Grandpa's WWII stuff...

[Seanpmc1]

The stuff Grandpa brought back from WWII. He was a Tank Scout for the 2nd Marine Tank Battalion and fought at Tarawa, Saipan, Tinian, Okinawa. Spent the last few weeks overseas on Occupation duty near Nagasaki. Thats where the Beauty Kit and Kimono came from.

The three knives in the case are all War items too. The one on the right is the "Marbles" brand knife Grandpa carried throughout the War. He said the Kabar that he was issued was a "piece of crap", and he tossed it into the Pacific. His Dad mailed him the Marbles Knife and the Colt Revolver while he was still in Tank Training at "Jacques Farm" in California.

The two knives on the left were both brought home from Germany by his brother, who was with the 42nd "Rainbow Division". They don't look to be Military issued knives, at least not any German Military knives that I've ever seen.

The Arisaka is one of the relatively few that made it home with the Chrysanthanum Seal intact. Thats because Grandpa's M1 Carbine was destroyed in a mortar attack. He found the Arisaka later in the day and carried it until he got a replacement for his M1.

The Sword was in perfect condition until he mailed it home. My Great-Grandpa used it to chop weeds. He said it did a great job cutting horseweed...

The Flag came from either Saipan, or Tinian. He doesn't remember where he picked it up. The Marine Cap isn't WWII era. I bought it for him a few years ago.

[HJ-Collector]

thanks for that some very nice items any chance of better pics of the brass knuckle? cheers

[Seanpmc1]

The Brass Knuckles came over from Ireland with one of my immigrant ancestors. He was originally from Londonderry, and came here in the late 1800's. He was my Grt. Grt. Grandpa.

He got on the ship to America somewhere in England, so we don't know whether the Knucks came from England, or if he already had them. According to the family stories though, they did not come from the US. He always claimed that when he got here, all he had was the Brass knuckles and a handful of silver.

He ended up working as a laborer for 10-15 years, then was able to buy a Farm.

[RH1941]

Crap all I got from my Grandfather was one of his dogtags. ( the only thing in my collection that I will never sell)

[HJ-Collector]

The Brass Knuckles came over from Ireland with one of my immigrant ancestors. He was originally from Londonderry, and came here in the late 1800's. He was my Grt. Grt. Grandpa.

He got on the ship to America somewhere in England, so we don't know whether the Knucks came from England, or if he already had them. According to the family stories though, they did not come from the US. He always claimed that when he got here, all he had was the Brass knuckles and a handful of silver.

He ended up working as a laborer for 10-15 years, then was able to buy a Farm.

hi good story england would fit these old world style are very rare and were carried by the old gangsters godfather etc but reproducted like almost everything thats collectable i just missed out on a old original set like you show 2 years back on a knuckle collector forum for £350 1 day i will get em!

a repro varation of the said design i have

thanks

[Seanpmc1]

Crap all I got from my Grandfather was one of his dogtags. ( the only thing in my collection that I will never sell)

Grandpa is still alive. 86 years old and gets around better than I do. This stuff is all still his.

I think what saved the Kimono, was the fact that Grandma kept it stored in between several layers of antique Quilts in a Steamer trunk. I wish she had done the same thing with Grandpa's dress uniform. It suffered so much Moth damage he ended up stripping the insignia off of it and burning the rest. Same with the green BDU, or whatever they called them. All thats left is the section of sleeve in the picture.

Everything in the pictures has been claimed by my Dad and his siblings except for the Arisaka; I laid claim to it, and will most likely get it. Everybody else just thinks its a piece of crap Jap rifle, but I want it for the story that goes with it.

Grandpa was on Saipan walking with two Shermans and another Tank Scout. When the mortar attack started, the other Scout got half of his leg blown off. Grandpa dropped his Carbine and ran to drag his buddy underneath one of the Shermans. When it was over, he looked for his Carbine and found it scattered in pieces.

As they continued their advance, they came across a group of destroyed buildings. He said one building had been blown apart to the extent that only one corner of it was left standing, and that Arisaka was leaning in the corner with 4 cartridges in it. He carried it for a couple of days until he was finally able to get a replacement Carbine.

But he managed to keep the Arisaka through the rest of the War and brought it home personally. He said by that time of the War, it wasn't safe to mail anything anymore because the Mail Clerks were stealing everything they could get their hands on.

Many of the Marines were issued Japanese Swords and Rifles to take home, but the Rifles that came home that way had the Imperial Seal ground off of them. Since Grandpa got his on his own, the Seal is intact, which makes it relatively rare over here.

I don't care anything about the value of it though, I just want it because he actually carried it in battle.

[Seanpmc1]

hi good story england would fit these old world style are very rare

My Dad has laid claim on the Knucks.

There is also a blackthorn sail éille that he brought over, but its so old and dried out Grandpa won't even pick it up unless he has too. It has lead or something in the heavy end of it, so when he picks it up, he picks it up by the heavy end.

It doesn't look like the sail éille's we see on TV though. Its around 18-20 inches long, and is fairly slender except for the lead-filled knot at the end of it. Looks like it was probably pretty springy when it was first made, I imagine you could easily have killed somebody with it.

[Nige H]

Your very lucky Sean to live in the U.S., as here in the U.K. they would have confiscated most of the items from your grandpa, many years ago. Apparently when my great uncle finally got back to Britain after WWII, he brought back many Nazi badges and other trinkets for my Dad, in fact enough to fill a small suitcase, these were then given to my Father, to keep as a souvenir from Uncle Stanley. However some years latter while have a spring clean my grandmother said to my Dad "Your not keeping all that old junk" and with that she throughout my inheritance


Nige.

[Seanpmc1]

Your very lucky Sean to live in the U.S., as here in the U.K. they would have confiscated most of the items from your grandpa

I thought your laws were similar to ours but apparently I was mistaken. What would they have confiscated out of the stuff I've shown above? The Sword and bayonet?

I thought you guys could have manually operated rifles and shotguns, but no pistols or semi-auto weapons. Have they taken everything away from you?

I assume your STEN is permanently deactivated? From what I have read about STEN's in the US, there is a way that I can reassemble my STEN as a firing weapon, but it has to be permanently modified to fire only in semi-auto mode, and has to be re-registered with and inspected by the ATF. All of which includes a boatload of red tape. After seeing how much trouble it was going to be, I decided to just follow the rules and weld it solid.

[Adrian Stevenson]

I thought your laws were similar to ours but apparently I was mistaken. What would they have confiscated out of the stuff I've shown above? The Sword and bayonet?

I thought you guys could have manually operated rifles and shotguns, but no pistols or semi-auto weapons. Have they taken everything away from you?

I assume your STEN is permanently deactivated? From what I have read about STEN's in the US, there is a way that I can reassemble my STEN as a firing weapon, but it has to be permanently modified to fire only in semi-auto mode, and has to be re-registered with and inspected by the ATF. All of which includes a boatload of red tape. After seeing how much trouble it was going to be, I decided to just follow the rules and weld it solid.

The sword and bayonet might have got confiscated by customs when the troops got off the boat. But it was and is not ilegal to own them here.

On the weapons issue you are correct. Shotguns and bolt action rifles are legal but have to be registered and licenced.

Cheers, Ade.

PS: thanks for showing your Grandad's stuff. Some really nice items!