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D-Day vet's bring backs


mvmhm
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Following are some of the artifacts from a man who served in the 80th Chemical Company (Smoke Generator). On D-Day, they were tasked with putting their smoke generators on unnamed local boats and generating smoke to obscure men, boats & equipment at Utah Beach. I got an email before he mailed the package telling me his kids had "gotten involved in the donation and took most of what I was sending you"....here's what I did NOT get:

 

2 metal Army visor hat eagles and one cockade

EKII 1939 spange

Russian Front Medal

Wound Badger in Black

General Assault Badger

Close Combat Clasp in Bronze

2 tinnies

 

Still, there's some neat items. Here is a car pennant from the VARTA factory. VARTA (Vertrieb, Aufladung, Reparatur Transportabler Akkumulatoren; Distribution, charging, repair of transportable accumulators) supplied the German armed forces (especially U-Boats and the Luftwaffe) with these parts and were a heavy user of slave labor, so I'll be adding this to our Holocaust case. They were founded in 1904 and are still in business.

 

 

Mark sends

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Next are a couple of odd ball items...this hat reminds me of something worn during "carnival" or Fasching in Germany...

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This "cat" medal is lightweight metal...when I first saw the back it reminded me of an Azad Hind medal...but once I turned it over...well, you can see it has a cat or something like it. The reverse has some initials on it.....

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Here are some knots...the left one is a German bayonet knot..the other two look like they went on a sword and the other on a bayonet. The colors could be Italian or Hungarian maybe??

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Guide to Belgium and Luxembourg...oh, there also was a Red Cross map to Paris and some other similar docos, but the kids kept those too.

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Next are two lengths of EKII ribbon, a Winter Help tinnie, and something that looks like it went on the end of a fork (?)....

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...and some insignia...strip of 4 unissued Panzer enlisted man's eagles, two different unissued M43 style hat eagles, and the NCO straps with Officer Candidate litzen...

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This was the neatest item...unless the kids took it too, it's on the way to the National WWII Museum.....here's what he had to say:

 

 

"Attached is a picture of the flag. I don’t know if you are aware of the full story: My father was assigned to the 80th Chemical Company (Smoke Generator). On D-Day, they were tasked with putting their smoke generators on unnamed local boats and generating smoke to obscure men, boats & equipment at Utah Beach. One of my father’s friends “borrowed” the ensign and presented it to my father at one of the unit’s reunions.

The other items were in a box with the note that they were found in a barracks occupied by US troops in the final days of WWII, between April 6 & 25, 1945."

 

...and so it goes.....

 

 

 

Mark sends

 

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This World War I era streamer is about 5 feet long when straight....

The phrase is from the second verse of the song "Die Wacht am Rhein" (The Watch on the Rhine)...

 

Mark sends

 

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..I forgot, they also kept a German dogtag, a Hitler Youth Ausweis, and a tropical pattern German Army belt buckle with web tab.

 

Mark sends

Following are some of the artifacts from a man who served in the 80th Chemical Company (Smoke Generator). On D-Day, they were tasked with putting their smoke generators on unnamed local boats and generating smoke to obscure men, boats & equipment at Utah Beach. I got an email before he mailed the package telling me his kids had "gotten involved in the donation and took most of what I was sending you"....here's what I did NOT get:

 

2 metal Army visor hat eagles and one cockade

EKII 1939 spange

Russian Front Medal

Wound Badger in Black

General Assault Badger

Close Combat Clasp in Bronze

2 tinnies

 

Still, there's some neat items. Here is a car pennant from the VARTA factory. VARTA (Vertrieb, Aufladung, Reparatur Transportabler Akkumulatoren; Distribution, charging, repair of transportable accumulators) supplied the German armed forces (especially U-Boats and the Luftwaffe) with these parts and were a heavy user of slave labor, so I'll be adding this to our Holocaust case. They were founded in 1904 and are still in business.

 

 

Mark sends

 

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Here's his write-up on the National WWII Memorial Book of Remembrances:

 

 

Iwan John Kostynick

 

JULY 8, 1942 INDUCTED, 80TH CHEMICAL SMOKE GENERATING COMPANY, FORT MCCLELLAN AND CAMP SIBERT, ALABAMA. DECEMBER 6, 1943 BOARDED SHIP FOR EUROPE. DECEMBER 15, 1943 LANDED IN GREENOCK, SCOTLAND. JUNE AND JULY 1944, LOADED THE SMOKE GENERATORS ON BARGES AND SMOKE-OBSCURED ENGLISH CHANNEL PRIOR TO NORMANDY INVASION. DECEMBER 1944, PARTICIPATED IN BATTLE OF THE BULGE. MARCH 1945, SMOKE-OBSCURED 4 BRIDGES ON RHINE RIVER. APRIL 1945, SET UP REPATRIATED ALLIED MILITARY PERSONNEL (RAMP) CAMPS IN WETZLAR AND ERFURT, GERMANY. JUNE 10, 1945 CHATEAU THIERRY, FRANCE, 80TH CHEMICAL SMOKE GENERATING COMPANY DISBANDED. DECEMBER 28, 1942 PROMOTED TO CORPORAL. FEBRUARY 15, 1943 PROMOTED TO SERGEANT. RETURNED TO U.S. OCTOBER 19, 1945. DISCHARGED OCTOBER 25, 1945; 3 YEARS, 3 MONTHS AND 3 DAYS ACTIVE DUTY.

 

Mark sends

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Here are some knots...the left one is a German bayonet knot..the other two look like they went on a sword and the other on a bayonet. The colors could be Italian or Hungarian maybe??

The yellow knots have the "Hungarian Crown", so maybe they pre-date WWII.

 

 

Mark sends

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