Hi everyone, Im new and my name is Chuck. This has to be one of the coolest forums I've come across in a long time and I look forward to hanging around for a while. I love everything WWII. My grandfather got me interested. He recently passed away and when we got all of his service things, I was amazed at the stuff he had collected during the war. I just wished I could have asked him about some of the stuff before he passed. He earned 3 purple hearts serving with the 83rd Infantry (G company 329th)throughout Europe. He saw combat in carentan, Normandy, the Battle of the Buldge and in Germany. Along the way he managed to round up several German badges and pins, even some that came straight from Hitlers SS. He also came home with a Sauer & Sons 38H .32 caliber pistol that was mostly carried by officers in the Luftwaffe. Another amazing thing was that when he was cremated, there were a few small peices of german lead found in his ashes. He was a huge hero in my books. I look forward to hearing other stories on this forum.....cant wait and nice to meet you guys
Cmorg -- Welcome to a fine place! Thanks for a great first post. Any chance you can post some scans of pictures of your grandfather's mementos of the war? Cheers!
Welcome Chuck, you must be tremendousy proud of your ancestor. thanks for sharing this story with us.
Howdy and welcome to the forum. Thanks for sharing your grandfather's background. A hero he was and will always be. Glad to have you with us. Happy posting.
thanks for the greetings, i will attach a few pics. The first is of the pins that my grandpa brought home with him. In those pins is a Totenkopf (Deaths head) which was the insignia of the SS (so far as I know) and 2 red/white/swastika pins which were Hitler youth membership pins. I dont know what any of the rest are. I would really like to know what the german helmet pin is???? (anyone) The second pic is of the pistol that my gramps brought home with him, its not the original pic (i will get one soon) but a pic I found on google. The pistol he brought home with him came in a holster and in that holster was an extra magazine clip which was still full. The spare clip is fully loaded with original german shells. even after 65 years. Pretty Crazy stuff!!
Welcome, Great post - I also became interested in WWII in large part because of my Grandfather (He served in the US Army and fought in the Philippines in 1944-45).
