Interesting Conversation

[mech91]

I had an intersting conversation with my fathers father-in-law (3rd marriage) concerning WWII and war trophys. He was in the signal corps stationed in Europe. He said that at the end of both wars (VE & VJ ), everyone wanted to bring home trophies of their victory. The most desireable were helmets, pistols, daggers, and iron crosses. He brought home a Luger and an iron cross. He said virtually every vet had something displayed at home to show what they did in the war, and you had better not touch it! With the advent of Korea and the cold war, some of the trophys made thier way into boxes in the attic, some of the younger motorcycle riding vets turned thier's into cycle helmets, or used thier trophies as barter for car or cycle parts. He traded his Luger for a set of tires. By the mid 1950's you would find little kids playing "army" with WWII original equipment. Before giving your German helmet to your son to play outside with, you had to scrape away the swastike so you would not offend your neighbors. You could drive down the road in the evening and see M-1 or M35,40,42 helmets laying in the grass like a common toy. It just makes you wonder just what came home after the war, and what's left, and where is it, and in what condition?

[MikeP]

I was born in 1947 and experienced some of what you mentioned.
My dad was a vet as were his friends.
My buddy and I got into collecting very early on. A lot of guy's dads had something. Many had nothing.
I saw as many helmets with insignia as helmets with them scratched off.
I even used a couple for targets. Japanese rifles were considered the lowest denominator, no regard whatsoever. Even below the 5$ Mosins.
I'll tell you what we NEVER encountered as bringbacks. US GI helmets. They were turned in with field gear. There were piles in surplus stores for a buck. Also NEVER encountered were WW2 German camos, no chicken wire, and no neat teutonic white lettered names inside. Makes me wonder about all the ones on the market today.
Bikers came a tad later. It was a 1%er thing. They wore nazi helmets and insignia to piss people off. Sort of morphed into icons for them.
They made GOOD fake daggers then, too.

[Striking 9th]

A bunch of nice things probably ended up in city dumps.
Scott

[Josef Hahne]

Kameraden,
My step father told me that his uncle Max was a decorated combat US Army vet (never told me in what unit). He would send home all kinds of stuff especially German helmets. He recalls having enough helmets to outfit his friends with when they played war. After a time all the stuff had been scattered, given away, or just thrown away. When he told me about all the things he had trashed when he was a kid, I remember banging my head on the table. To him they were play things and were treated as such.

I The only thing I remember seeing when I was a kid was an Army dagger that Max had sent home. It was complete with the suspension rig and it hung on a wall in my older cousins room. Since I was into German WW2 stuff when I was a kid, I remember gawking at it when ever we went over to vist. Years later when I had some income, I tried to buy it from him but he had given it away. Oh, uncle Max, he ended up getting badly injured during the end of the war and died of his injuries a few weeks after.

Sepp

[panzerlord1]

british

I was talking to a vet the other day he was in the royal west kents and also worked at spandu prison looked after hess and the others he gave me his nazi gear he brought back, he also told me that if u took back war booty and were caught by th C/O they would send u back to Germany so thats why u dont see so much over here in England. also i spoke to a mate the other day and he told me that in portsmouth harbour under the sea is a huge pile of war booty the british troops when told they would be checked chucked over the side of the ships!!! very rust by now!!

Panzerlord

[JaimeH]

When I was little in the late 50s early 60s my father was on the road alot. He would bring me gifts he picked up at Army/Navy surplus stores. So when we played "army" we were outfitted with real stuff. Some of my friends had German helmets, belts etc. I traded a plastic Matel Thompson (Tommy Burst) for a Luftshutz helmet, which I just returned back to my friend after 45 years.

[History]

I spoke to a vet of the 36th inf div 2 days ago and gave him a magazine on the capture of Goering (which his div ). I took along a helmet and hj knife to show him. He didnt seem to like or appreciate the items as we do (collectors) although I dont think he was offended . He said he had a dagger but it wasnt as fancy as the hj knife i had brought. WE kept talking and he told me how he has a small pistol that a German handed him as he surrendered (collectors have told him its worth $1,000.00) . I told him he should write down everything he remembers about any items he brought back because once hes gone the story is also. Hes a great old guy who thinks he did nothing great. I did tell him if he ever gets rid of those items to let me know as I would keep his story alive. He has children I found out later who fortunatley care for these items as we do.

[Suber]

I posted this story in another thread somewhere, but I will repeat it here. My Father grew up in Jackson Mississippi as a child. He told me years ago that several months after the war ended, many trucks were brought into the city and were driven to the edge of the Miss. river. The river, as many of you know was and is ALWAYS rising and falling, creating new banks. These trucks were FULL of German field gear, bayonets, Mausers etc. They were dumped along the levee system next to the River to reinforce the banks. I can only imagine the material that was lying in the water to rust.

[Striking 9th]

The good old days.

In 1984 we went to Austin TX to see the university. My brother had recieved a full scholarship and wanted everyone to see UT. There was a lot of yardsales going on it was during the summer. I was young and did not care about helmets or gear (Dad was a collector) as collector items. We had several crappers all the kids could play with but no nice ones. Tucked away in a mound of toys I found a covered USMC fix bale W/ 2nd patt cover. I wanted it as a toy but dad would have NONE of that . He took it up to the older guy in charge. He turned out to be an 8th Marine vet on Tarawa, Saipan, & Okinawa. He had brought the helmet home and let the kids have it. When asked if he had anything else he had to ask his kids where their SWORDS were? They came up with a late NLF officers & NLF NCO. These razor sharp swords were PLAY TOYS!!!! THOSE WERE THE FREAKIN DAYS!!!! I was P.O.'ed at Dad but he ended up being right. They are all mine now and in the same shape they were found in. If given to me back then who knows what would have happened to them . I guess the moral of the story is take a glance over the toys at yard, junk sales, or antique shops. I know a guy who found a D-Day clicker at a rumage sale mixed up with some toys.
Scott
P.S. Dad gave $20.00 for all of it! Ahhhh the good ole days, long gone

[Karl S.]

Hi,
Although my dad wasn't a vet I picked up items from neighborhood kids when I was a child in the 60's. I loved the look of the stuff expesally German helmets. And I had a mint M40 Luft. helmet (with swaz.) that I played army with. When it comes to bikers, I found my best group of items from a local club just last summer. M42 SD. netted, M40 SD., DD. beaded Police, Luft dagger, 2-SA daggers, Jap. NCO sword. This fella (nicknamed Kraut) Is the caretaker of the Cycle club and he picked up many things over the years (many fake) Sometimes older Vet. bikers gave him there souvenirs as they know he collected...The stuff is still out there although a bit harder to come by.

[Tomt]

Interesting conversation

I was talking to a vet the other day he was in the royal west kents and also worked at spandu prison looked after hess and the others he gave me his nazi gear he brought back, he also told me that if u took back war booty and were caught by th C/O they would send u back to Germany so thats why u dont see so much over here in England. also i spoke to a mate the other day and he told me that in portsmouth harbour under the sea is a huge pile of war booty the british troops when told they would be checked chucked over the side of the ships!!! very rust by now!!

Panzerlord

Adding to the debris in the English Channel are 10 unissued P-38's that a friend of my father's dumped because he was told it was illegal for an enlisted man to bring them home. He liberated these from a supply train near Munich at the end of the war. He did keep one and intended to sell the other ten to other returning vets on the troop ship. He related that on board ship none of the men in his unit had anything examined and he could have easily kept the P-38's

[combat-helmets]

. By the mid 1950's you would find little kids playing "army" with WWII original equipment. Before giving your German helmet to your son to play outside with, you had to scrape away the swastike so you would not offend your neighbors.

That's funny because (althought I did not scrape the swastikas) I used to parade around at Halloween as a German soldier helmet and all, hell I think I even had the swastika armband...

Then my (Italian/American) Father re-married a Jewish woman and that "garbage" had to go.. It now happily resides in my house!

[JPhilip]

Hello Gentlemen,
As a part of my family lived in Tunis when the DAK surrended in 1943, my grandfather and others relatives told me about what they picked up everywhere around the city. Tons of helmets, boots, bags and weapons. Grandfather managed to get a P.08 and a P.38, but had to bury them before leaving the country in the late 50's. Mother said she had a tan painted artillery telemeter to keep an eye on her fiancé when he was on the beach and uncles told me they used to play with all kind of german stuff until the day a friend went too far, playing with a M24 grenade that took his life.
ciao!

[2.FJD]

I had the opportunity to work with a man who was a Yugoslavian partisan during the war. He related some of his war stories on occasion. I asked about the stories about caches of weapons, etc. that were left after the war. He indicated that when the war ended they drove trucks full of weapons and ordnance into their village square and anyone could go and take what they wanted. So, pretty much everyone took advantage of the opportunity. He said that he personally had taken a crate of Lugers, a crate of sniper rifles, two new MG42s in crates, a couple of crates of stick grenades, a crate of MP40s and multiple crates of ammo. He hid most of his haul in a local cave and tied the MG42s up in the top of a pine tree.

He was drafted into Tito's military after the war (he despised Tito) and later defected into Italy. He was persona non grata so couldn't even consider going back for anything.

Small wonder when the Balkans erupted that so many of the early weapons used were WWII vintage!