Post Your WWI and WWII Firearms

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Roland was his name, no idea who Paul is or was?

Paul C was likely the original (German) owner of the holster. The Feb 1945 date is hand-written American-style (particularly the 1 is the giveaway here), so I think the town name goes with that and denotes where the new American owner acquired it. Blatzheim is located in the far western part of Germany between Aachen and Cologne, about where the advancing US forces would have been in February 1945.

Just supposition, of course, but I'm pretty sure that's it.
 
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Paul C was likely the original (German) owner of the holster. The Feb 1945 date is hand-written American-style (particularly the 1 is the giveaway here), so I think the town name goes with that and denotes where the new American owner acquired it. Blatzheim is located in the far western part of Germany between Aachen and Cologne, about where the advancing US forces would have been in February 1945.

Just supposition, of course, but I'm pretty sure that's it.


Thank You

most interesting learning about these WW2 bring backs.
 
Couple more. A Model 1917 that has strange wood. It is different colours left and right.

The other one is a Carcano Model 38 TS in 6.5 Carcano. It has a fixed rear sight zeroed at 300 m.
 

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Here's one from the other side of the pond...

British Webley, Mk VI, first introduced in 1915 during the first World War.

It's still in it's original .455 configuration. Many of these revolvers had their cylinder shaved to accept .45 ACP.

Shown with it is a British made Sam Browne Belt and holster.




 
....and a few more.

Finnish Mosin Nagant Model 28. Fewer than 15,000 were left after WWII.

An auction shot of the Carcano M41 I own. The Italians started production of long rifles again after finding themselves in WWII and in the middle of a caliber change to 7.35 mm from 6.5. This one has a VERY late serial and was likely built under German supervision at Arma Guerra.

A Mosin Nagant Model 91 of unknown vintage because it likely ended up in the Balkans where all the Russian information was ground off.

EDITED TO ADD: The site software swapped the Carcano and M28 pictures.
 

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I really had no idea what they were, the inside of the holster has a name of a person and a name of a town. Interesting but my uncle did not talk about any of this.
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An addition to my earlier comments about this gun and holster:

By total coincidence, I just happen to be reading Raymond Gantter's "Roll Me Over: An Infantyman's World War II" (highly recommend it, by the way).

The book is a reconstruction of his experiences with the 1st Infantry Division in Europe 1944/45, where he made it from replacement private to a field commission in six months. The book, put together in the late 1940s, is based on his journal entries he kept and letters he wrote.

I just read about February 25, 1945 and the days after, where he talks about his unit entering Düren in Germany, which is only about 8 miles from Blatzheim, the town on the holster flap. And he discusses at length the capture of a Luftwaffe soldier who tells his US captors about being deployed as infantry because the Germans are out of gasoline for their planes.

It all fits nicely with that holster and its "accoutrements" being acquired by a US soldier there and then.
 
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I have quite a few, many of which are posted here in the "pictures and albums" section of the Forum:

http://smith-wessonforum.com/members/paladin85020-albums-individual-small-arms-d-day-1944-a.html

Here's one that not everyone and his brother have.

John

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LIBBY-vignette-1280_zpsb1b8b192.jpg
 
Hi Linda,

The photobucket picture is not loading on the OSS gun. Would you kindly repost? Thanks in advance. Best, TH
 
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