The Victory Bell

[Flying10uk]

These bells were made just after WW2, in the UK, to raise money for the RAF Benevolent Fund and were cast from aluminium salvaged from German aircraft shot down over Great Britain during WW2. There are several variations on the design and, of the 2 examples that I have, one has the inscription and the other doesn't. As I understand it the one without the inscription is less common than the one with. As can be seen the bells feature the silhouettes of the 3 wartime leaders, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin.

[Bob Womack]

Interesting, How do they sound?

Bob

[Flying10uk]

They sound a bit "tinny", not the best bell sound but they were more symbolic. Church bells hadn't been rung in the UK since the start of the war except on one or two special occasions.

Luftwaffe scrap and the RAF Benevolent Fund ‘Victory Bell’ volunteer london blog

[browningautorifle]

Now those are neat, we never see those here.

[Flying10uk]

As an aside, a few years ago, before I found out that the one without an inscription was relatively rare I thought that might try selling it on eBay because I had 2 of these bells. I listed it and shortly afterwards eBay took it down and the reason given to me was that it is "Nazi-related" and so it couldn't be sold on eBay. I phoned eBay to say that there are no Nazi symbols on it and after a "conference call" between me, eBay in Ireland and eBay in the US I got the answer back that it was considered "Nazi-related" because the aluminium that had been melted down to make the bell had come from WW2 German aircraft. They went on to say that if I ever tried to re-list it I would be permanently banned from selling on eBay.

Since then I learned that the ones without an inscription are less common and, therefore I have decided to hold onto it.

[Aragorn243]

I ran into that one time with an airplane model.

In any case, the restriction appears to have been lifted as there are currently two of them listed on eBay. Both from the UK.

[Flying10uk]

there are currently two of them listed on eBay. Both from the UK.

I said, during the "conference call" with eBay that they still had other similar examples listed on their site, at the time they took mine down, but it had zero effect on them. They said something like and to the effect of "we haven't got round to dealing with the others that are listed yet".