Pieces WW2 history

[The Hobbit]

Cleaning my grandparents house out and grabbed these pieces from my paps time in WW2. He served on the USS Webster and was stationed in Japan during the initial months of occupation. During this time, the machine shop on board made these pieces for the sailors.

the two aluminum plates are self explanatory and the little piece of copper was taken from Hiroshima. I wanted to share these, in my opinion, interesting pieces from the immediate post war time frame.

[NONOBLITUS]

That’s cool stuff , thanks for sharing.

[Shrek5595]

Neato

[The G-FOURce]

Love it. My grandfather was a tailgunner on a B17 in WWII. I have the little kit they gave each member of the crew in case they were downed. It’s cool how something that was so routine for them back then means so much to us now.

[evilfishsticks]

My grandpa was a bombardier on a B17, his plane was shot down over Bremen, Germany. He survived and served out the duration of the war in a POW camp. My aunt in Ohio still has the majority of the war memorabilia.

[The Hobbit]

Love it. My grandfather was a tailgunner on a B17 in WWII. I have the little kit they gave each member of the crew in case they were downed. It’s cool how something that was so routine for them back then means so much to us now.

Yeah simple pieces loaded with meaning. My pap lied about his age to join the navy, he was underweight. The recruiter gave him some money sand told him to go get a burger for lunch and come back. At least that’s the story he told me.

[C26G]

Love this, thank you for sharing

[Glovebox Operator]

My grandpa was a Chaplin in Korea and a collector of WWII memorabilia. I didn't really feel comfortable keeping any of the Nazi stuff he had, even the Luger. The little US survival kits are so cool though.

[The G-FOURce]

My grandpa was a bombardier on a B17, his plane was shot down over Bremen, Germany. He survived and served out the duration of the war in a POW camp. My aunt in Ohio still has the majority of the war memorabilia.

evilfishsticks

Do you know anything about his plane? My grandfather’s plane was Mischief Maker (later, Mischief Maker II) in the 339th Squadron (96th Group, 45th Wing).

[evilfishsticks]

The plane was called the Blondie III, 334th bomb squadron, 95th bomb group. I had a copy of his captured story somewhere. I'll try to find it. I do know that he was in the Stalag Luft 1 prison camp in Barth, Germany.

[C26G]

Holy hell that's amazing. My Grandfather worked on those and others

[uv_halo]

Cleaning my grandparents house out and grabbed these pieces from my paps time in WW2. He served on the USS Webster and was stationed in Japan during the initial months of occupation. During this time, the machine shop on board made these pieces for the sailors.

the two aluminum plates are self explanatory and the little piece of copper was taken from Hiroshima. I wanted to share these, in my opinion, interesting pieces from the immediate post war time frame.

These really look like tags that would've been attached to something that was captured in Japan.

[The Hobbit]

That is possible, I was just relaying the history as I was told by my grandfather. Maybe he decided that these tags would be better in his possession than marking some captured materials.

[uv_halo]

I'm sorry, I didn't want to come across as criticizing or, contradicting you. I was curious more than anything else. I also strongly believe that even if they were tags for something else, they still came from Japan, in WW2, and thus are still interesting. I've seen documentaries and museum exhibits about a lot of stuff that was brought back in the war- rifles, pistols, katanas, flags, and other things I can't even remember. Often times, markings like this were applied to make it clear to the military's security forces that you were doing everything above board (i.e. not trying to arm a resistance force behind your lines, etc), I can also certainyl see a unit deciding to make a memento of such a historical moment for its members.

[The Hobbit]

No offense taken, sorry if my reply read like that. (All these years later and inflection still doesn’t transit the internet).

[Nish]

Very cool.

[The G-FOURce]

evilfishsticks
The plane was called the Blondie III, 334th bomb squadron, 95th bomb group. I had a copy of his captured story somewhere. I'll try to find it. I do know that he was in the Stalag Luft 1 prison camp in Barth, Germany.

Was your grandfather's last name Waldo from WV? Is that him?

[evilfishsticks]

Nope, Joseph from Illinois

[The G-FOURce]

evilfishsticks
Nope, Joseph from Illinois

Joseph... Kolar from the Chigagoland area? Flight engineer/top turret gunner on Blondie III?

My grandfather was Ed Dolan, Sr. Their crew flew 24 successful missions and then their captain refused all opportunities for their 25th mission (final one) until the orders came over to bomb Berlin. After the first Allied bombing run over Berlin, the captain handed the plane over to the next crew and they all got ready to head home. The Mischief Maker II went up a few days later with the new crew and was shot down on their very first mission.

If anyone has seen the movie The Bloody Hundredth, it's hard to forget the Regensburg-Schweinfurt mission (August 17, 1943) where they hit two targets and then diverted to north Africa to regroup. My grandfather flew that mission with his crew. They lost a lot of airships in that mission.