GI's recovering German helmets.

[Screamingeagles101]

 

why would these US paratroopers be recovering German headgear ? Looks a bit much just for a souvenir.

They look like m38 helmets to me ?

 

 

 

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[sgtdorango]

They probably kept a few for themselves and traded/sold the others to other soldiers or rear echelon etc is my bet.....i would have kept them all to myself!!....wirth a small fortune today!....mike

[Dan Niles]

I think a lot of this was done just to show what they had accomplished as opposed to actually looking for souvenirs. A pic to send back home for family and friends. There was piles of this stuff so it was pretty easy to grab a few items for a posed pic. Front line soldiers for the most part had no desire to carry anything bulky or heavy, I feel that most larger, bulkier, souvenirs were sent back post VE-Day by occupational troops and especially officers, rear echelon, troops and such because of their access to mail services and duties that would allow them to keep items such as these. Many capture papers I've seen are dated post war. My Dad was an infantryman with the 36th and I know he told me that the last thing you wanted to do is carry any more gear than you already had. Then there was the threat of being captured with it and losing your life over a souvenir. My uncle who served as a cook in the pacific theater on the other hand brought many things back due to trading with infantrymen and had a place to store them and send them home. He also was in service after the Japanese surrender, where my dad was wounded and sent home in late 1944. Dad brought back just a handful of small items. It is great these guys took the time to take these pictures but I think most of them ended up back in the pile and these guys went on to their next assignment, at least in regards to the boys on the front lines.

[Welshman]

You can't beat the battlefield pick-ups

[dan_the_hun84]

I can't remember which book of his it was in, but Bill Maudlin once wrote "German helmets are flooding the market, and aren't worth picking up".

[Baron3-6]

This is likely Normandy by the looks of the uniforms....you go back to the beach eventually and trade the Nazi stuff to the Navy / Merchant Marine guy who can't get Nazi stuff.....but he can get booze because he's goes to the USA every few months.....it was an endless cycle in the ETO and PTO. I have friend who as a tanker carried a Nazi-marked .32 Auto in combat in the Philippines.....traded for booze to a troop ship sailor, which in turn he had traded a Japanese rifle to another sailor for the booze....cycle repeat.

[David D]

I read in Mark Bandos book 101st airborne screaming eagles at Normandy these men were picking them up to trade with the Navy. But im not sure if it was made up for the book or it is true.

 

-Dave

[gomorgan]

Lot of trading went on, good friend with Special Engineer Rgt. yes D-Day vet, they stayed area of beach (Omaha) for some time clearings mines and ordinance. CO told him to destroy a pile of 98 mausers, so he had a tank run over them and threw them in a drainage ditch, next day sailor asked for a rifle for a quart of whiskey. Red advised never forgave the CO for it.

[Rakkasan187]

You can have the helmets, I'll take the two machine guns...

 

Leigh

[268th C.A.]

yeah I'll take a few of those Krault para helmet's. At WW2 prices. Ha Ha ! David

[BROBS]

Lot of trading went on, good friend with Special Engineer Rgt. yes D-Day vet, they stayed area of beach (Omaha) for some time clearings mines and ordinance. CO told him to destroy a pile of 98 mausers, so he had a tank run over them and threw them in a drainage ditch, next day sailor asked for a rifle for a quart of whiskey. Red advised never forgave the CO for it.

Great story.. was great to meet Red.

 

My Grandfather was in the Seabees in the PTO... he didn't even want to keep his own stuff when he got out. He gave most of it away and got on the first train home. I do have a few grizzly photos of islanders taking souvenirs... like the native of Bougainville holding the removed head of a Japanese soldier and seeming to be quite happy about it. (I'm sure you guys have seen the photo.. I'm assuming my grandpa got a copy either in trade or purchased)

 

-Brian

[cavscout6b]

Occasionally, if time & inclination permits, an area would be "policed" after an engagement. Not only for souvenirs, but for sanitation & intelligence purposes as well. (Sometimes a wealth of information can be gained from the smallest detail.)

[gwb123]

Occasionally, if time & inclination permits, an area would be "policed" after an engagement. Not only for souvenirs, but for sanitation & intelligence purposes as well. (Sometimes a wealth of information can be gained from the smallest detail.)

 

That was my thought when looking at this photo, especially with the number of helmets they are carrying and the MG's in the foreground. Looks to be more than souvenir hunting.

[pmanton]

I used to mow lawns for German helmets. That was late 40s early 50s.

 

Paul

Salome, AZ

[268th C.A.]

Yeah, my Dad wanted nothing of the Japanese souvenir's, he said all he wanted was his behind to come home. He was not a souvenir hunter, I have more than he ever picked up. He would laugh at me, what do you have now? and how much did you give for that? He would shake his head laughing. Dads service 1940-45. Guadalcanal, New guinea. Philippine's. When Dad came home he burned his uniforms, (sad) He never got his medals until I wrote for them with his signature in the 70's. There now on my wall in a shadow box. he gave them to me five minutes after he looked at hem, he told me they mean more to you son than me. Keep them for me. Thanks Dad! I miss you. David

[RANDALL 1953]

My Father was a Sgt. in a Combat Engineer Battalion. He told me the tank guys would line up German helmets and run over rows of them with their tanks just for fun. Probably some of those $$$$ SS helmets were in there as well.

[Welshman]

Yeah, my Dad wanted nothing of the Japanese souvenir's, he said all he wanted was his behind to come home. He was not a souvenir hunter, I have more than he ever picked up. He would laugh at me, what do you have now? and how much did you give for that? He would shake his head laughing. Dads service 1940-45. Guadalcanal, New guinea. Philippine's. When Dad came home he burned his uniforms, (sad) He never got his medals until I wrote for them with his signature in the 70's. There now on my wall in a shadow box. he gave them to me five minutes after he looked at hem, he told me they mean more to you son than me. Keep them for me. Thanks Dad! I miss you. David

 

Hi David

 

Like you, I don't know what my Dad would thought of me now, and my collecting, he never fetched any thing home with him after WW2, didn't even receive all medals he was entitled to, and never was interested in the ones he did receive, I put in for them, and had them in 2005, to late for him to see them, he had passed away 20 years before, like you, I still miss him.

 

David

[Ed Fedory]

My Dad was with the 73rd BW on Saipan (497th BG/871st BS)...Dad said he would go into caves looking for souvenirs, but the pickings were pretty slim by that time...said the Marines got all the good stuff. There would always be a slight pause after that comment before he added: "But they sure as hell earned it!"

[fstop61]

Great thread!

[BEAST]

For period commentary, turn to Bill Mauldin:

 

 

[willysmb44]

I remember a vet telling me at an airshow eons ago about a Brit paratrooper he ran into during the Market Garden op.

He swore the Brit was wearing a German para helmet because he'd lost his issued one somewhere, and said it wasn't worth the grief to admit he didn't have it anymore, so he worked on a German one and cut some camo fabric over the top of it. The vet said nobody had noticed, he was talking with the Brit because he encountered so few of them in the field.

I believe him, it's just screwey enough for a solider to have done that. Imagine finding that pot today, huh?

[Costa]

an uncle who was in the 45th as a medic in a field hospital told me years ago that we had no time to pick up and carry with us any thing. and as stated--- if you were caught with it by germans you were dead.

[38Driver]

Seems like Mr. Bando in his book got the information on the photo from one of the guys. They were using them to trade for food etc with the Navy or rear echelon guys.

 

Soldiers did send things home in the mail including souvenirs. Also keep in mind that when the war came to an end the guys grabbed lots of German bits to bring home.

 

William Manchester in his book " Goodbye Darkness" talks about the death of a rear echelon souvenir hunter who in his quest to get a Japanese flag, got lost and shot. Manchester, wounded himself carried the GI back to an aide station but the guy died. He is fairly clear in his disgust at the soldier for losing his life over a bit of cloth. Manchester also relates how he sent a Japanese helmet and some other things home in a box. To fill it out he stuffed some wartime cigarettes in of a brand never heard from since. The family didn't mention the souvenirs but thanked him for the cigarettes.

[Jumpin Jack]

The vast majority of the helmets being carried appear to be Paratroop. Jack

[willysmb44]

I know WW2 vets over the years have commented on how much stuf flike that is worth today. More than once, I've heard a vet tell me, "If I'd only known what these would have bene worth, i could have easily put my grandkids through college with all the stuff that was just lying around..."