My dad's war trophies.

[ROBB]

A true D Day hero .Great items and like the others have said you need to jot his memories down for future generations.Rob.

[Jeff V]

Great items! Even more wonderful to have them from your father, especially in today's world when many kids of vets couldn't care less. Thanks for sharing! best wishes,
jeff

[PIERRE.H]

Nice items. Congrats

[all1knew]

items

Hello,

You are very lucky to have those items, and that flag is simply stunning.

Thanks for posting and welcome to the forum.

William Kramer

[Glenn Barbaritz]

your Father is a true Hero. you must be very proud of Him. not many Men can tell the tales He has. and great pieces also. love the helmet. Glenn

[Chet Sowersby]

Thanks you so much for sharing your fathers bringbacks. All of them are outstanding items. That fact they were brought back by your father is priceless. Never let them stay from your family. I saw the pictures you posted in the Fallschirmjager forum. If you have any more please share them with us.

Chet

[smokycity]

For all who have responded thank you, I hope you enjoyed the photos. What good is the history if I don't share it? I am currently working on writing some of my fathers’ stories down. I am trying to narrow down a few details such as specific dates and locations where some things may have happened. My father remembers the events, but some of the little "trivial" details escape him. I hope one day to compile enough of his stories to perhaps write them into a book.

For now I can share the story behind the P-08 since it's fairly easy to tell. (But hearing him tell it is much better, but I'll do my best).

First off, his company was assigned to the 116th Infantry, and he landed on Omaha right behind Co-A, later referred to as the Bedford Boys. As most probably know Co-A was decimated on the beach. When my dad came ashore, his landing craft had stopped on a sandbar several yards from the beach. The Boatswain's Mate driving the landing craft off loaded his platoon into waist deep water, which quickly became chin deep as they made their way to shore. The gas mask bags helped keep my dad's head above water. He said that as he made his way ashore he could clearly see the German soldiers on the bluffs shooting at them. He credits the miss-drop short of the shore with actually keeping him and his men alive, since by the time they actually start coming out of the water they were spread out and they could stay down making themselves smaller targets. The down side to the drop was they lost most of their equipment and their weapons were full of water and sand rendering them inoperative when they tried shooting back as they waded in. Once on the beach they made their way to the base of the bluffs, re-arming themselves along the way with weapons from other fallen soldiers. He also said that as they came ashore, wounded men pleaded with them to pull them up further on the beach. Apparently the tide was rising and they realized they would drown at the water line. They also asked for morphine, which my dad said they gave from glass syretes. (I still think my dad is haunted by their pleas and the men he couldn't help, without becoming a casualty himself.) (I will continue the D-day story later, as there is a lot more detail to add)

Fast forward a week to 10 days past D-Day and my dad is now the company commander, following his predecessor stepping on a mine on June 7. So, as they are moving inland, they are moving faster than their maps and intel can keep up. One afternoon my dad, his driver and another officer are scouting some roads for signs of mines to be removed. The problem is they can't find their position on the maps they have and they are trying to figure out where exactly they are in relation to some other landmarks and they stop the jeep on the side of the road to study the map. When they look up from the map, they see a squad of German soldiers emerge out of the wood line on the roadside and stand in the road in front of their jeep. As my dad puts it "we had a bit of a Mexican stand off, and they outnumbered the three of us". To my father and his men’s relief the Germans drop their gear and weapons and put their hands up. So now my dad and his men have prisoners, and they load them up into and onto the jeep. He says it looked like a clown car with all the people hanging onto the jeep. They stripped out the bolts of the German rifles and tossed them back into the wood line and the rifles into a ditch. The Soldiers took some personal effects that they could put in their pockets after being searched for any other weapons.

As they are preparing to head back to their CP, out steps another German soldier that my dad describes as "their platoon sergeant". Now this man is armed with a MP38/40 and has it pointed at the group. My dad thought "Oh great. Not only are we going to get shot, he's going to shoot the newly surrendered prisoners for deserting." But the sergeant quickly lowered the machine pistol and walked up to my dad with his hands up. When he got closer he drew the P-08 from its holster (the same holster in the photo) and handed the pistol to my dad butt first as his token of surrender. The sergeant then grounded all his gear and loaded up on to the jeep to join the others. My dad took the MP-40 back with him to the CP and turned it over to the MP's along with the 5 or 6 prisoners. He kept the Luger and carried as a personal sidearm for much of the war. He said he wasn't issued a .45 since he had the carbine you see in many of his photos, so he welcomed having a pistol. He said ammunition was fairly easy to obtain for it since they found it as they pushed the Germans out. The pistol is a S/42 code, manufactured in 1939 with a 'g' date code. It has holster wear but it seems to be in fairly good shape and not fired a whole lot. It hasn't been fired since the war.

[sbas]

Thanks for sharing. I loved reading your fathers story, and would be glad to read some more! The war booty is fabulous

Regards, Sbas

[behblc]

Excellent.

Thanks you for sharing , some really excellent items - a really good way of remembering your fathers war time service.
The photo of him with the M1 is really nice.
Loved the smooth oc. set of Zeiss , nice , very nice indeed.
The P38 - if anyone wants one , look under Craigavn Bridge in Londonderry , my dad chucked one in there in 1946.
Why Bob did you not hide it , why Bob !!!!!

Thanks greg for a very nice set of photos and for shaing your Dad with us.

[Thomas H]

Hi,

Very nice items and pictures. I liked to read the story behind the P-08

I hope you will share more stories with us.

Greetings, Thomas

[blackadder]

hey man !

these stories are always great to read. because you can realize the situation,
i would love to read more about your dad's experience !

has he bin in holland in the war ?
if yes where as you know

thanks

niels

[schnellermeyer]

Excellent, thanks very much for sharing

[Luftm40]

Great stuff! That first picture of your dad is super. I noticed your user name...smoky city...is the same as the name painted on your dad's jeep. What does it refer to?

[smokycity]

Great stuff! That first picture of your dad is super. I noticed your user name...smoky city...is the same as the name painted on your dad's jeep. What does it refer to?

Smoky City is a reference to his hometown of Pittsburgh, PA. Back then it still had all the steel mills. I adopted the moniker as a tribute to him. I even have it as my tags on my car.

[Douglas Jr.]

The pistol is a S/42 code, manufactured in 1939 with a 'g' date code. It has holster wear but it seems to be in fairly good shape and not fired a whole lot. It hasn't been fired since the war.

Man, this is a very nice story. For sure this gun talks (through your father)! Thanks for sahring such very nice memories.

Now, as a Luger nuts, I******180;m bit confused about this Luger: you said that it is a "G" date code that was manufactured in 1939. However the "G" letter was the code for 1935. I******180;m not questioning its authenticity, just a bit curious... Can you confirm this information? I think that itis a typing error, right? Hope so as the G dates are fairly rare, with only 54,070 made in 1935, and all of them bear the S/42 maker******180;s code.

Find below a picture of a G date chamber and toggle markings to compare with your pistol

Also, we all would love to see details of this pistols in the Fireamrs Forum!

Wishes,

Douglas.