Just testing to see if I can post a photo under the newer system;after a long absence, M. Bando

Hello to all my long-lost SS uniform forum friends. It has been almost a year since I picked up a W-SS item directly from a vet, so I haven't been posting here. Last thing I got in March 2005, was a unmarked nickel silver SS EM belt buckle. That came from a US Air Corps vet, and it looks so questionable that if I saw it on a dealer's table, I wouldn't buy it.
Anyhow last week I purchased a batch of WW2 souvenirs from a veteran of Company 'L' 16th Inf Rgt Ist Inf Division. This man arrived as a late June 44 replacement for guys hit in the Omaha Beach landings. He survived the war from St Lo breakthrough to Czech in 1945. The only SS souvenir he had was this metallic-wired runic tab, which he cut off a fallen SS trooper in the Bulge. Since he was in the Malmedy sector, the victim likely belonged to LAH or possibly the 12th SS Pz Div.
The way the embroidery shows on the reverse side is unusual. In recent months, I think Bill Shea had a similar specimen for sale and I had never seen one with a reverse like that before. Now, a short time later, I've acquired one from a vet. I guess this image leaves a lot to be desired, but around the outer reverse corners, you can see the usual glue-impregnated burlap.

Here's the vet holding the piece-Alfred Morfee, L/16th Inf Rgt, Big Red One.

Love the history behind the piece! Could you please post a better picture of the back of the tab. Thanks and welcome back to the forum.

Mark , your first photo is only 3kb...You can go up to 75kb here now,,go for it. , G.

There's still original WW2 stuff out there in the woodwork-last week down in FL, I purchased stuff from 2 WW2 vets and the daughter and widow of 2 others. Among other things, I bought:
1 SA dagger with hangers and RZM blade
1 Mauser Hsc pistol with holster and spare clip
1 Simpson/Suhl Luger with holster and spare clip(unfortunately mismatched numbers)
1 chamber dated 1940 Mauser rifle, all matching
1 WW1 Mauser rifle
1 WW2 Mauser bayonet-exc condition but numbers on blade and scabbard mismatched
1 Mauser ammo pouch (3 pocket type)
1 mint German canteen with metal cup and straps
1 wooden German equip box
2 Luftwaffe belts with black steel buckles
1 additional German belt no buckle
asstd German medals/badges, to include:
1 IC 1st class
1 War Merit Cross 1st cl w/swords
1 silver wound badge
4 black wound badges
1 minesweeper badge
1 inf assault badge
1 general assault badge
1 bronze SA sports badge
1 nazi flag
1 nazi party pennant
1 HJ armband
from his neighbor, I bought:
a cased War Merit Cross 1st Kl without swords
an AH formal pattern butter knife
a named Purple Heart, which was awarded posthumously to his brother-in-law KIA enroute to Cherbourg in June 44 with the 79th Inf div
later in the week, I bought a bunch of WW2 101st Airborne stuff, including original jump wings, a jump school graduation certificate from 1942, a trooper's dogtags, 3 rare DIs from the 377th Parachute Field Artillery Bn, 8 original eagle shoulder patches, 3 Airborne cap patches, an Epic of the 101st Airborne book, and more.
The stuff is still out there-keep beating the bushes and you'll find it.

I'll try to post a larger view of the reverse of the tab now...I'm accustomed to the larger images being bounced-back because they are too large-MB

OK-now if this one works, you'll have a larger view of the obverse as well...

Nice Tab, these are interesting variations.

NICE AND HONEST TAB.I LIKE IT CONCRAT

Nice tab and with a fantastic story. Also nice to see that this version did exist in more than one case. I belive John M Donovan used to have one tab sewn all the way through.

Also interesting to see the wear of an NCO tab that late in the war.

It looks, if you dont count the reverse, a bit like my salty NCO tab.

Congrats,

Felix

quote:

Originally posted by Felix:
Also interesting to see the wear of an NCO tab that late in the war.

Of course it could also be an officer's tab with the bullion piping removed. The practice of front line officers wearing tabs without piping on their field uniforms is well documented in period photos.

Brad

Bwanek; Yes thats also possible. There is no mentioning of an SS officer though.

Cheers,
Felix

If I might suggest a possibility from US patches and insignia. Sometimes cotton or wool embroidered variations of insignia were upgraded and embroidered over in bullion. The clues to it might be the small material backing piece and its lack of officers piping. That is how the US patches were done, in this same manner. Just an alternative possibility I thought might be worth mentioning. Very nice tab by the way.

Richard

Very nice tabs, M. Bando and Felix.I was wondering about the validity of that type of embroidery myself recently and this answered my question.

Here's the (late war?) nickel silver buckle with no markings, which I alluded to earlier on this thread. It's a vet pickup from a Air Corps vet-anyone out there have one like it, with no RZM or M/1 numbers?

Mark,
Can you post a shot of the revserse? As they say "the devil is in the details" and there is at least one member here who has made the study of SS buckles a science and will surely provide some infomation.

Mark,

Nice to see you back...I had wondered what you had been up to for I had not seen you anywhere in a while.

regards,
Fran

Here's the reverse of the unmarked nickel silver SS EM belt buckle, for what it's worth-MB

>and there is at least one member here who has made the study of SS buckles a science and will surely provide some infomation.<

Jerry refers to Jean-Paul, moderator of the Belts and Buckles Forum (and of the SS belt buckles Yahoo Group.)

Mark - very interesting and scholarly comments re the 101st AB by you on the History Channel - well Done!

quote:

Mark - very interesting and scholarly comments re the 101st AB by you on the History Channel - well Done!

Mark, when was this...I missed this show?

Fran and All-THC aired a 2 hour documentary entitled 'Brothers in Arms-The Untold Story of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment in Normandy'. The show aired on 18 December, 2005, 29 December, 2005, and recently this past Saturday and Sunday. Foglight Productions, which made the Doc. for THC, interviewed me on video for 3 hours at my home back in October. Of that, about 2.5 minutes made it onto the screen in the 2 hour finished product, but I did appear about 30 times for 5 seconds each time, as a talking head. No doubt the program will air again, but I have no idea when. You can watch listings for THC or order the program on DVD for about $30- from The History Channel website. The title in their catalog is 'Brothers In Arms-The Road to Hill 30.' This was produced in conjunction with Gearbox Toys in Texas, who made the video game of the same name. In the program, computer graphics were used to illustrate the actual combat and tactical scenarios, and this combined with vintage photos, vintage movie footage, cuts of veterans being interviewed and talking heads like myself, were all woven into an interesting and fast-paced presentation, which I think would hold the interest of even those who are not normally history fans.

quote:

Originally posted by M. Bando:
Fran and All-THC aired a 2 hour documentary entitled 'Brothers in Arms-The Untold Story of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment in Normandy'. The show aired on 18 December, 2005, 29 December, 2005, and recently this past Saturday and Sunday. Foglight Productions, which made the Doc. for THC, interviewed me on video for 3 hours at my home back in October. Of that, about 2.5 minutes made it onto the screen in the 2 hour finished product, but I did appear about 30 times for 5 seconds each time, as a talking head. No doubt the program will air again, but I have no idea when. You can watch listings for THC or order the program on DVD for about $30- from The History Channel website. The title in their catalog is 'Brothers In Arms-The Road to Hill 30.' This was produced in conjunction with Gearbox Toys in Texas, who made the video game of the same name. In the program, computer graphics were used to illustrate the actual combat and tactical scenarios, and this combined with vintage photos, vintage movie footage, cuts of veterans being interviewed and talking heads like myself, were all woven into an interesting and fast-paced presentation, which I think would hold the interest of even those who are not normally history fans.

Now we can say "we knew you before you were famous"...

Does that make your signature on the books I got from you worth anymore...I can call my insurance man if need be?

Hi Mark:

Nothing wrong with that buckle!!! It is not late war but one of the earliest production pieces most likely made by a producer other than Overhoff and Cie...that is why it is not marked. Overhoff and Cie had the rights to make the early pieces hence they proudly marked the pieces with the company name followed by "Ges. Gesch." while other companies (as yet is it not known what other companies, but probably Assmann is one) left the buckles blank. Then as the SS greatly expanded in size other companies also recieved contracts to produce the pieces and put on their own SS/RZM codes/contrac numbers and even maker's markings. At any rate your piece is a fine early nickel example made during the earliest days of the Third Reich Era.

John

Thanks very much for the authoritative info John T.
Shows how much I know about buckles-here I assumed it was late-war because of the lack of markings, instead of the opposite. And I still know I would've been afraid of it, if I saw it offered for sale.
Thanks to your info, I will cherish it for what it actually is. Regards, Mark B.

Mark,

I am a real fan of your collection as it is much more than a German piece, it is the German piece, plus the name and unit of the veteran that brought it home and generally how the individual acquired it...NICE!

I agree with Fran, it is too bad that more collectors didn't have your foresight, to document the souvanirs. So many of these great stories from vets were lost, and now the few veterans that I do run into have long forgotten where they aquired these things. Every once in a while, I do still get a "I tore that flag down from the Berlin police station" or my latest dagger was "I traded a pound of coffee for that...". The saddest part is while their kids have heard the war stories hundreds of times most of them never listened...

quote:

Originally posted by Mr. Jerry:
The saddest part is while their kids have heard the war stories hundreds of times most of them never listened...

I could not agree more.
I remember hearing my father's stories countless times as a kid and just rolling my eyes when he would break into one of the tales from "back when".

He has been gone about 15 years now...I sure wish I could hear the stories now.