Brad Simpson just wrote me;

The Vet that brought it back
 

I took a picture of my 88 year old father the other day and had it superimposed over another photo of him at the mess hall during WW2. He is holding the mint 1939 Police Banner he brought back of which the story of its capture is in Ed Tinkers first book. He flew 64 P47 fighter missions over Italy and Germany and earned the DFC.
Picture 2 is of him entering Germany with his Colt .45 at the ready. He regrets to this day he did not bring the Colt back.
Picture 3 is the footlocker the Luger came back in.
Picture 4 is the Luger.

Tom

Hey Tom, these extra pictures would be good for Vol III (already up to page 54), send them to my email, weimar_lugers@verizon.net if you'd like me to add them! Would make a nice one page spread :)

And anyone else that has guns with provenance, send me your story's, doesn't have to be a family member or a luger :D

Ed

What a beautiful Luger! Befitting a grand old hero like your dad!

man if your interested I have a story that I learned two years after my step grandfather died. He was apparently in the navy and part of the engineering detail in the Phillipines and brought back some native people daggers...

slowly working on volume four!

:)

ed

Got my Damn Gun Back!
 

My father-in-law and I were talking about a new gun I purchased. He said "you want to see my gun?". "Sure" I said. I had no idea he owned any guns as he didn't hunt or shoot.

He leaves and comes back with a S/42 1939 Luger. He brought the gun back from WW2 where he fought in the 104th Infantry.

He said they killed a german officer and he found the gun on the dead German. When he told his superior what he had, the officer pulled rank and made him give the gun to him. A few days later they were standing side by side when a sniper killed his officer. Dad said, "I got my damn gun back".

Welcome to the forum :)

I am slowly collecting stories for vol IV

If interested, would need hi-rez pictures and a statement or other collaborating info from your FIL :)

We lost Dad earlier this year. He wrote the story up and it is in a book on the 104th. My wife is okay with giving the information to you. I can get a good photo as well. I thought it was a pretty good story.

Japanese Grenade
 

Well...this story is about a Japanese Grenade.....and a mean little kid.......when I was about 5 years old.....was down the street at a neighbors house when their son came home from WW2.....he was a Marine and had been on Iwo Jima........after the dust had settled a bit......he reached in his duffle bag..and gave me the Grenade....it was a small one...and he unscrewed it in front of my mother to allay her fears...he had dumped the powder..had no charge left in it at all.completely safe...the top had a small metal cover with a spring held in place by the usual grenade pin......so.....I took my "treasure" and ran home...coming in the living room...my 11 year old brother was on the couch eating a bowl of cereal....asked me what I had.....so excitedly I told him...."Mr Fryars son who is a Marine just came home from Iwo Jima and gave me this neat Japanese grenade....then.....I pulled the pin...and tossed it in his lap.....I can still see his face to this day and how he threw the cereal bowl straight up and took off running.........Geezzz....I wuz a mean widdle kid :( (my youngest son has it now)

Hansfisher, I guess you and I were a lot alike. In my military days I was in ordinance disposal with the 101st Abn. in KY. and had access to just about anything I wanted. I picked up a dummy frag grenade, painted it OD, plugged the hole in the bottom, and screwed in a live fuse. My buddy's desk just happened to be end to end with mine. As I was sitting at my desk one afternoon pretending to play with the grenade, I could see that he was watching me out of the corner of his eye as he was catching up on some paper work. One of his desk drawers, the one closest to my desk was open and I just couldn't resist, pretending to fumble around with the grenade, I "accidentaly" pulled the pin and nerviously said "Oh s--t" and dropped it into his desk drawer. He came up over the top of that desk cracking both knees on the edge, landed on all fours, and craweled out the door located a few feet away so fast I think he may have left a vapour trail behind him! I laughed so hard the tears were rolling down my cheeks, but needless to say he didn't see the humor in it. Afterward I did feel just a little bad since he banged his knees so hard getting out of there. :rolleyes: