Souvenirs of war

After D-Day, inhabitants from villages and towns across Normandy would collect and gather anything of potential use or value to them in the inevitably tough months and years ahead.

Reserve 'chutes – tossed aside by invading paratroopers in the heat of battle – were naturally fair game, and often made into dresses. Some eighty years on, precious few have survived. But now again, they turn up – and here is one such example.

This particular dress surfaced in the tiny village of Néville-sur-Mer, some 25km north of the main drop zones.

This helmet was picked up from one of the Normandy battlefields by a GI whose name is sadly lost to time. After bringing it home, the veteran then gave it to his best friend in Pittsburgh PA – whose family kept it for over 70 years before parting with it several years back.

Collection of original cut off insignias, including assault gunner tab cut off, FJ splinter camo smock breast eagle cut off, plus a medical officer collar tab cut off taken from the site of the infamous Gardelegen massacre. The handwritten notation on the envelope reads: “A very special pair of shoulder straps from a German medical officer at Gardelegen”

The coastal artillery eagle, shown with tag, was brought home by Julius Nemeth, 202nd Combat Engineers.

Leon Sporish, Company F and C 2nd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

Sporish jumped in North Africa and Italy, and was wounded twice in Italy. The grouping includes his 4 pocket tunic, m42 jump jacket and jump pants, Corcoran jump boots, and unworn model 1943 combat trousers.

SS cap skull manufactured by Fritz Zimmermann, brought home by US soldier Ralph Naylor, 182nd Field Artillery Battalion.

Naylor lived in Springfield MA, and died in 2015 aged 92.

Tail section cut from a BF 109 on Sicily by aviation metalsmith, Winfred Brady, who served on the USS Savannah. He brought this home for his nephew.

Scrapbook and photos pertaining to the service of Fred Muller, 7th Naval Beach Battalion which landed on Omaha Beach on June 6/7, 1944. The battalion camped on Omaha beach for roughly a month. Muller took numerous photos as well as picked up some German souvenirs including documents and photos from Germans stationed there before the invasion

Staff Sergeant John Carnes, a member of the anti-tank company of the 272nd Infantry Regiment, 69th Division, poses with a panzer IV knocked out by his company during fighting near Blankenheim, Germany. This exact panzer tab was removed from one of the tank crew’s uniform, along with a panzer assault badge in silver.

This Denison smock was owned by Leonard Langford of HQ/2 502nd PIR 101st Airborne Division.

During their time in England, regiments of the 101st Airborne Division trained extensively with their counterparts in the British Airborne, and Langford was given this smock, probably as part of an exercise. It is well-documented that some members of the 101st Airborne wore their British mocks as an extra layer of insulation during the Battle of the Bulge, in December 1944.

Langford jumped in Normandy, and survived the war.

Captured fire helmet, removed from the ruined city of Cologne on March 10 1945, and attributed to T/Sgt John Twardy of the 319th Glider Field Artillery Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division.

Mailed home by Carl Livingston, 503 MP Battalion Fort Worth Texas – with the original mailing label and signed capture certificate still attached. During the war, the 503rd served in Normandy, the Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace and Central Europe.

“The 503rd Military Police Battalion fought on the battlefields of Europe and qualified for its first World War II campaign honors on the beachhead at Normandy. As a result of its distinguished service during the Second World War, the Battalion was awarded its first Meritorious Unit Commendation. After the Second World War, the Battalion was inactivated on 13 March 1946 at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey.”

Japanese mortar round shipped home from the Philippines in a bamboo shipping container by Carl Nightingale, 737th Railway Battalion, to his wife.

Here we have a typical medium-sized NSDAP flag that was captured by members of Company C, 67th Armored Field Artillery of the 3rd Armored Division.

What makes this flag especially interesting is that members of the unit painted the flag with their unit information before having numerous members sign the center disc portion. The photo shows an unidentified member with the flag after it was painted but before it was signed. Sadly, he is unidentified. Recently, another flag and photo surfaced done in a similar manner by Company B also of the 67th. Seems like this may have been a unit trend. Please contact me, if you have any more information or photos showing these flags.

Grouping of artefacts sent home from a GI named “Bill” from the Reichs Chancellery to his parents. He describes the hanger and the insignia from a panzer uniform in detail.

Some souvenirs of Staff Sergeant William Medill, member of the 96th Bomb Group, shot down on May 12 1944, and interned in Stalag Luft III.

Cut off SS insignia sent by Private Robert Orban to a fraternity brother. Orban was in the 30th Infantry Division and describes the fighting during the Battle of the Bulge in several letters, even mentioning “dead SS” in front of his foxhole.

Insignia brought home with many others by Charles Wahler, an Austrian Jewish immigrant who served with the 501st PIR, IPW (prisoner of war interrogation) team 9 in the 101st Airborne Division. These insignia, along with many others, were saved from the trash during a house clean out in Philadelphia, Pa.

Railroad eagle brought home by Alfredo Nalbone of the 722 Railway Operating Battalion.

Samples of German insignia brought home by US army surgeon Kenneth Burton from Providence RI.

Studio photograph of SS Brigadeführer Willy Meerwald: Personal Adviser to Adolf Hitler, and later an administrative head of the Reich Chancellery – responsible for the processing of personnel matters for officials, employees and workers. NSDAP number 1,552,922, SS number 113,656

In the last months of the war, Meerwald performed much of his duties away from the front – in Berchtesgaden.

In May 1945, this photo was recovered by a plundering GI, and taken back to the States, where it surfaced recently. The back reads: “Found in an underground tunnel in Berchtesgaden, May 1945”.

After the war, Meerwald was arrested and questioned at the Nuremberg Trials – specifically in relation to the activities of the Reich Chancellery. He was released in 1948.