What do I have here?

[guitarlute101]

Hi everyone,

I recently bought a trunk at an auction sale and this scrapbook was in the bottom. It seems to be a scrapbook form a WW2 Engineer who helped cross the Rhine and was awarded the Bronze Star. There are more personal pictures and poems home to a sweetheart. Any info would be appreciated.


Thanks,

Mark

[harryamb2]

he picked up a few bits in his travels

[James C]

welcome to the forum, this is just a fascinating find thanks for sharing
regards james

[guitarlute101]

Thanks guys, does anyone have any clues as to what some of the patches and medals are? I'm new to this not having much luck in my search.

Mark

[douglas2496]

I can help with some of them. In the first picture you have a Third Reich Car pennant with a Luftwaffe enlisted man's breast eagle above it. In the second is a US Navy trade patch (black patch with white eagle and red stripe) which I beleive is aviation radioman. You also have a Nazi party armband (a nice example with its original RZM material control label on the reverse) with a political cap badge eagle underneath. There is also an orange and blue circular badge with two 4's back to back which is US 44th infantry division (worn on the upper arm of the field jacket) and above that is the square four clover leaf patch of the US 4th infantry division. Next to 'Engineering the victory' pamphlet I can see a Cloth patch (worn on the Sports shirt) of the German war veteran's association. The medal with the red ribbon with white stripes is a US army good conduct medal.

I have just looked up some of the other US patches for you, there is a 2nd Army patch (with a red and white no.2) and a US army 13th Corps patch (4 clovers with red triangle in the middle). There are also two mounted US medal ribbon's - the red one as already stated is a us army good conduct medal, the other one (green brown, red and white) is the European, African and Middle East Campaign Service medal. I hope that helps.

Also looking again at the Nazi 'car pennant' I think it is actually a bunting flag as it looks to be of thin material and flimsy construction.

Doug

[guitarlute101]

Many thanks Doug!

Mark