An Early Collector

[MJC]

A 13th Airborne Sergeant and his recent acquisitions. Note that he is also wearing a private purchase death's head ring.

[heers68]

seen this pic before, great image with (cringe) SA daggers stuck in wood! Notice the missing eagle in grip of left SA, and apears to be runner marks on the blade of the RAD allready! wonder where these ones are today?

[Acez84]

Very nice!

If he had known about contemporary value he would probably have hired his own freight ship to get more stuff home

[andrew13]

super photo, thanks for posting. Love it!

[JONATHAN]

This pic is in one of Tom Johnson's War Boory books - great photo

[Mac 66]

Great time capsule photo

i wonder what makers them 2 SAs are

[addyfie]

looks like the blade is in the wrong way around on the left SA........... cool photo

[JR.]

Kool Mike................. Love the photo!

[Johnny Peppers]

This pic is in one of Tom Johnson's War Boory books - great photo

The picture is on the back of the first volume of the series. From the same volume, World War II German War Booty, page 19. Harold Courtney was my uncle, and with the help of others in the 1269th Combat Engineer Battalion opened one of Goring's treasure caves near Berchtesgaden shortly after the war ended.
The caption with the picture describes the men as 101st Airborne under Captain Anderson, but they are actually 1269th.
I bought the book for my uncle, and he died shortly after I gave it to him. About a year later my aunt gave it back to me, and I found where he had written the captions. The sad thing is that he never realized that he was in the picture, as he is the one in the white tee shirt standing and his head is cropped off in the photo.
The bottom picture is of his best buddy Bob Thibodeaux. In later years a collector found out he had pictures of the cave, and under the pretext of having copies made kept the originals.
Here is a link from the 1269th website, and in this photo taken at approximately the same time shows my uncle standing and you can see his face. Again, he died before I found the website and his picture.

http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/w/...ing_stash.html

[Notaguru]

Bob Thibodeaux is the one who brought back the Goering Wedding Sword out of that cave.

[Johnny Peppers]

Bob is still alive, and he and his wife, and my aunt and uncle kept in touch and visited over the years as they both lived in Louisiana.
"Tib" as my uncle referred to him, though someone was crazy when they offered $15,000 for the sword, and sold it.
From left to right:
Picture my uncle titled as "the Sgts.", Courtney, Rader, Duger, and Thibodeaux, taken in the French Alps in 1944.

[Notaguru]

That "Somebody" was none other than COL Jim Atwood. I believe the final purchase price was more like $10,000. A friend of mine who lives in Lafayette, LA went over and spoke to Bob a few years ago trying to clear up a mystery about that sword. Bob set the record straight about bringing it back until selling it to Atwood.

[andrew13]

looks like the blade is in the wrong way around on the left SA........... cool photo

well spotted, looks like you're right

[Johnny Peppers]

That "Somebody" was none other than COL Jim Atwood. I believe the final purchase price was more like $10,000. A friend of mine who lives in Lafayette, LA went over and spoke to Bob a few years ago trying to clear up a mystery about that sword. Bob set the record straight about bringing it back until selling it to Atwood.

The $15,000 price I quoted was what my uncle said Bob told him.

[Notaguru]

I have no doubt about your Uncle's recollection.