Pretty cool find when looking through my grandpas things...

[Strongside]

I recently went to visit my grandmother in Louisiana. My grandpa passed away back in the mid-nineties and was a WW2 veteran. He had been a paratrooper and fought in Normandy and marched through Europe. During their first jump, he had a close encounter with anti-aircraft shelling and was deaf in his Left ear for the rest of his life. He went on to become a minister and I was only about 12 when he passed, and didn't know much about the war then...so I didn't really know what the specifics of his involvement were.

Anyway, My grandma brought out a box of some of his old things and we were going through them and I found some really cool (and creepy) relics from his 'travels' through Nazi Europe. Here's a pic of some cap insignia that he brought back with him:



Needless to say these are in mint condition for their age. I've done a little research and have found only a few pieces like this that are in this great of shape. I'm proud of his service and thought this was a cool find...thought I'd share.


'MERICA!

[Buck]

My favorite thing I have of his is his fighter pilot or helicopter helmet. I don't really know what it was used for, but it looks badass. I'll bust it out when I can climb up there.

[Strongside]

Had my dad shoot me a picture of the belt buckle that I mentioned. He now has it. Pretty cool. Apparently it's an SS NCO buckle.

[Buck]

Originally Posted by Strongside

Had my dad shoot me a picture of the belt buckle that I mentioned. He now has it. Pretty cool. Apparently it's an SS NCO buckle.

I bet a hipster would pay you a shit load of money so they could wear that lol.

[Cornstock]

When I was in high school there was a vet that came and talked to our high school class. He had two whole tables of Nazi artifacts that he had pillaged when the Allies took back Denmark, if I remember correctly. He said when they would come up on a group of German soldiers they would all surrender and get on their knees with their hands behind their heads and he would just walk through their ranks, look at their medals, and any ones he thought were cool he would just take his knife and cut right off of their uniforms. He said they were never too happy about that but he was like "What are you gonna do about it?" He said he would send the medals home periodically, but he only got the chance to mail things every couple of weeks, so he would carry the stuff around in his coat until he got the chance. Also, when they marched into I believe Copenhagen and took back the capital, he was the one who climbed up on the capitol building and cut down the Nazi flag...Which he also carried around in his coat for weeks. He had that on display when he visited. It was huge. And badass.

[Strongside]

Originally Posted by Cornstock

When I was in high school there was a vet that came and talked to our high school class. He had two whole tables of Nazi artifacts that he had pillaged when the Allies took back Denmark, if I remember correctly. He said when they would come up on a group of German soldiers they would all surrender and get on their knees with their hands behind their heads and he would just walk through their ranks, look at their medals, and any ones he thought were cool he would just take his knife and cut right off of their uniforms. He said they were never too happy about that but he was like "What are you gonna do about it?" He said he would send the medals home periodically, but he only got the chance to mail things every couple of weeks, so he would carry the stuff around in his coat until he got the chance. Also, when they marched into I believe Copenhagen and took back the capital, he was the one who climbed up on the capitol building and cut down the Nazi flag...Which he also carried around in his coat for weeks. He had that on display when he visited. It was huge. And badass.

That's cool. I read an article somewhere about a platoon of soldiers that were fighting in Poland (I think) that took a group of German infantrymen as prisoners. They went through their things as you mentioned and stripped several medals and insignia from the soldiers. One of the men in the article had taken 3 medals from a German soldier along with one of his dog tags, so that he had his name. In something like 1988, I believe, the man and his family had gone back to Europe to see some of the places he had fought and he took the medals and dogtag with him. He talked about realizing over the years that the German soldiers were just young kids doing as they were told, just like he was and that he had learned to forgive them. They were somehow able to find the German soldier alive in a small town outside of Munich, where the American returned the soldiers medals. The German man was stunned and extremely grateful.

I've always thought that was a really cool story.