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The battle-damaged SKS and the Tokarev pistol (both w/ full sets of capture papers to General Irzyk) are really choice items. . . . . thanks for sharing. Looks like you stumbled into a really nice estate haul! -
Yes, I was very fortunate. I was told his son retained two Luger's. It makes me wonder what all the Patton Museum took.Originally posted by Alan Smith View PostComment
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In my experience, the federal government museums are not typically interested in acquiring firearms, swords or other normal "war trophy" items from vet's estates . . . unless the item has some unusual provenance to it and/or special history that ties into the museum's mission. This is because museums virtually always have an over-supply of such items and have no ability to store (much less display) yet another war trophy weapon.
So, don't beat yourself up speculating about having lost out to the museum on a pile of Lugers, daggers, machine guns, etc. as, again, more than likely, the museum had no interest in any such items that may have existed in the estate. Any war trophy weapons that did not make it into the estate sale were most likely (as you noted with the Lugers and his son) retained by family members, given away to friends, etc. well before the estate sale materialized.
When you get a chance, please post photos of the SKS and Tokarev directly into this thread . . . . photos of the war trophy retention and import/expert papers would also be very interesting to see up close.
**I do, however, have to wonder if the General might have had a bring-back AK-47 from Vietnam (and then registered it in the late-1968 machine gun "Amnesty" registration under federal law). With his rank, getting one should have been easy as would be acquiring the U.S. military and RSV paperwork needed to get it back to the US. In fact, many of the Vietnam bring-back AK's seen on the collector market here in the US are attributable to guys "with rank" such as your General Officer.Comment
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The rifle's SN dates it to 1966 and it was made in factory 26. Some forms are in double or triplicate. The first two pictures are out of sequence.Last edited by vonStubben; 03-10-2020, 02:36 PM.Comment
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The pistol's SN is actually missing an 8. The first person to type in the SN missed it and every flunky afterwards simply copied from the originating document never checking the weapon again.....I found this very typical of my experiences while in the Army when I worked temporarily in my Company's S-1 section.
The pistol is dated 1964 and made at factory 66.Comment
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And finally his DUO pistol. There is no capture paper's for it but his Battalion ended WW II in Czechoslovakia so that must be where he acquired it.
It's dated 1944.Comment
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I just realized that there are a couple more forms that I missed during my posting but I'll have to come in later to post those as well.
I'm pretty much convinced that he picked these up in Saigon just after TET. I'm presently reading his book on the USAHAC's role in the defense and saving of Saigon in his book "Unsung Heroes, Saving Saigon".Comment
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