Luger was ultimate war trophy

[Bob Egan]

Another sad story, which I seem to be full of lately. My cousin Harold was combat infantry and a busy souvinier collector besides.I was old enough toward the end of the war to be interested in what he sent home,my aunt had a steamer trunk full of stuff.I mainly remember a signal light which was red and green like a traffic light, and a platnium watch which he removed from a German Colonel after killing him,and a bunch of Lugers and P38's> I know he ;mailed the stuff home, when we saw my aunt the first question was,what did Harold send since we saw you?Well he stayed in the Army long enough to see action in Korea and Viet Nam and I did not see him again until about 1970 and when asked what became of his WW2 stuff he told me that his sister married a drunk and everything was traded at the local bar for booze, all he found was a pull thru cleaner for a Mauser rifle! So even front line soldiers could, apparently, mail stuff home, but I have no idea how he did it.