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SS items from an 14th Armored Division soldier


JimD
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These items surfaced directly from the soldier's family earlier this year. I would never have otherwise bought the

visor cap since it is a private purchase item and, of course, it is a "high risk" investment. However,

since it came directly from the family and the veteran's son kindly executed a nice letter of provenance,

I felt confident enough to acquire it.

 

Out of respect to the family I will not name the veteran who brought these items back. He served from

November of 1942 till January 1946 and was credited with the Rhineland and Central Europe Campaigns.

He passed away in 2009. The 14th Armored entered combat in November 1944 and liberated some 200,000

allied prisoners of war. The 14th also also liberated a few sub-camps of Dachau and some other forced-labor

camps holding Jewish, Polish and Soviet prisoners.

 

The Officer's visor cap is a private-purchase example and is named to "F. Wimmer". A little research

uncovered a possible candidate for ownership in a Dr. Friedrich Wimmer (1897-1965) who was an

SS Brigade-Fuhrer and served as General Commissioner for Administration and Justice in

occupied-Dutch territories 1940-1945. He was an SS Sturmbahnfuhrer in 1938 which seems

to be the rank written on the cap's interior. I located a transcript of his testimony as a witness in a

Nuremberg trial proceeding 13 June 1945. He was not a defendant.

 

The chained M36 Officer's dagger cannot be traced to anyone. The soldier who brought these items

home also "liberated" an army visor, numerous bayonets, an army pith helmet, some assorted

pistols and a target rifle. Since this cap and dagger were the only two SS items in his haul perhaps they

were owned by the same SS officer but that will always remain a mystery. The dagger is not maker marked,

which is correct for M36 SS daggers. It appears our armored vet decided to brush up the metal fittings

on the scabbard at one point and they have been cleaned of any patina. Fortunately the chained hanger

was spared this cleaning and is nicely preserved.

 

Our veteran:

post-2661-0-91653100-1553808464.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

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USCapturephotos

Wow! Those are some interesting bringbacks. As always it is so good to see the GI info has been preserved with these pieces.

Paul

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As always it is so good to see the GI info has been preserved with these pieces.

Couldn't agree more! Fantastic items made even better with solid provenance! Congrats

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Kurt Barickman

Wow, Allgemeine SS officer visor and a chained SS. It doesn´t much better than that!

 

Kurt

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Thank you Mike. That photo is great.

I am not certain the "F. Wimmer" who owned the cap is Friedrich Wimmer but, as of now, I have no other candidates.

Jim

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Very nice. Please also add this to our up and coming World Militaria Forum. We are trying to build up the content and this would be an excellent edition.

 

The maker stamp on the hat indicates it came from a shop in Zweibrucken.

 

That is not far from where I was stationed, and we visited the airbase there a couple of times.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zweibr%C3%BCcken_Air_Base

 

It was notable for having been part of the Siegfried Line. Back in the 1980's you see the remains of demolished bunkers along the hillside around the base.

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Thank you Gil. I appreciate the information.

I will post this on the WMF as well but I kinda feel sheepish sometimes posting the same items on two forums at once.

But your point about building content on the WMF is well taken.

Jim

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