82nd AB POW Purple Heart Grouping

[custer1]

Certificate without ribbons.

 

[Kadet]

Thanks Jim.....the date on that document actually tracks perfectly with the engraving on the Bronze Star. The medal and document are "CIB conversion" awards, and are commonly found in groupings like this. I still feel that the PH is WWII hand engraved.

[Kadet]

Also interesting that the Ebay seller is in Nassau County NY. Safrath died in Nassau County in 1993. Seems logical that some of his items could have been sold long before the grouping was, since he was long dead. Something else that speaks to the provenance of the group is the even patina to everything and the very distinctive, and thick glue that was used to fasten the stuff in the shadow box. This same glue (which is quite old) is on all of the items, to include the wings, patches and CIB. The patches appear to have been removed from a uniform. Interesting info, and I'm glad you posted it!

 

I also sent you a PM

[Kadet]

Although the resolution is poor, thought I would post this pic. It is the Safrath BS alongside a "CMB conversion" award issued to the recipient in 1951 (I also own the award document). The engraving is identical. Little doubt in my mind that Safrath's BS and the document were issued to him at the same time in 1950.

 

Strangely, the CMB group is a very similar situation. His original, unengraved medals (to include his BB&B SS) came on the market first. Years later, after his wife passed away, his shadow box was sold. The shadow box contained his engraved 1951 medals, insignia, portrait etc. I was lucky enough to acquire both sets, and the whole group is now back together.

[Kadet]

......NARA had his separation document on file, and I paid for a copy. It should list his awards and campaign credits. There is also the intriguing fact that his name appears on the 82nd rolls in connection with Market Garden. Perhaps the POW info is wrong? I was just really curious about this group!

[Jack's Son]

Although I am still not sure exactly how the timeline fits together......I am happy with the direction this is taking!!

Good luck with more revelations. :thumbsup:

[Kadet]

The timeline:

 

Safrath is wounded and captured, either at Anzio or in Holland

 

his NOK receive a hand engraved PH in keeping with the procedures for POWs

 

In 1950, Safrath applies for and receives a BS based on his CIB entitlement. The government sends him the BS and award document, and perhaps some of the other medals the group, and maybe even another machine engraved PH. Ill post the 1951 CMB PH....the engraving looks nothing like the one in this group.

 

In 1978, Safrath applies for and receives the NYS medal.....or perhaps this was a replacement ordered for the shadow box?

 

In the 1980s, the shadow box is put together and hangs proudly in the Safrath home.

 

Safrath dies in 1993, and some of the loose items are sold, given to children, thrown away....a million diferent scenarios. the shadow box stays with the wife.

 

The document...and perhaps other items....end up on Ebay in 2001 being sold by a "stuff" seller who lives in Safrath's region.

 

More recently, the wife or other close relative dies and the shadow box is sold. Ed will know for sure....but I think these things also came from Ebay...perhaps a cancelled auction? I vaguely remember it.

[Jack's Son]

Thank you!

Your explanation makes this easier to follow. I wish you well in recovering more of the pieces that were sold off. If Custer1 helps out, that would be a very nice start!

 

I had a similar thing happen to me with a wound certificate. Bigjohn3rd came through for me by offering to unite the grouping.

 

Good luck!

[grovb]

The shadow box definitely came from ebay as a result of canceled auction and there were supposedly other items. I never heard back about them from the representative. Ed might be able to fill in on more also.

 

 

 

The timeline:

 

Safrath is wounded and captured, either at Anzio or in Holland

 

his NOK receive a hand engraved PH in keeping with the procedures for POWs

 

In 1950, Safrath applies for and receives a BS based on his CIB entitlement. The government sends him the BS and award document, and perhaps some of the other medals the group, and maybe even another machine engraved PH. Ill post the 1951 CMB PH....the engraving looks nothing like the one in this group.

 

In 1978, Safrath applies for and receives the NYS medal.....or perhaps this was a replacement ordered for the shadow box?

 

In the 1980s, the shadow box is put together and hangs proudly in the Safrath home.

 

Safrath dies in 1993, and some of the loose items are sold, given to children, thrown away....a million diferent scenarios. the shadow box stays with the wife.

 

The document...and perhaps other items....end up on Ebay in 2001 being sold by a "stuff" seller who lives in Safrath's region.

 

More recently, the wife or other close relative dies and the shadow box is sold. Ed will know for sure....but I think these things also came from Ebay...perhaps a cancelled auction? I vaguely remember it.

[emaier3]

The shadow box definitely came from ebay as a result of canceled auction and there were supposedly other items. I never heard back about them from the representative. Ed might be able to fill in on more also.

 

This group came from the family according to the person I bought it from. The guy worked for an Estate company and they were asked to sell it. I put in an offer and he took it. He thought the family might have more items but I have not heard back from him. Thats all I know.

 

Thanks,

Ed

[Kadet]

As promised, here are the two PH medals I mentioned. The one on the left was a replacement award made on 27 Feb 1951. The machine engraving is similar to the Bronze Star from the same group, and Safrath's Bronze Star. Safrath's hand engraved medal is on the right. Again, I believe Safrath's medal is the WWII era piece given to his NOK, and his Bronze Star is the one that came w/ the document in late 1950. If he received an engraved PH w/ his Bronze Star, it would have looked like the one on the left, since these groups were issued only a few months apart.

[Kadet]

I've also added some pics of WWII-era hand engraved PHs from my files. They appear to match the Safrath PH "hand"

[Kadet]

2

[MWalsh]

Andy,

 

In looking at all the posts about the group and the comments about the jump stars being "incorrect" in light of his being listed as a POW, I got to thinking about why that might be.

 

What I don't think anyone has mentioned is the possibility that he in fact WAS a POW, but a POW who was captured, then later escaped and made it back to his unit and rejoined them and then participated in additional combat jumps.

 

I believe that there are a number of cases of the 1990's era POW Medal being awarded to people who had that exact thing happen. Not everyone who was captured stayed captured.

 

Just food for thought. Might be curious to dig into some morning reports, unit histories, etc, as a long term research project, and see what may turn up on him in regards to that.

 

MW

[Kadet]

Mike, his POW data from NARA indicates that he was captured, along w/ many members of his Company, on 24 January 1944. This would have occurred at Anzio when his Company was cut off while attempting to seize the Mussolini Canal. He seems to have been in Stalag III for the duration, being repatriated in 1945. To me, the only possibility is that the capture date is wrong. The 82nd also had men captured in Holland...but the NARA records seem pretty definitive to me. His discharge will indicate his campaign credits. If the wings are legit (and I think they are) the most plausible explanation for the three stars may be the aborted jump on Rome by the 504th that I mentioned above. They were actually enroute to their DZs when the mission was scrubbed...actually a very intriguing story, and one of the reasons the 504th is such an interesting unit. There is another possibility w/ the wings. The bottom two stars are very tightly affixed. The top star rotates and is loose. It is possible that the top hole once contained an arrow head, and whoever built the shadow box just stuck a loose star in the empty hole without understanding the significance. Also, the 504th holds the distinction of having participated in an amphibious landing (at Anzio)....perhaps this relates somehow

 

 

32790105

NAME SAFRATH RICHARD W SAFRATH RICHARD W

GRADE, ALPHA PVT Private

GRADE CODE 8 Cadet, USMA or Chief Warrant Officer or Private or Apprentice, Seaman

SERVICE CODE 1 ARMY

ARM OR SERVICE INF Infantry

ARM OR SERVICE CODE 10 INF: INFANTRY

DATE REPORT: DAY (DD) 25 25

DATE REPORT: MONTH (MM) 01 01

DATE REPORT: YEAR (Y) 4 1944

RACIAL GROUP CODE 1 WHITE

STATE OF RESIDENCE 23 New York

TYPE OF ORGANIZATION

PARENT UNIT NUMBER

PARENT UNIT TYPE

AREA

LATEST REPORT DATE: DAY (DD) 21 21

LATEST REPORT DATE: MONTH (MM) 07 07

LATEST REPORT DATE: YEAR (Y) 5 1945

SOURCE OF REPORT 1 Individual has been reported through sources considered official.

STATUS 8 Returned to Military Control, Liberated or Repatriated

DETAINING POWER 1 GERMANY

CAMP 033 Stalag Luft 3 Sagan-Silesia Bavaria (Moved to Nuremberg-Langwasser) 49-11

[MWalsh]

Sigh. So much for my brilliant theory then I had not looked at the NARA info.

 

I guess the morning reports from January 1944 are probably the quick and easy "key" then.

 

Keep us informed as to what you find out.

 

I do have the original POW cards microfiche that one used to have to have to get the info now posted on sites like Ancestry... Want me to break it out and see if it appears to match up with what NARA shows?

 

MW

[Kadet]

Sigh. So much for my brilliant theory then I had not looked at the NARA info.

 

I guess the morning reports from January 1944 are probably the quick and easy "key" then.

 

Keep us informed as to what you find out.

 

I do have the original POW cards microfiche that one used to have to have to get the info now posted on sites like Ancestry... Want me to break it out and see if it appears to match up with what NARA shows?

 

MW

 

 

Sure mike...any help would be appreciated!

 

I may also just cut to the chase. I tracked down an email address for his daughter and may drop her a note....

[custer1]

Howdy all. Glad to see the info I posted has stimulated thought and interest that appears to be figuring out this story.

 

As I wrote, I initially figured the BSM and PH would have been sent to Safrath at the same time, but I guess not. I thought about the CIB conversion award shortly after I posted that, so a 1950 CIB conversion BSM (with no concurrrent PH award) makes sense.

 

However, I was not aware that engraved PHs would be awarded to NOK of POWs as written by Kadet:

"his NOK receive a hand engraved PH in keeping with the procedures for POWs"

 

Are we sure that was a standard procedure? Unless the Army was certain that one was wounded in connection with being captured, then such a procedure/policy effectively broadens the award scope of the PH to include POWs? Any more thoughts on this?

 

In any case, lots of interesting research lines to pursue here including:

 

1) Did someone write here that Safrath in on 82nd Abn records as being present for Market Garden? I can't find that post whilst writing this reply

2) The stars on the wing

3) The NY CSC

 

Kadet, I'll get with you on the PM and we'll figure something out. My lovely CinC is currently hovering about me here and i suspect I'm in store for a work detail, so may be later today.

 

Regards, Jim B

[Kadet]

Jim, thanks...yes, engraved medals, to include the PH, were typically provided to the NOK of POWs during WWII. I have several sets in my collection, and there are many more on the forum. Perhaps Safrath had been wounded earlier in the war and had the PH in his record, or the Red Cross info provided by the Germans indicated that he was wounded when captured. The German records were pretty meticulous, and they tended to (more or less) follow the Geneva Convention and International rules for reporting of POWs..

[Kadet]

He is listed here in conjunction w/ the author's research in to Market Garden:

 

http://lostatnijmegen.pre-jump.nl/the-men-...rborne-division

 

 

This is the only hint that he may have made the Holland jump. All of the other 82nd resources, to include NARA, indicate that he was captured at Anzio in Jan 1944.

[custer1]

Jim, thanks...yes, engraved medals, to include the PH, were typically provided to the NOK of POWs during WWII. I have several sets in my collection, and there are many more on the forum. Perhaps Safrath had been wounded earlier in the war and had the PH in his record, or the Red Cross info provided by the Germans indicated that he was wounded when captured. The German records were pretty meticulous, and they tended to (more or less) follow the Geneva Convention and International rules for reporting of POWs..

 

OK, thanks. I wasn't aware of that.

 

I just PM'ed you and am headed out to do some chores.

[Kadet]

This is a very good synopsis of the 504th's actions up thru Anzio. Safrath served in Co D, 2nd Batt 504th. He participated in some very interesting events. I've bolded the portion that I believe resulted in his capture.

 

 

 

 

"On 29 April 1943, the 504th boarded the troop ship "George Washington" to steam to North Africa and its first overseas port of call, Casablanca. Upon arrival, the troopers marched 8 miles south of the city where they established a cantonment area consisting of a few stone huts and a tent city. Soon, the Regiment was moved by "40 and 8's" northward to Oujda, Algeria. The "40 and 8's" were railroad cars dating from the First World War, so called because they were designed to carry 40 men or 8 horses.

 

Training intensified and Generals Eisenhower, Clark, and Patton, along with the Sultan of Morocco and officials of every Allied nation watched the 504th go through its paces. Training included many practice jumps, and one conducted in winds of up to 30 miles-per-hour put nearly 30 percent of the unit in the hospital with broken bones, sprains and bruises. Finally, the order came and the Regiment moved by truck to Kairouan, Tunisia, which was to be the 82nd Airborne Division's point of departure for the invasion of Sicily.

 

On 9 July 1943, the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 504th PIR, led by Colonel Reuben H. Tucker, loaded aircraft and took off for Sicily from the dusty airstrip near Kairouan, Tunisia. Near the Sicilian coast, however, a nervous Allied naval vessel suddenly fired upon the formation. Immediately, all other naval vessels and shore troops joined in, downing friendly aircraft and forcing planeloads of paratroopers to exit far from their intended drop zones in one of the greatest tragedies of World War II.

 

Colonel Tucker's plane, after twice flying the length of the Sicilian coast and with well over 2,000 holes in its fuselage, finally reached the drop zone near Gela. By morning, only 400 of the Regiment's 1600 soldiers had reached the objective area. The others had been dropped in isolated groups on all parts of the island and carried out demolitions, cut lines of communication, established island roadblocks, ambushed German and Italian motorized columns, and caused so much confusion over such an extensive area that initial German radio reports estimated the number of American parachutists dropped to be over 10 times the actual number.

 

With the return of 3rd Battalion on 13 July 1943, the 504th Infantry moved out in the attack, spearheading the 82nd Airborne Division's drive northwest 150 miles along the southern coast of Sicily. With captured Italian light tanks, trucks, motorcycles, horses, mules, bicycles, and even wheelbarrows pressed into service, the 82nd encountered only light resistance and took 22,000 prisoners in their first contact with Nazi and Fascist forces. Overall, the Sicilian operation proved costly both in lives and equipment, but the unit gained valuable fighting experience and managed to hurt the enemy in the process. It was with this experience and pride that the 504th returned to its base in Kairouan, Tunisia, to prepare for the invasion of mainland Italy.

 

Back in North Africa, replacements arrived, training resumed, and 3rd Battalion was again detached, this time to Bizerte for special beach assault training with the 325th Glider Infantry and the Rangers. The 1st and 2nd Battalions moved back to Sicily and trained for a drop at Capua. Their effort was in vain, however, because the enemy had been tipped off and was waiting on the drop zone. Another disappointment followed with the cancellation of the drop on Rome. Last minute intelligence disclosed that "negotiations" between General Taylor and Marshal Badoglio were a trap. Finally, in early September, the 3rd Battalion rejoined the 325th and the Rangers, boarded landing craft, and set out to sea. The men knew they were going to Italy, but little else. Troopers from H Company, with a group of Rangers, made the initial landing on 9 September 1943 on the Italian coast at Maiori. They quickly advanced inland to seize the Chiunzi Pass and a vital railroad tunnel.

 

On standby at airfields in Sicily, the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 504th were alerted, issued chutes, and loaded on aircraft without knowledge of their destination. Receiving their briefing aboard the plane, the men were told that the Fifth Army beachhead was in danger and they were needed to jump in behind friendly lines. Flying in columns of battalions, they exited over the barrels of gasoline-soaked sand that formed a flaming "T" in the center of the drop zone. The regiment assembled quickly and moved to the sounds of cannon and small arms fire within the hour. By dawn, the unit was firmly set in defensive positions.

 

The days that followed were, in the words of General Mark Clark, Commander of the 5th Army, "responsible for saving the Salerno beachhead." As the 504th (minus 3rd Battalion) took the high ground at Altavilla, the enemy counterattacked and the Commander of 6th Corps, General Dawley, suggested the unit withdraw. Epitomizing the determined spirit of the Regiment, Colonel Tucker vehemently replied, "Retreat, Hell! -- Send me my other battalion!" The 3rd Battalion then rejoined the 504th, the enemy was repulsed, and the Salerno beachhead was saved.

 

The operation secured the flanks of the Fifth Army, allowing it to break out of the coastal plain and drive on to Naples. On 1 October 1943, the 504th became the first infantry unit to enter Naples, which it subsequently garrisoned. The operation was not only a success, but it also stands as one of history's greatest examples of the mobility of the airborne unit: within only 8 hours of notification, the 504th developed and disseminated its tactical plan, prepared for combat, loaded aircraft and jumped onto its assigned drop zone to engage the enemy and turn the tide of battle.

 

During the next several months in Central Italy, the 504th fought in difficult terrain against a determined enemy. On steep, barren slopes, the Regiment assaulted one hill after another. Mule trains aided in the evacuation of wounded to some extent, but casualties were often carried for hours down the steep hillsides just to reach the road.

 

Finally, the Regiment was pulled back to Naples on 4 January 1944 as rumors of another parachute mission spread. The operation was to be called "Shingle," and it involved an airborne assault into a sector behind the coastal town of Anzio, 28 miles south of Rome. It seemed, however, that even the locals in Naples knew of the operation, so the 504th was glad that the beach would be assaulted from troop-carrying landing craft.

 

The landing on Red Beach went smoothly, at least until enemy planes started their strafing runs on the landing craft. The unit disembarked under fire and was sent shortly thereafter to patrol in force along the Mussolini Canal. After several days of intense German artillery fire, the enemy launched a main drive to push the Allies back into the sea.

 

For the remainder of their 8 week stay on the Anzio beachhead, the men of the 504th found themselves fighting defensive battles instead of the offensive operations for which they were better suited. For the first time the men were engaged in trench warfare like that of the First World War, with barbed wire entanglements and minefields in front and between alternate positions. It was during this battle that the 504th acquired the nickname "The Devils in Baggy Pants," taken from the following entry found in the diary of a German officer killed at Anzio:

 

"American parachutists...devils in baggy pants...are less than 100 meters from my outpost line. I can't sleep at night; they pop up from nowhere and we never know when or how they will strike next. Seems like the black-hearted devils are everywhere..."

 

On 23 March 1944, the 504th Infantry was pulled out of the beachhead by landing craft and returned to Naples. The campaign had been costly, but enemy losses exceeded those of the Regiment by over tenfold, and the Allies maintained control of the beachhead. Shortly thereafter, the 504th Infantry boarded the "Capetown Castle" and steamed to England."

[Kadet]

Happy to report that the Bronze Star document and ribbons will soon be reunited w/ the rest of the group...thanks Jim!

[KASTAUFFER]

I have a number of officially engraved POW Purple Hearts in my collection with original transmittal letters. All of them were sent officially engraved to the POW shortly after liberation after they were back in the USA. Almost all of mine are from 1945-46.

 

Other decorations like Air Medals, DFCs, and Silver Stars were routinely issued to the NOK while the vet was still a POW.

 

Kurt

[Kadet]

I have a number of officially engraved POW Purple Hearts in my collection with original transmittal letters. All of them were sent officially engraved to the POW shortly after liberation after they were back in the USA. Almost all of mine are from 1945-46.

 

Other decorations like Air Medals, DFCs, and Silver Stars were routinely issued to the NOK while the vet was still a POW.

 

Kurt

 

 

Thanks Kurt...interesting info.

 

A POW award question: What, if any, campaign credit was given to men in a POW status?