Ju88 shot down

[RMR]

Thanks Hucks very interesting.Regards Roger

[Canuck63]

Very interesting indeed but that cross oughta remained with its owner in the first place!It's hard now to return it to his next of kin without knowing for sure who it belonged to so I can't see no reason why it couldn't be owned by our fellow member!
Sorry to say that but the lady who kept the cross looted the body,end of story!
Cheers
Manny

[RMR]

I wonder what percentage of items in our collections were looted from bodies? quite large I would think,after all it has gone on through out history.Would we be so fastidious had the defeated been trying to kill us moments before or indeed lived in Liverpool where only a short while before this aircrew had released their bombs.It sounds so noble after the passage of 70 years but what would we have done at the time? RMR

[Canuck63]

I wonder what percentage of items in our collections were looted from bodies? quite large I would think,after all it has gone on through out history.Would we be so fastidious had the defeated been trying to kill us moments before or indeed lived in Liverpool where only a short while before this aircrew had released their bombs.It sounds so noble after the passage of 70 years but what would we have done at the time? RMR

Very,very good point,still I think that the EK oughta remained with the fallen crew member!
Cheers

[adlerfan53]

This is the eternal question when it comes to collecting. Almost all of our items had been looted at one point. It is easy for one of is to order the item returned to the kin. However, it is a different story if it is an item you own. Personally, I would give it back to the family if I knew who they were. It is the choice of the present owner however. I believe he did try and this is OK.

[Matt L]

It strikes me as really odd that an EK2 would be found in an aircraft wreck- it wasn't actually a worn medal; usually the only time one ever sees it on a uniform is right when it's awarded. Perhaps the guy just had it in his pocket? Strange...

[RMR]

The lady who was an auxiliary ambulance driver found it in the pocket of one of the crew whilst looking for papers that may have been of use to British intelligence nothing strange about it.The goverment had posters running asking for all intelligence material to be handed over.RMR

[davejb]

It was quite a common practise for home guard units and regular soldiers to take the awards from crashed airmen either dead or alive and to take bits from aircraft before the RAF intelligence boys reached the crash site, although it might have been frowned upon it was done, remember that the coastal and central areas of Britain were being bombed on a regular basis, trophies were common place as im sure happened in Germany also

[Falschirmjager]

It was quite a common practise for home guard units and regular soldiers to take the awards from crashed airmen either dead or alive and to take bits from aircraft before the RAF intelligence boys reached the crash site, although it might have been frowned upon it was done, remember that the coastal and central areas of Britain were being bombed on a regular basis, trophies were common place as im sure happened in Germany also

I dont think those dead airmen would mind the member having that Iron Cross, especially all these years on. I beleive same thing did happen in Germany and its inevitable in times of war that such attractive items will be souvenired. Ive heard some horrible stories of civilians slicing fingers off dead German airmen in order to remove their gold rings. Guess that kind of thing happened until a sentry was placed at the crash site to prevent looting etc.

[Frundsberg]

Actually there are very many people in Germany who are not interested in such "nazi" items. I understand that it is very hard to belive it as most of us here are collectors but I have seen for example tens of photo albums and also other items sold by relatives because they do not want to have "nazi" stuff at their home.