Hi all,

Please have a look at my recent post under the 'Reflex Help' category and have a look at the photos of my RB Series B. Any info on the OD green hardware would be gratefully received.

Cheers,
Bruce

Bruce,

Not that I can be much help, but since you titled this thread 'Military Graflex Collectors...', I thought I would post these questions here.

Is it possible to trace the provenance of a war-time Speed/Graflex to a particular platoon, battalion, GI, etc?

Example, my Black Speed has a serial number of 340394, can this number be traced to a production batch, production order, delivery docket, etc., so to indicate where it was sold, the dealer, etc?

Also, I know the Signal Corps received Speed Graphics usually under guise of a PH-47?, but would have non-designated Speed been issued to troops to be used as well?

Just curious...

Hi there Lynn,

Les might have more knowledge than me (in fact I know he has!) but I don't think there is detailed info about where a particular military camera ended up during any war. I think they just ended up in the supply chain, like rifles, etc.

I guess a number of the non-designated WW2 Anniversary Speed Graphics (ie not the Signal Corps PH-47E or PH-47F Speed Graphics or the Air Forces C-3) maybe ended up in either Navy service or with civilian war correspondents. As far as I know Navy Speeds didn't have ID plates during WW2. No doubt some all black versions became mainland press cameras but once again I'm not sure how the priorities were worked out for supply during the war years. Over to you Les???

Cheers,
Bruce

Bruce, Lynn, if you study pics of allied WWII photographers, you'll see they used many different models of Speeds including Pre-Annies and 3x4. I assume they took whatever they found before PH-47 was available. This was probably the case with Leicas too since delivery of new cameras was soon impossible.