Vet bring backs

[JG 51]

This might be a hard question to answer From your own experience as a buyer/seller, where were vet bring backs most commonly acquired in Germany?

[billbert]

HHHHHHHH UUUUUUU HHHHHHHHH ?????????? Billbert

[Johnny R]

My Father was in the War and told me that aside from pistols and small items most people were not too concerned about picking things up until after the the fighting was over so most of it probably did come from Germany. It was not that easy or cheap to send large items back to the States and good items were often stolen. Most things were hand carried back and you were only allowed two dufflebags as enlisted/NCOs

[JG 51]

HHHHHHHH UUUUUUU HHHHHHHHH ?????????? Billbert

I know, the question might seem silly. What I partly mean is that sometimes items claims to be vet bring backs are not. Sellers state that they are and then pretend that an item is from Normandie while it is not. So my question is if you seen a trend in this occurrence?

Hope I made it more understandable

[JG 51]

My Father was in the War and told me that aside from pistols and small items most people were not too concerned about picking things up until after the the fighting was over so most of it probably did come from Germany. It was not that easy or cheap to send large items back to the States and good items were often stolen. Most things were hand carried back and you were only allowed two dufflebags as enlisted/NCOs

Thanks for the info Do you mean that most of the items were picked up after the war? Uniforms picked up from soldiers homes etc. and that sort of thing ?

[Paul McKee]

Sometimes the circumstances where a souvenir was gotten was "enlarged" by the vets themselves for dramatic impact back home. I've seen this numerous times.

A buddy's father was a WWII vet, not a front line soldier. He brought back a scrapbook with every conceivable piece of cloth insignia pasted into it that he souvenired in the days following the fighting. He collected with the same intensity as a stamp or coin collector. Most of this was acquired from factories, warehouses, abandoned barracks, discarded uniforms in the ditch and POWs.

Paul

[Paul McKee]

I'd like to add that although the scrapbook I mentioned above would be far, far more valuable to us nowadays...he once commented to me his greatest regret at not being able to bring back a common k98. He had left it under his bunk with the intention of cutting the stock to fit into his duffle bag (the infamous "duffle cut"), only to find shortly before shipping out it had been stolen by one of his fellow GIs. He still sounded mad about it after all those decades.

Paul

[CWP]

Most of the vet bring-backs I have encountered were taken from abandoned military installations or from factories or private homes, rather than being picked up on the battlefield.

[booney110]

Bring backs.............

My wifes' grandfather was in the 71st Infantry Regiment of the 44th Infantry Division. He fought from Cherbourg in to Germany including the Battle of the Bulge near Rimling, France. He ended the war in Mannheim, Germany. He brought back a Luftwaffe dagger with hanger and a Beretta pistol that was surrendeder to him by a Luftwaffe captian at the hospital in Mannheim. He told a story about how he buried a bag full of pistols because he thought he'd get in trouble for trying to bring them all back.
My uncle served on LST 970 in the pacific. He talked about sailors dumping stuff out of port holes because they could get in trouble for having non certified war trophies. I can only imagine what went in to the ocean from that LST!!!!!

[Fred Green]

Greetings All,

Vet Bring Back is a very broad term! I am a vet and I brought back alot of stuff from Germany when I was over there in 1977-80! Same as the phrases Vet Aquired and Trench art!

On the true vain of the thread, I believe that most of the stuff brought back by G.I.'s in WWII was picked up after the fighting was over.

Fred

[Bond]

Hi,
I used to own this banner, which had been covered in a lot of badges, some from before WWII and some during, but also it had a denzified wound badge on it, suggesting that the Vet must have been there after the war had ended.

JerryB

[Johnny R]

I had lunch wth my Dad and asked him about this.

He was ETO 1943-1945 and said that only officers were allowed to mail home packages during the War unless special permision was given which was "basically a waste of time to ask for". He also said space was limited to two dufflebags and people tried to carry as little as possible. It was against regulations to have private firearms and ammo on person outside of combat zones without authorization but he also said Lugers and daggers were sold and traded etc.

When transfering back to the States any weapons including knives etc. were taken away unless you had paperwork authorizing you to have them. He said they had a shake down on the docks before boarding troop ships in Marseille for the States and everything was taken away by MPS including tunics and anything else that did not have capture certificates. He said mailing restrictions eased up after the War with Japan ended etc. and that then it was possible to mail larger items back.