every penny.
13:27So if people want to see, well, I mean, if people want to see this one, they need to get
13:32older you.
13:33But instruments like it, where can they find them?
13:37The best place to go with the best collection of relics from Izanawana Ralkstrift is the Royal Welsh Museum in
13:43Brecon.
13:44It's fantastic.
13:46They've got quite a few of the VCs, one at Ralkstrift there.
13:49They've got items down there that I'd give you right arm for.
13:52It's a fantastic museum, really well run.
13:55And I really encourage people to go down there.
13:58Big Ed?
13:59Yes.
14:00What's next?
14:01Fred, would you like to go and open Bruce's safe?
14:07Mike, this looks old.
14:09All right.
14:09Okay.
14:10I can see immediately that it is something that helps people patch other people up that have been injured.
14:17We've got, you can just make out that it says first aid on the lid.
14:21There's the medics emblem, the serpent wrapped around a dagger that's winged.
14:27But that to me looks around Second World War, Korean War.
14:31Absolutely.
14:32You're 100% right.
14:33I reckon it's time to hand over to you, Bruce.
14:35Okay.
14:35What are we looking at?
14:36I know this item.
14:37Obviously, this is something that's been in my collection for a long time.
14:39For many, many years, I've been fascinated about the Battle of the Bulge.
14:43The American, the German advance of what was called the Battle of the Bulge.
14:46In particular, the northern edge of the Battle of the Bulge.
14:50A little map here that we can look at.
14:52Cheneur.
14:52Now, this little village here is very significant.
14:57This Medixtin has come from that battle.
14:59So just quickly, we're now in, we're in Belgium, is that correct?
15:03Yep.
15:04Why was it called the Battle of the Bulge?
15:05From here to here, the Germans formed a massive bulge.
15:11So the Battle of the Bulge was basically Hitler's last roll of the dice.
15:16He wanted to do a massive counterattack, and the idea was that he wanted to get to the coast.
15:24Antwerp.
15:24Yeah, and to cut the Allied forces in half.
15:28One of the reasons is because in 1940, he'd done exactly the same thing when he advanced into the Low
15:35Countries.
15:36He came through the Ardennes.
15:38So he knew it could work, and he carried out again.
15:41And also, that part of the Ardennes was called the Ghost Front.
15:45The Americans had pulled most of their forces further up, and they were fighting around Arken.
15:51We were fighting around Antwerp.
15:53And he wanted to drive to Antwerp and cut the British and Canadians off from the Americans.
15:59But this particular item comes from the Battle of Cheneur.
16:03So this area was called the Ghost Front.
16:05The Americans had sent second-line units down there to rest.
16:09But when the Battle of the Bulge started, reinforcements were thrown to the front very quickly.
16:14And famously, the 101st Airborne was sent to Bastogne.
16:18But the 82nd Airborne was sent to Cheneur, which was manned by an SS unit with 17 flat units.
16:26And their commander, Reuben Tucker of the American Airborne, he sent them in quickly without any close support.
16:33Now, they entered across fields, and unfortunately, the 1st Battalion got absolutely blatted.
16:40I've got a picture here.
16:41One of the soldiers there.
16:43That's it.
16:43So this was taken.
16:45This is a genuine photograph from the battle.
16:48The 82nd Airborne had photographers embedded in them.
16:53They're not defensive.
16:55They're farm fences, but it was on high ground, and the Germans were positioned low down.
17:01They had a complete view of everything coming towards them.
17:04This is a first aid tin that would be in between the passenger and the driver on a Jeep.
17:12And this particular first aid box was involved in the Battalion Earth.
17:17This was a relic.
17:18I've acquired a lot of stuff over a lot of years, but it's very, very special.
17:24I've got, Bruce, I also got from your collection, a pristine version.
17:29Freddie, would you just take it over to Jason and Bruce?
17:33This is, again, a genuine, authentic artifact, but it's not a relic.
17:38Yeah, yeah, open that one.
17:40So this is going to be, oh, here we go.
17:42So there's your standard first aid.
17:44What I like about this, real quickly, is, as you might be able to see,
17:49inside the top lid, pasted into it is an instruction manual.
17:54Are they similar to what you've used in your experience?
17:57I mean, technology has advanced, but ultimately you do have scissors.
18:02You have inhalants, you have iodine, you have something to kill off germs.
18:05You've got all the sort of, we have Israeli bandages.
18:08We have, like, tourniquets.
18:10You've got really advanced tourniquets now that you can apply to yourself and do up with one hand.
18:15Have you ever had to administer first aid to anyone on the battlefield?
18:19Yeah.
18:20We went on one operation.
18:21It was during the day.
18:23One of the young lads actually got hit.
18:25He got shot in the arm.
18:26It was a flesh wound.
18:27He went down.
18:28He was sat, actually, propped up against a wall.
18:31And he was going into shock.
18:33And one of the other guys, a guy that we'll call Dave, not his real name,
18:37went up to him.
18:38He was a slightly more senior guy with the same sort of peerage.
18:41And he was like, mate, how you conduct yourself now will stay with you for the rest of your life.
18:48And it was quite, I remember thinking, wow, that's a really poignant thing to say.
18:53And it actually worked.
18:54It snapped this young lad out of the sort of, like, moment of shock.
18:58And he sort of got a grip of himself, calmed his breathing down.
19:01And we cracked on.
19:02Anyway, a couple of months later, we go out on the ground.
19:04It's a night operation.
19:06And I'm in a team where we come under fire.
19:10We've dived for cover.
19:11We could hear someone else screaming just off to our right.
19:15Obviously, someone had been hit.
19:16So we've, like, crawled over, like, literally crawled over to this guy.
19:19And it's Dave.
19:21Shot in both legs, unfortunately.
19:23He sat there and he's, like, screaming.
19:25That must be so painful.
19:26Well, it looked like he was painful.
19:28But he was screaming, banging the floor.
19:30And I thought, this is a great time to deliver that line.
19:32And I thought, Dave, how you conduct yourself now?
19:36And he then replied very quickly, cut me off with an expletive I won't use.
19:40And I shut up because he's bigger than me.
19:42Unbelievable.
19:43Incredible.
19:43OK, so this first aid kit from the Battle of the Bulge.
19:47How much are we looking at there?
19:49How much did you pay for it?
19:50With the Providence, I gave about 50 euros for that.
19:5450 euros?
19:55Yeah.
19:55But that was in about 1987.
19:58But, again, something like that.
20:00If you went to Le Glaze or Suneur now, pick that up.
20:03You'd be paying about 150 euros for it.
20:06Right.
20:08That, with all the kit in, the pristine as it is.
20:11For the vehicle collectors, you'll pay a lot more.
20:14Really?
20:15Oh, yeah, a lot more.
20:16You'd be paying up to 300 pounds for that.
20:19Yeah, OK, so I had them independently verified for you.
20:25Right.
20:25So the pristine one was around about 400 pounds.
20:30And the relic was about 200, you thought.
20:33Yeah, there you go.
20:34Aside from your personal collection, whereabouts are we going to find these things?
20:39OK, you can see most places that have got any type of military vehicles will have these fitted in them.
20:46So any of the museums, like Bovington, the Tank Museum, anywhere like that where they hold vehicles, you'll find these
20:55kits in them.
20:57Awesome. So that pretty much concludes this episode.
21:02I'd like to firstly thank, as much as it pains me, Ed, for scouring Bruce's collection.
21:09But without Bruce, this episode would not be possible.
21:15Your collection, quite frankly, is unbelievable.
21:18It is awesome.
21:19You've put painstaking years of effort toil into it.
21:24I really appreciate that, Jason.
21:25We appreciate it. Anyway, goodbye everyone.
21:27See you on the next episode of Battle Treasures.
21:55Take care.
21:57Have fun.
22:07Take care.
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