My great grandfather’s older brother served in the 3rd Canadian Division on D-Day. He managed to bring back a Walther P-38 from an officer he’d killed in battle. He then gave it to my great grandfather, a member of "Les Fusiliers du Saint-Laurent" who was tasked to train soldiers in England. My grandma’s brother still has it. When he showed it to me as a kid, I asked if the great uncle was proud of it, he said neither he or his father ever talked about anything war related when they came back.
That's the VA for you. Took my cousin, a Veitnam combat Marine 20 years to get full benefits from the VA. I thought that was a long time, until it took me 30 years to get full benefits.
I was in the army, but between Gulf Wars I and II. One of my friends from high school was there for the first one (in psyops), and he brought home a bayonet. That was the only weapon the army would let him bring back. I thought that was completely lame. I get why no AK47s, with select-fire weapons being restricted, but why not some officer's sidearm or something?
My dad brought home three German helmets (one was an M35 medics helmet), a (matching numbers) 98k Mauser with bayonet. Also a Luger but it was stolen on the troop ship home.
During a firefight, my father's buddy left him to go grab a Luger. During a firefight, geez. My father brought back SS insignia , Walter P-38, Walther PPK, large 16' square Nazi flag, Mauser 98, ceremonial dagger and a lot of prisms from out of the sights of German anti-aircraft guns.
Also officers binoculars. soldiers butter carrier (orange plastic), German propaganda filmstrip, German maps off an officer, some German medals and the one he felt bad about, a carved meersham pipe from a house he liberated.
My grandfather had a bunch of souvenirs from WW2, he had a signed nazi flag, a PPK and his most prized was an iron cross which he didn't clean because it had some "rust" on it.
My uncle William H Campbell. 82nd ABN brought back 5 pistols with paperwork. My dad, received a Luger and grandpa prewar Hi-Power. Belts, field glasses and other stuff. I’m blessed the Luger and Hi-Power are in my safe. Loved the video.
It is one thing to take a badge or a weapon from a fallen soldier, or a flag from a town you have conquered or a unit that has surrendered, and quite another to steal a watch or a decoration from a prisoner of war. The line, for me at least, is very clear. In fact, stealing personal items or badges or decorations from prisoners is defined as a war crime.
Only the victors punish "war crimes", whether on POWs (or captured enemy leaders), or their own personnel. The US Army had regulations about turning in captured enemy arms, and generally forbade their use in a combat zone. That didn't stop someone like the fictional SSGt Donald "Wardaddy" Collier from keeping and USING a captured StuG 44 "assault" rifle. Where he got sufficient amounts of the 7.62 x 39 mm "Kurz" rounds is anyone's guess. Things like German helmets, ceremonial daggers, etc, were typically allowed on a tacit basis, depending upon the CO. The reason to NOT allow them, especially in a front-line unit, should be obvious (i.e., potential confusion for being the enemy). Also, if the Germans caught a GI with "souvenirs", they'd accuse him of looting live POWs or the bodies of fallen German soldiers, summarily court-martial him, and quickly execute him. Interestingly enough, they'd probably not get all that excited about an American soldier with a German weapon, as they did it too, especially on the Eastern Front with captured Soviet hardware. They REALLY liked the PPsh-41 "burp" gun, aka the "Pe-Pe-Shaw", enough to re-issue them "as is". They could take Mauser 7.63 x 25 mm cartridges), designated MP 717(r), or modified to take the same 9 mm Parabellum round as their Walther and Luger pistols and the MP-40 machine pistol, deemed the MP 41 (r). They also liked the American Garand semi-automatic rifle, and some German snipers used them with captured US ammo, and a project was authorized by the WaffenAMt to both directly copy it and to re-do the weapon to take the slightly fatter Mauser 7.92 mm rifle round, but, AFAIK, the copy was never put into production, and the modified captured American rifles were never issued. IDK how they felt about M1911, the Thompson SMG, or the M3 "Grease Gun", but the Browning factory in Belgium did produce .45 ACP ammo for the European civilian market under license from Colt Arms after WWI. When the Germans invaded and conquered Belgium, the Browning factory was captured intact. Herman Goring, who's credited as saying his personal Browning sidearm was his "Go-To" weapon when he heard the word "Kultur", saw to it that the factory was put back to work ASAP, and, AFAIK, still paid ROYALTIES to Browning, USA, at least until Germany declared war on the USA in December 1941! Therefore, getting .45 ACP rounds for captured American weapons was no issue for the Germans.
@@selfdo The Germans themselves got up to looting on both fronts, like you mentioned with weapons. There's a few reports of German soldiers using captured American greatcoats during the Ardennes Offensive, completely divorced from Operation Greif. Supposedly, the Germans preferred them to their own issued greatcoats, as they were thicker and warmer. Likewise, there's a few reports of German troops on the Eastern Front taking and using Soviet greatcoats for the same reason.
My great-grandfather, a US Army lieutenant during the war, brought one back. My grandmother told me a story about how when she was a little girl she'd sit in it out in their yard in Mississippi and spin herself around.
My Dad arrived in France right when the war ended. He was part of the occupation forces. He guarded German Pows . He told me he broke home a Luger but traded it for Winchester model 12 shotgun when l was a small child. Dang!
Howard Unruh, the late-WWII replacement who carried out the first documented serial killing in the United States in Philadelphia in Summer 1947, used a Luger he had brought home.
Unruh was not the first documented serial killer in the U.S. There was H.H . Holmes in the 1890's, the Bloody Benders in the 1870's, the Harpe Brothers in the late 1700's just to name a few.
This Channel is great. I remember the the 80th anniversary of the End of WW1 when I was a 9 year old kid in 1998. There were many documentaries where the last surviving veterans told their stories. Now im in my mid 30s and weve nearly lost all our veterans from WW2. Its great to see young history enthusiasts keeping the experiences these guys went through alive in our shared memory.
id add breadbags and gasmask canisters to the honorable mention as these fulfill all 4 categories. they were useful for storing items (particularly fragile items such as a bottle of booze in the case of the gasmask cannister), and still symbolized the enemy.
Great video! My father in law passed away and we were cleaning out the house. His sister went to Germany several times in the sixties. I found a very be-grimed pfennig i think with eagle and swastika. I have it locked up. Id never display that symbol, but a cool piece of history. Thanks again!
I have items 1,2, 5, 7 and 8 from my uncle an infantry sergeant. I also have an SS ring.The Goffel seamed to most useful thing, the US utensils rattled and clanked. I have the podium party flag signed by his platoon GIs from all over the US. At the top it says May this bastard never again. And photos.
My Dad had a really sweet silver and gold dagger. I think it was SS. He also had a nice Nazi flag with a swastika. Late in life he sold both items to a neighbor. He would never talk about his war time service. I think he didn’t want his sons idolizing the items, or fighting over them. I was disappointed when I heard they were gone, but I understand his wishes. The guys that were there experienced things they wish they could forget, but couldn't.
I personally think that all your presentations on your videos are amazing and are an excellent reference on II WW topics. I'm a retired French army paratrooper. Thank you for your excellent work.
Before he was demobilized, my grandfather sent home loads of stuff from Germany - officers' uniforms, insignia, swords, and best of all, a parachute. My grandmother used the parachute to make underclothing for herself, her mother and mother-in-law, her sisters and and sisters-in-law, and her nieces. Silk was basically unavailable at that time so the fabric was very welcome. My grandmother told me that people borrowed away the uniforms for costume parties over the years and didn't bring them back. The swords were banished from the house before the end of 1945 after my grandmother came downstairs one morning to find her three boys, all under the age of ten, having a sword fight with the officers' sabers.
I've been told that my grandfather had a Japanese sword but had gotten rid of long before I was born. The curious thing about that story is that he was an Air Force officer and had spend the war in the US training to fly bombers.
In "The Bridge at Remagan" SGT Angelo; played by Ben Gazzara, was always looking for souvenirs from the German dead. His weapon of choice?: a captured MP-40. You never saw him scrounging for 9mm ammo though.......which he would have had to be doing all the time.
All excellent choices. I can remember asking my dad, who was in the 99th Infantry Division, why he didn’t bring back more German equipment. He said portability was the biggest reason. The average GI didn’t have a lot of storage available. Because of the rapid advances by Allied units in the ETO in the summer and early fall of 1944, did not provide much time to pickup and store war trophies. One of my dad’s more interesting firearm bring backs was a Sauer 38H. Not as common as Lugers and Walther, the 38H was one of the more advanced handguns of WWII. With a safety and de-cocker, it had features not found on other German pistols. Interestingly, dad captured this Sauer off of a German medic. I was surprised to hear that it came from a medic but this wasn’t that uncommon in the ETO. A handgun was not considered an “offensive weapon”. US medics were often given the choice of carrying a .45, if they wanted. Keep up the great videos!
Excellent presentation. My Dad was a Sgt. in a US Army Combat Engineer Battalion in WW2. He brought home a silver panzer badge and a Nskk pin which I still have. He also took an artillery model luger from a German officer, but some other GI liked it more and stole it from him.
Back in the day, I had a buddy in high school who was wild about historical artifacts and bring backs from WWII. He had a good number of really special battlefield bring backs. One of his best finds was the Eagle with wreath and Swastika. It's was huge! Something like 2 feet from wing tip to wing tip, maybe larger, closer to 3 feet? Cast metal. Heavy. It was pulled off the front of a Nazi engine/train! Imagine if it could talk. 😮😢😅
You do very well on German pronounciation. I am impressed. 😊 o.k. we pronounce the "Z" much harder. Zeiss sounds more like Tseiss. Sehr gut, Kamerad. Weitermachen! 👍
When U-99 Otto Kretschmer was captured, he was relieved of his Zeiss binoculars by the opposing Captain who gave it back to Kretschmer when they met years later.
My Grandfather Got a Katana, Japanese Flag (The Rising Sun) and a Nambu during his Time in the Fall of BATAAN... I hope you can do American GI'S Japanese Tropies...
German officers carried pistols in a variety of calibers. Often, the higher the rank, the smaller the caliber than the standard 9mm Parabellum. In US metrics: .380, .32, and .25). In some ranks, the pistol was no longer primarily a weapon but a military symbol, with smaller calibers showing a lesser need to actually be in combat.
My Uncle was very much like the character in the movie Hacksaw Ridge. He never carried a weapon and his duty was to retrieve bodies and parts after battles. He came across some interesting items and ghastly scenes. He had a set of sterling silver SS skull and crossbones lapel pins which I would think came from an officer.
I have a box of Nazi medals, patches, pins, flags, money, a really cool German, French, English translation book, and an SS spoon that my grandfather brought back. It sits in my gun safe. I will never get rid of the stuff, well maybe some of the duplicates to the right person, but like mentioned, it's not something that can be displayed in my house! I also have a few bayonets that I think my other grandfather brought back.
My uncle served in northern Europe in WW2. He fought all the way from Normandy all the way to Austria. One thing that you didn't mention is that any soldier who was captured with German equipment in his possession was immediately shot.
My grandfather brought back a Iron Crosd 1st Class and a Walther PP. My father, in the 60s after he became a deceive carried said Wather as he didn't care for the .38 snubbys that was standard for plain clothes officers of his era. When I entered LE in 2001, I carried that Walther as my backup gun until 2015 when I switched to a .380.
IIRC, captured German belts were also very popular with Red Army troops. The German buckles typically held up better than the Soviet ones, so it wasn't too uncommon for a krasnoarmiich in the field to use one in place of his own issued belt. Typically, they would scratch off the swastika from the buckle.
For my 4th infantry impression I'll sometimes bring a WW 1 Iron Cross as a souvenir. Once in a while I'll bring a Zeltbahn just to put items on, not as a trophy.
My grandpa was with the 82ABN on D-Day, he brought back a German pistol, arm bands and some of those iron crosss, he was sent to Berlin after the war was over to occupy Germany
My Grandfather was a US Merchant Marine and was in France and had a sack full of daggers and Lugars that he brought back on the ship.....He sold all of them on the return trip and regretted doing that his entire life. He had found several souvenir silver spoons engraved with different locations around Europe in a destroyed house and brought those back
I recently saw a souvenir from the Pacific war mentioned in another video. I’ve seen it mentioned in a lot of videos and books, articles, etc. It is extremely morbid and demonstrates how dehumanizing the Pacific war was. I am talking about Japanese skulls. GIs would use them in various ways, and even mailed them home to their wives and girlfriends. The US military ultimately had to prohibit the mailing home of Japanese skulls.
My friend has a SS dagger and he let me touch it. even after 80something years it still had somewhat of a blade and it was just beautifully crafted aside of well... the Swastikas and Slogans😅
Amongst other things, my grandfather (MP Sgt. 5th Armored Div.) brought home a P.38, binoculars, a helmet, a Luftwaffe dress dagger, and a window banner. So, at least five out of the ten on your list.
Just one thing to point out..... Many of the "Flags" captured were not really flags at all, as they were not carried on a pole or used to identify units or fly above military bases or facilities...they were actually " Marker Panels" placed flat on Vehicles or positions/ fortification so they could be seen from the air to avoid being attacked by friend air. While not used a lot in the west They were prevalent in the East, especially when the Germans were moving Quickly during the beginning of the War
My grandfather acquired two matching German lugers in a case with sequential serial numbers. He sold them for $50 dollars 💸 in the 1950's. He regretted selling them for the rest of his life.
I teach about war plunder at various WWII events around the Ohio area. Though I specialize in the Monuments Men, war trophies were popular on both sides. Souvenirs represented hope that the soldiers would survive to enjoy them. Not a lot of hope out there when you're constantly fighting, being thrown against the enemies over and over.
One thing I saw in a manual warning about boobytraps was a boobytrapped chocolate bar. Somehow the Germans were able to hide a piece of explosive inside a chocolate bar designed the blow up in someone's face. It goes to the honorable mention here of food being captured, however, I wonder how successful it was because food might end up being stolen by someone on the same side and end up being killed by it.
I have a P38, with holster and spare magazine, a pair of tan desert binoculars, and a bayonet. My family did pretty good on filling your list. BTW, I brought back from Vietnam (actually acquired in Cambodia, May '70) a ChiCom M20 pistol and a pair binoculars.
My great-uncle Rex Moore fought in France/Germany in 1944-45 with the 783rd Field Artillery Battalion (83rd ID) and later the 729th AAA MG Battalion (89th ID) and he managed to gather a pretty solid collection of Nazi war trophies for himself. It’s interesting to compare that to my grandpa (his brother in-law) who was in the 34th ID in North Africa/Italy from 1943-45 who I remember mentioning that he simply wanted to get home and didn’t pay much mind to bringing souvenirs back with him. I suppose it came down to how they processed their own wartime experiences. Even though I was still pretty young, my family knew I was interested in history and I ended up getting most of my great-uncle’s war trophies (and some of his own G.I. stuff like his M1943 field jacket) when he passed away back in 2008. I ended up getting (and still have) a Nazi helmet, swastika flag, belt buckle, Hitler Youth knife, a couple of German Army medals - one of the most interesting items was a big poster of Hitler (that has a big “X” drawn over his face - I’m guessing something he added) that says “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer” that he tore down from the side of a building in Germany in the spring of 1945. The funny thing about the Nazi flag I inherited is that it’s covered with lots of smears and spots of paint since after the war he used it as a drop cloth when painting around his house. It used to annoy me how he “defaced” this artifact but I’ve come to find it charming that the powerful and imposing symbol of terror that at one point quite literally flew over Europe somewhere ultimately became little more than a rag for my great uncle to do household projects with.
Of course sidearms would be #1, but if I could have anything, it'd be an STG44, and that Hitler Youth knife was badass. I'd love to have a knockoff of that beauty. Great video, as usual, Soldier. Carry on.
Hey World War Wisdom! Another banger as always. I have a question about your uniform, though. What are those specific goggles you wear on your uniform? I've seen variations of the paratrooper goggles like the M44, but I'm not sure certain what type those are.
My MP dad conficated a PPK Party Leader pistol. Very rare. My brother still owns it to this day. Grips are intact. My dad was an MP Sergeant in Patton's Third Army. ..
I heard one of the red army soilders who rasied the sickle and hammer flag on top of the Reichstag building had some captured watches But according to some sources, the second watch was in fact a compass. In the Red Army, wearing both a wrist-compass and a watch was fairly common, but from a distance, as in the photo, it appeared as if he was wearing two watches.
My father was the HQ's radio-telephone operator of a B25 squadron supporting the British in North Africa 42-43. When the British captured a German base or town they could not take trophies, so they would tell the GI's to help themselves. My father found a uniform of a SS colonel. He kept the uniform and his buddy took the hat and boots. Another time he found a sniper rifle.
My father sent home a German helmet to my uncle that had a deferment from being drafted during the war. Upon arrival home he found that my uncle was using the helmet with the liner torn out to scoop up dog food for his hounds.
My great grandfather’s older brother served in the 3rd Canadian Division on D-Day. He managed to bring back a Walther P-38 from an officer he’d killed in battle. He then gave it to my great grandfather, a member of "Les Fusiliers du Saint-Laurent" who was tasked to train soldiers in England. My grandma’s brother still has it. When he showed it to me as a kid, I asked if the great uncle was proud of it, he said neither he or his father ever talked about anything war related when they came back.
The P-38 is a really sexy pistol.
@@mikeburch2998 indeed it is
My father brought home a german MP-40 SMG. He traded it for a table saw in the 1960's.
Nice, My friend August Caccavone saw German soldiers surrendering in the Bulge and his squadmates took Lugers from them
That's an awesome story. I believe it 👍
NO!!! He really did?
My uncle got a Swiss watch from a German officer they captured. It worked right up into the 1980s/90s. I wonder whatever happened to it. 🤔
Theif
I'd be more concerned about this man being criminal and marauder
I REALLY like war history, this dude's one of my favorite youtubers
The souvenirs I got from Iraq were decidedly less glamorous to the point the VA refuses to consider them service-related!
Thank you for your service
I'm not surprised about that at all
That's the VA for you. Took my cousin, a Veitnam combat Marine 20 years to get full benefits from the VA. I thought that was a long time, until it took me 30 years to get full benefits.
I was in the army, but between Gulf Wars I and II. One of my friends from high school was there for the first one (in psyops), and he brought home a bayonet. That was the only weapon the army would let him bring back. I thought that was completely lame. I get why no AK47s, with select-fire weapons being restricted, but why not some officer's sidearm or something?
My dad brought home three German helmets (one was an M35 medics helmet), a (matching numbers) 98k Mauser with bayonet. Also a Luger but it was stolen on the troop ship home.
During a firefight, my father's buddy left him to go grab a Luger. During a firefight, geez. My father brought back SS insignia , Walter P-38, Walther PPK, large 16' square Nazi flag, Mauser 98, ceremonial dagger and a lot of prisms from out of the sights of German anti-aircraft guns.
Also officers binoculars. soldiers butter carrier (orange plastic), German propaganda filmstrip, German maps off an officer, some German medals and the one he felt bad about, a carved meersham pipe from a house he liberated.
Wow that's so cool.
Damm how did he manage to fit all of that
@@keelseaemsaguilar7013 I agree, he was a lowly pfc with just his duffle bag.
My grandfather had a bunch of souvenirs from WW2, he had a signed nazi flag, a PPK and his most prized was an iron cross which he didn't clean because it had some "rust" on it.
my great uncles buddy got an iron cross too! they found it together on an officer
Rust like blood?
Er muss sehr stolz auf seine „rostige“ Trophäe gewesen sein. I could translate it into German, but, no…
I can imagine some DNA in the rust
My great grandfather got a luger and a nazi flag
Damn
Nice
My great uncle in WW2 got a Luger too! and then my grandfather got one of those communist revolvers with the star on the grip during the Vietnam war.
How’s Tuan
I have those same items in my collection as well.
@@SpriteLovuh nice
My uncle William H Campbell. 82nd ABN brought back 5 pistols with paperwork. My dad, received a Luger and grandpa prewar Hi-Power. Belts, field glasses and other stuff. I’m blessed the Luger and Hi-Power are in my safe. Loved the video.
It is one thing to take a badge or a weapon from a fallen soldier, or a flag from a town you have conquered or a unit that has surrendered, and quite another to steal a watch or a decoration from a prisoner of war. The line, for me at least, is very clear.
In fact, stealing personal items or badges or decorations from prisoners is defined as a war crime.
Only the victors punish "war crimes", whether on POWs (or captured enemy leaders), or their own personnel. The US Army had regulations about turning in captured enemy arms, and generally forbade their use in a combat zone. That didn't stop someone like the fictional SSGt Donald "Wardaddy" Collier from keeping and USING a captured StuG 44 "assault" rifle. Where he got sufficient amounts of the 7.62 x 39 mm "Kurz" rounds is anyone's guess. Things like German helmets, ceremonial daggers, etc, were typically allowed on a tacit basis, depending upon the CO. The reason to NOT allow them, especially in a front-line unit, should be obvious (i.e., potential confusion for being the enemy). Also, if the Germans caught a GI with "souvenirs", they'd accuse him of looting live POWs or the bodies of fallen German soldiers, summarily court-martial him, and quickly execute him. Interestingly enough, they'd probably not get all that excited about an American soldier with a German weapon, as they did it too, especially on the Eastern Front with captured Soviet hardware.
They REALLY liked the PPsh-41 "burp" gun, aka the "Pe-Pe-Shaw", enough to re-issue them "as is". They could take Mauser 7.63 x 25 mm cartridges), designated MP 717(r), or modified to take the same 9 mm Parabellum round as their Walther and Luger pistols and the MP-40 machine pistol, deemed the MP 41 (r). They also liked the American Garand semi-automatic rifle, and some German snipers used them with captured US ammo, and a project was authorized by the WaffenAMt to both directly copy it and to re-do the weapon to take the slightly fatter Mauser 7.92 mm rifle round, but, AFAIK, the copy was never put into production, and the modified captured American rifles were never issued. IDK how they felt about M1911, the Thompson SMG, or the M3 "Grease Gun", but the Browning factory in Belgium did produce .45 ACP ammo for the European civilian market under license from Colt Arms after WWI. When the Germans invaded and conquered Belgium, the Browning factory was captured intact. Herman Goring, who's credited as saying his personal Browning sidearm was his "Go-To" weapon when he heard the word "Kultur", saw to it that the factory was put back to work ASAP, and, AFAIK, still paid ROYALTIES to Browning, USA, at least until Germany declared war on the USA in December 1941! Therefore, getting .45 ACP rounds for captured American weapons was no issue for the Germans.
@@selfdo The Germans themselves got up to looting on both fronts, like you mentioned with weapons. There's a few reports of German soldiers using captured American greatcoats during the Ardennes Offensive, completely divorced from Operation Greif. Supposedly, the Germans preferred them to their own issued greatcoats, as they were thicker and warmer. Likewise, there's a few reports of German troops on the Eastern Front taking and using Soviet greatcoats for the same reason.
my great grandpa brought home a clock
Its so great to be able to look to a channel and find educational and interesting information.
Thank you 👍
high end quality is amazing
Helmets were not nearly as common to bring back as lots of collectors would think
My great-grandfather, a US Army lieutenant during the war, brought one back. My grandmother told me a story about how when she was a little girl she'd sit in it out in their yard in Mississippi and spin herself around.
@Scarfy397 Thats just too adorable 😭😭😭
My Dad arrived in France right when the war ended. He was part of the occupation forces. He guarded German Pows . He told me he broke home a Luger but traded it for Winchester model 12 shotgun when l was a small child. Dang!
Howard Unruh, the late-WWII replacement who carried out the first documented serial killing in the United States in Philadelphia in Summer 1947, used a Luger he had brought home.
Unruh was not the first documented serial killer in the U.S.
There was H.H . Holmes in the 1890's, the Bloody Benders in the 1870's, the Harpe Brothers in the late 1700's just to name a few.
This Channel is great. I remember the the 80th anniversary of the End of WW1 when I was a 9 year old kid in 1998. There were many documentaries where the last surviving veterans told their stories. Now im in my mid 30s and weve nearly lost all our veterans from WW2. Its great to see young history enthusiasts keeping the experiences these guys went through alive in our shared memory.
id add breadbags and gasmask canisters to the honorable mention as these fulfill all 4 categories. they were useful for storing items (particularly fragile items such as a bottle of booze in the case of the gasmask cannister), and still symbolized the enemy.
Great video! My father in law passed away and we were cleaning out the house. His sister went to Germany several times in the sixties. I found a very be-grimed pfennig i think with eagle and swastika. I have it locked up. Id never display that symbol, but a cool piece of history.
Thanks again!
I have items 1,2, 5, 7 and 8 from my uncle an infantry sergeant. I also have an SS ring.The Goffel seamed to most useful thing, the US utensils rattled and clanked. I have the podium party flag signed by his platoon GIs from all over the US. At the top it says May this bastard never again. And photos.
The amount of detail and effort you put into these videos is incredible! Good job!
Called it! I knew the luger was gonna be on here
My Dad had a really sweet silver and gold dagger. I think it was SS. He also had a nice Nazi flag with a swastika. Late in life he sold both items to a neighbor. He would never talk about his war time service. I think he didn’t want his sons idolizing the items, or fighting over them. I was disappointed when I heard they were gone, but I understand his wishes. The guys that were there experienced things they wish they could forget, but couldn't.
It probably was a SA dagger if it was gold, as the SS dagger were Black or atleast darker ^^
you should do a video on medics :)
I personally think that all your presentations on your videos are amazing and are an excellent reference on II WW topics. I'm a retired French army paratrooper. Thank you for your excellent work.
Before he was demobilized, my grandfather sent home loads of stuff from Germany - officers' uniforms, insignia, swords, and best of all, a parachute. My grandmother used the parachute to make underclothing for herself, her mother and mother-in-law, her sisters and and sisters-in-law, and her nieces. Silk was basically unavailable at that time so the fabric was very welcome. My grandmother told me that people borrowed away the uniforms for costume parties over the years and didn't bring them back. The swords were banished from the house before the end of 1945 after my grandmother came downstairs one morning to find her three boys, all under the age of ten, having a sword fight with the officers' sabers.
I looked through a pair of captured binoculars, the left eye had a range scale and were nice quality
I've been told that my grandfather had a Japanese sword but had gotten rid of long before I was born. The curious thing about that story is that he was an Air Force officer and had spend the war in the US training to fly bombers.
In "The Bridge at Remagan" SGT Angelo; played by Ben Gazzara, was always looking for souvenirs from the German dead. His weapon of choice?: a captured MP-40. You never saw him scrounging for 9mm ammo though.......which he would have had to be doing all the time.
Actually. He could have gotten 9mm from British Supplies because the sten is in 9mm as well!
I great grandfather was stationed in england during the war, and he brought home a bunch of helmets, rations, gear, and some guns
Göffel = Gabel (fork) + Löffel (spoon)
Spork = Spoon + Fork
Your bayonet is a true WW2 model. The leather is wrong... maybe home made one...
All excellent choices. I can remember asking my dad, who was in the 99th Infantry Division, why he didn’t bring back more German equipment. He said portability was the biggest reason. The average GI didn’t have a lot of storage available. Because of the rapid advances by Allied units in the ETO in the summer and early fall of 1944, did not provide much time to pickup and store war trophies.
One of my dad’s more interesting firearm bring backs was a Sauer 38H. Not as common as Lugers and Walther, the 38H was one of the more advanced handguns of WWII. With a safety and de-cocker, it had features not found on other German pistols.
Interestingly, dad captured this Sauer off of a German medic. I was surprised to hear that it came from a medic but this wasn’t that uncommon in the ETO.
A handgun was not considered an “offensive weapon”. US medics were often given the choice of carrying a .45, if they wanted.
Keep up the great videos!
Excellent presentation. My Dad was a Sgt. in a US Army Combat Engineer Battalion in WW2. He brought home a silver panzer badge and a Nskk pin which I still have. He also took an artillery model luger from a German officer, but some other GI liked it more and stole it from him.
Back in the day, I had a buddy in high school who was wild about historical artifacts and bring backs from WWII. He had a good number of really special battlefield bring backs. One of his best finds was the Eagle with wreath and Swastika. It's was huge! Something like 2 feet from wing tip to wing tip, maybe larger, closer to 3 feet? Cast metal. Heavy. It was pulled off the front of a Nazi engine/train! Imagine if it could talk. 😮😢😅
GREAT JOB explaining war trophies...........LOVE YOUR CHANNEL.
Knew the Luger would be high up on the list. A really unique mechanism and profile.
You do very well on German pronounciation. I am impressed. 😊 o.k. we pronounce the "Z" much harder. Zeiss sounds more like Tseiss. Sehr gut, Kamerad. Weitermachen! 👍
My grate uncle found a German ww2 bayonet in a garbage dump when he was a kid
When U-99 Otto Kretschmer was captured, he was relieved of his Zeiss binoculars by the opposing Captain who gave it back to Kretschmer when they met years later.
Money would be a big one too
Imagine Oddball in Kelly's Heroes trying to get that Tiger Tank shipped back home. 😂
As long as Moriarty stopped with those negative waves, he'd have found a way
He certainly had enough gold to do it.
Woof woof woof woof
Only for it be used by those German paratroopers, strangely led by Michael Caine who captured a British town.
@@coffeecocaine8878 That was Oddball's OTHER dog imitation.
RIP, Donald Sutherland.
Pining on a iron or knights cross WAS A BAD SUCIDAL MOVE😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢
My Grandfather Got a Katana, Japanese Flag (The Rising Sun) and a Nambu during his Time in the Fall of BATAAN... I hope you can do American GI'S Japanese Tropies...
My great grandfather brought back a Japanese post card from his time in the pacific. it’s small and insignificant but it make you think
My great grandfather got 2 German officer swords during the war
German officers carried pistols in a variety of calibers. Often, the higher the rank, the smaller the caliber than the standard 9mm Parabellum. In US metrics: .380, .32, and .25). In some ranks, the pistol was no longer primarily a weapon but a military symbol, with smaller calibers showing a lesser need to actually be in combat.
My grandfather (started in Patton’s 3rd, but transferred to the 9th) brought back both a helmet and a P38
My Uncle was very much like the character in the movie Hacksaw Ridge. He never carried a weapon and his duty was to retrieve bodies and parts after battles. He came across some interesting items and ghastly scenes. He had a set of sterling silver SS skull and crossbones lapel pins which I would think came from an officer.
I have a box of Nazi medals, patches, pins, flags, money, a really cool German, French, English translation book, and an SS spoon that my grandfather brought back. It sits in my gun safe. I will never get rid of the stuff, well maybe some of the duplicates to the right person, but like mentioned, it's not something that can be displayed in my house! I also have a few bayonets that I think my other grandfather brought back.
My uncle served in northern Europe in WW2. He fought all the way from Normandy all the way to Austria. One thing that you didn't mention is that any soldier who was captured with German equipment in his possession was immediately shot.
My grandfather brought back a Iron Crosd 1st Class and a Walther PP. My father, in the 60s after he became a deceive carried said Wather as he didn't care for the .38 snubbys that was standard for plain clothes officers of his era. When I entered LE in 2001, I carried that Walther as my backup gun until 2015 when I switched to a .380.
MP38 and MP40 were popular war trophies as well and many were brought back(which was illegal but rarely enforced back then)
IIRC, captured German belts were also very popular with Red Army troops. The German buckles typically held up better than the Soviet ones, so it wasn't too uncommon for a krasnoarmiich in the field to use one in place of his own issued belt. Typically, they would scratch off the swastika from the buckle.
We don't talk about Pacific War trophies
For my 4th infantry impression I'll sometimes bring a WW 1 Iron Cross as a souvenir. Once in a while I'll bring a Zeltbahn just to put items on, not as a trophy.
Stealing POW's medals is just dirty.
Such is war.
Reason why it's beautiful
Bummer right . . .
ss not pows CRIMINALS
No it’s not. It’s called the spoils of war and has been going on since wars began.
My grandpa was with the 82ABN on D-Day, he brought back a German pistol, arm bands and some of those iron crosss, he was sent to Berlin after the war was over to occupy Germany
My Grandfather was a US Merchant Marine and was in France and had a sack full of daggers and Lugars that he brought back on the ship.....He sold all of them on the return trip and regretted doing that his entire life. He had found several souvenir silver spoons engraved with different locations around Europe in a destroyed house and brought those back
I recently saw a souvenir from the Pacific war mentioned in another video. I’ve seen it mentioned in a lot of videos and books, articles, etc. It is extremely morbid and demonstrates how dehumanizing the Pacific war was. I am talking about Japanese skulls. GIs would use them in various ways, and even mailed them home to their wives and girlfriends. The US military ultimately had to prohibit the mailing home of Japanese skulls.
Your bayonet is not WW I but an early post WW I bayonet used into WW II before Bakelite grips came along. These post WW I bayonets had wooden grips.
My friend has a SS dagger and he let me touch it. even after 80something years it still had somewhat of a blade and it was just beautifully crafted aside of well... the Swastikas and Slogans😅
The US army would've taken some of those things that you said from the Japanese army
Amongst other things, my grandfather (MP Sgt. 5th Armored Div.) brought home a P.38, binoculars, a helmet, a Luftwaffe dress dagger, and a window banner. So, at least five out of the ten on your list.
Gold teeth was also big to take.
Just one thing to point out..... Many of the "Flags" captured were not really flags at all, as they were not carried on a pole or used to identify units or fly above military bases or facilities...they were actually " Marker Panels" placed flat on Vehicles or positions/ fortification so they could be seen from the air to avoid being attacked by friend air. While not used a lot in the west They were prevalent in the East, especially when the Germans were moving Quickly during the beginning of the War
Cool collection!
My grandfather acquired two matching German lugers in a case with sequential serial numbers. He sold them for $50 dollars 💸 in the 1950's. He regretted selling them for the rest of his life.
Still have my grandfathers war trophies… pins and patches . He fought with the 10th mountain in Italy
I teach about war plunder at various WWII events around the Ohio area. Though I specialize in the Monuments Men, war trophies were popular on both sides. Souvenirs represented hope that the soldiers would survive to enjoy them. Not a lot of hope out there when you're constantly fighting, being thrown against the enemies over and over.
One thing I saw in a manual warning about boobytraps was a boobytrapped chocolate bar. Somehow the Germans were able to hide a piece of explosive inside a chocolate bar designed the blow up in someone's face. It goes to the honorable mention here of food being captured, however, I wonder how successful it was because food might end up being stolen by someone on the same side and end up being killed by it.
8:01 the pistol shown is a c96 "broomhandle" mauser a very cool firearm.
I have a P38, with holster and spare magazine, a pair of tan desert binoculars, and a bayonet. My family did pretty good on filling your list. BTW, I brought back from Vietnam (actually acquired in Cambodia, May '70) a ChiCom M20 pistol and a pair binoculars.
I agree nice list.
My grate uncle brought back a walther 32 acp and a polish vs35 radom
Excellent video as usual. Truly interesting.
My great-uncle Rex Moore fought in France/Germany in 1944-45 with the 783rd Field Artillery Battalion (83rd ID) and later the 729th AAA MG Battalion (89th ID) and he managed to gather a pretty solid collection of Nazi war trophies for himself. It’s interesting to compare that to my grandpa (his brother in-law) who was in the 34th ID in North Africa/Italy from 1943-45 who I remember mentioning that he simply wanted to get home and didn’t pay much mind to bringing souvenirs back with him. I suppose it came down to how they processed their own wartime experiences. Even though I was still pretty young, my family knew I was interested in history and I ended up getting most of my great-uncle’s war trophies (and some of his own G.I. stuff like his M1943 field jacket) when he passed away back in 2008.
I ended up getting (and still have) a Nazi helmet, swastika flag, belt buckle, Hitler Youth knife, a couple of German Army medals - one of the most interesting items was a big poster of Hitler (that has a big “X” drawn over his face - I’m guessing something he added) that says “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer” that he tore down from the side of a building in Germany in the spring of 1945. The funny thing about the Nazi flag I inherited is that it’s covered with lots of smears and spots of paint since after the war he used it as a drop cloth when painting around his house. It used to annoy me how he “defaced” this artifact but I’ve come to find it charming that the powerful and imposing symbol of terror that at one point quite literally flew over Europe somewhere ultimately became little more than a rag for my great uncle to do household projects with.
I liked this video. Does RUclips "make" you blur the swastika out?
You forgot the railway eagles, massive trophy piece
My Grand Dad had a bunch of German coins and several stamps. Most had Hitler on them, one I remember had Hindenburg.
My great uncle brought back a Kar 98 K rifle and matching bayonet with leather frog .
Hope to see a followup about Japanese WW2 "war trophies".
Of course sidearms would be #1, but if I could have anything, it'd be an STG44, and that Hitler Youth knife was badass. I'd love to have a knockoff of that beauty. Great video, as usual, Soldier. Carry on.
Axis helmets & firearms, are my main focus of collecting.
Good job at pronouncing Göffel...
And yes... Esbit Kocher are Fire... they are still produced
Hey World War Wisdom! Another banger as always. I have a question about your uniform, though. What are those specific goggles you wear on your uniform? I've seen variations of the paratrooper goggles like the M44, but I'm not sure certain what type those are.
My MP dad conficated a PPK Party Leader pistol. Very rare. My brother still owns it to this day. Grips are intact. My dad was an MP Sergeant in Patton's Third Army.
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Unfortunately my Great Grandpa never got any trophies. He was a flight instructor in Oaklahoma training bomber crews.
I heard one of the red army soilders who rasied the sickle and hammer flag on top of the Reichstag building had some captured watches
But according to some sources, the second watch was in fact a compass. In the Red Army, wearing both a wrist-compass and a watch was fairly common, but from a distance, as in the photo, it appeared as if he was wearing two watches.
My father was the HQ's radio-telephone operator of a B25 squadron supporting the British in North Africa 42-43. When the British captured a German base or town they could not take trophies, so they would tell the GI's to help themselves. My father found a uniform of a SS colonel. He kept the uniform and his buddy took the hat and boots. Another time he found a sniper rifle.
Trench art was a big item too.
They also captured 9mm Radoms made in Poland with the eagle marks.
If only someone had the presence of mind to bring back all the German helmets and uniforms from WWII. . . .
Your pronunciation of "Göffel" and other german terms is not bad, actually!
Regards from Germany, Bernd.
Bro forgot to censor the medal on his jacket but censors the helmets.
I definitely thought a ear necklace would have been up there
great video
I have a P-38 my grandfather acquired in Market garden I 1944 .
My father sent home a German helmet to my uncle that had a deferment from being drafted during the war. Upon arrival home he found that my uncle was using the helmet with the liner torn out to scoop up dog food for his hounds.