Bugme Posted March 20, 2009 Share #1 Posted March 20, 2009 I finally have everything unpacked and displayed for this grouping I picked up at the SOS. This is the grouping of Captain Fred W. Brandt of the 82nd AB Artillery. First up I'll show you the display as it sits in my war room. You'll see his AAF jacket with belt, gloves, Musset bag and his Captains marked Hawley liner. At the base is his helmet and cap. Behind that is his tailored dress uniform which I'll comment on as I go along. On the wall is a case with many of the items that came with it. Including his cased Purple Heart and and ugly piece of shrapnel. As time permits I'll add to this thread. I have barely started the research on this grouping so, I have every little to add like: why there is a 17th AB patch with this group(Did he jump in Varsity?). Also, I added the 82 AB Booklet in the case just to balance out the display. It was not with the grouping when I got it. Any help or comments would be appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugme Posted March 20, 2009 Author Share #2 Posted March 20, 2009 Next is a picture of the helmet that came with this grouping. The Hawley is a first pattern. The captains bars had been painted over with what looked like silver model paint. I have been able to remove about 80% of the silver showing the original while captains bars. Anyone who knows how to remove the rest from the fabric liner without damaging it, I'm open to suggestions! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugme Posted March 20, 2009 Author Share #3 Posted March 20, 2009 The inside of the Hawley. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugme Posted March 20, 2009 Author Share #4 Posted March 20, 2009 Interestingly, it appears by the dog tags that Captain Brandt, started off as an enlisted man and worked his way up to Captain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugme Posted March 20, 2009 Author Share #5 Posted March 20, 2009 His enlisted tag Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugme Posted March 20, 2009 Author Share #6 Posted March 20, 2009 The miscellaneous items that I mentioned above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugme Posted March 20, 2009 Author Share #7 Posted March 20, 2009 His cased & numbered Purple Heart. #290755 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugme Posted March 20, 2009 Author Share #8 Posted March 20, 2009 And one very scary looking piece of shrapnel! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugme Posted March 20, 2009 Author Share #9 Posted March 20, 2009 Close-up of his field jacket Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugme Posted March 20, 2009 Author Share #10 Posted March 20, 2009 Officers custom tailered jacket. I'm assuming this was done in England. Inside is dated Phil. Quartermaster 1942 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugme Posted March 20, 2009 Author Share #11 Posted March 20, 2009 Captain Brandt's decorations had been removed from his uniform and were just in a bag when I got them. I have tried to find the old pin holes so as to reattach them in their proper order on the uniform. Well, that's it for now, I'll post some cloe-up photo's later as time allows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
101combatvet Posted March 20, 2009 Share #12 Posted March 20, 2009 Very nice..... I don't see him on any of the rosters yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bellumbill Posted March 20, 2009 Share #13 Posted March 20, 2009 I finally have everything unpacked and displayed for this grouping I picked up at the SOS. This is the grouping of Captain Fred W. Brandt of the 82nd AB Artillery. First up I'll show you the display as it sits in my war room. You'll see his AAF jacket with belt, gloves, Musset bag and his Captains marked Hawley liner. At the base is his helmet and cap. Behind that is his tailored dress uniform which I'll comment on as I go along. On the wall is a case with many of the items that came with it. Including his cased Purple Heart and and ugly piece of shrapnel. As time permits I'll add to this thread. I have barely started the research on this grouping so, I have every little to add like: why there is a 17th AB patch with this group(Did he jump in Varsity?). Also, I added the 82 AB Booklet in the case just to balance out the display. It was not with the grouping when I got it. Any help or comments would be appreciated! FYI - At the end of the war the 17th Airborne was slated to be deactivated whereas the 82nd was to peform garrison duties in Berlin. In order to facilitate the rotation home of 82nd soldiers who had accumulated the sufficient points required they were transfered to the 17th and then shipped home with that division and thence it was deactivated. The vacant billets in the 82nd were filled with 17th soldiers. Cpt. Brandt could either have been a member of the 82nd, tranferred to the 17th to ship home or he could have been in the 17th and been transferred to the 82nd after the war was over. That would explain the presence of the 17th patch I believe. Hope this info. helps - Nice grouping, thanks for sharing - Bill K. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugme Posted March 20, 2009 Author Share #14 Posted March 20, 2009 FYI - At the end of the war the 17th Airborne was slated to be deactivated whereas the 82nd was to peform garrison duties in Berlin. In order to facilitate the rotation home of 82nd soldiers who had accumulated the sufficient points required they were transfered to the 17th and then shipped home with that division and thence it was deactivated. The vacant billets in the 82nd were filled with 17th soldiers. Cpt. Brandt could either have been a member of the 82nd, tranferred to the 17th to ship home or he could have been in the 17th and been transferred to the 82nd after the war was over. That would explain the presence of the 17th patch I believe. Hope this info. helps - Nice grouping, thanks for sharing - Bill K. Thanks Bill, I did not know this information so, YES, it helps! I really appreciate it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doyler Posted March 20, 2009 Share #15 Posted March 20, 2009 Great group Scott. I agree on the 17th patch.A great number of the 17th went to the 82nd.Since the 17th had been a fairly young division in WW2 they had a high number of low point men. One local man who was wounded at varsity was later assigned to the 508th of the 82nd after recuperating from his wound.He was part of the 82nds honor guard. I also have one group where the man was with the 507th/82nd Abn.He missed Normandy because of an injury.Everyone in his stick was killed except his best friend.He later was KIA in Belgium before he got back to his unit.He was then part of the 17th in Belgium as the remains of the unit had been absorbed into the 17th. RON RON Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rattle Posted March 20, 2009 Share #16 Posted March 20, 2009 Wow Scott what a great and nice looking historic group. Regards, Stephan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMPERIAL QUEST Posted March 20, 2009 Share #17 Posted March 20, 2009 Great Scott!!! (pun intended) This is superb grouping. With all of your recent pick-ups, I know you are a very happy man...so what is the next "fix" going to be??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdphll Posted March 20, 2009 Share #18 Posted March 20, 2009 Well worth the wait... superb pick up. I will never miss an SOS again! LOL Was it on a table or was it a under the table find? Wade Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seanmc1114 Posted March 20, 2009 Share #19 Posted March 20, 2009 Very nice group. You should have enough information from his dogtags to get his information from the National Personnel Records Center. He must have been in an infantry unit earlier because of his Combat Infantry Badge. Also, his combination of ribbons and badges is a little odd but nothing wrong there. Instead of placing his arrowhead device on his European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign ribbon, he has it on his jump wings. It's a little unusual that he has two stars on his jump wings for combat assaults but only two campaign stars on his ETO ribbon. Units of the 82nd participated in four combat jumps during WWII (Sicily, Salerno, Normandy & Holland) but even if he only went into combat from Normandy on, unless he was evacuated for wounds, he would have had campaign credit for Normandy, Rhineland (Operation Market-Garden), Ardennes-Alsace (Battle Of The Bulge) and Central Europe (Germany). Does the dress jacket have any overseas bars on the lower left sleeve? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Croix de Guerre Posted March 20, 2009 Share #20 Posted March 20, 2009 Scott, Killer grouping! I love the way you have in displayed in your war room! Almost makes me want to start collecting WWII! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMPERIAL QUEST Posted March 20, 2009 Share #21 Posted March 20, 2009 Scott, Killer grouping! I love the way you have in displayed in your war room! Almost makes me want to start collecting WWII! Traitor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugme Posted March 20, 2009 Author Share #22 Posted March 20, 2009 I agree on the 17th patch.A great number of the 17th went to the 82nd.Since the 17th had been a fairly young division in WW2 they had a high number of low point men. Thank Ron! One way or the other the 17th was involved. Since the 17th patch is not on the uniform and the 82nd patch is on the left sleeve of both uniforms, I'm inclined to think that he was 82nd and rotated out through the 17th but, I'm only guessing right now. Like I said, I've got a lot of research to do. Wow Scott what a great and nice looking historic group. Regards, Stephan Thanks Stephan, I like the way it looks too. I'm hoping on being able to gather more information on him soon. Check back also, I've got more to post from this grouping, I'm not done yet. Great Scott!!! (pun intended) This is superb grouping. With all of your recent pick-ups, I know you are a very happy man...so what is the next "fix" going to be??? I thought I was pretty great myself but, I appreciate you confirming and acknowledging this! I am very happy with my collection right now but as with any junkie, I'm only as good as my last fix. Of course, with my recent depletion of my assets, I may have to dry out for a while! Well worth the wait... superb pick up. I will never miss an SOS again! LOL Was it on a table or was it a under the table find? Wade I thought you'd like it! This one was on the table but, spread out. If it had not been for me talking with the sellers wife about her Wisconsin connection, I may not have ever realized what was all sitting right in front of me. The seller was great to work with and is also a forum member here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugme Posted March 20, 2009 Author Share #23 Posted March 20, 2009 Very nice group. You should have enough information from his dogtags to get his information from the National Personnel Records Center. He must have been in an infantry unit earlier because of his Combat Infantry Badge. Also, his combination of ribbons and badges is a little odd but nothing wrong there. Instead of placing his arrowhead device on his European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign ribbon, he has it on his jump wings. It's a little unusual that he has two stars on his jump wings for combat assaults but only two campaign stars on his ETO ribbon. Units of the 82nd participated in four combat jumps during WWII (Sicily, Salerno, Normandy & Holland) but even if he only went into combat from Normandy on, unless he was evacuated for wounds, he would have had campaign credit for Normandy, Rhineland (Operation Market-Garden), Ardennes-Alsace (Battle Of The Bulge) and Central Europe (Germany). Does the dress jacket have any overseas bars on the lower left sleeve? As I mentioned before, I've just started the research but, those dog tags really help provide a good head start! As for the CIB and his Infantry days, this is going to be surprising but, I don't even have the entire grouping in my possession. A portion of Brandt's items are in the hands of a collector in Belgium. I am trying to make contact with this collector through another forum member to see if he would part with it and I could put this whole thing back together. I do have photo's of that grouping that I'll post later. In it is a blue airborne flash, medals, pictures, CIB and some of his enlisted mans items. I'm speculating a transfer happened after his move up in rank. I can't account for the campaign stars but, he did receive a Purple Heart which could have kept him out of these actions. I'll look at the pictures from the other grouping when I get home tonight. It could be that the ribbon bar from that grouping shows more. The left sleeve has either three or four overseas bars, I'm not at home right now so, I'm going from memory... which has not been very reliable in recent years. Scott, Killer grouping! I love the way you have in displayed in your war room! Almost makes me want to start collecting WWII! Thanks Tom! I think it's OK for you to incorporate WWII into your collection. I've done it and it works just fine! Don't worry what some bullies say about being a traitor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMPERIAL QUEST Posted March 20, 2009 Share #24 Posted March 20, 2009 Thanks Tom! I think it's OK for you to incorporate WWII into your collection. I've done it and it works just fine! Don't worry what some bullies say about being a traitor. Wow...two lost friends with one insult...I'm better at being a bully than I thought. Go ahead Tom, collect WWII...more WWI aviation stuff for me! Seriously Scott, I hope you can get the rest of the items. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S1991 Posted March 20, 2009 Share #25 Posted March 20, 2009 One simple word for this grouping: WOW Thanks for sharing ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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