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Another post today reminded me of a question that has been bothering me for years.
Over and over I've heard guys say they have or brought home the rifle or pistol they were issued in WWII or Korea. Did they just stick it in their duffle bag and say they lost it and no one cared? Was it instead a battlefield pickup they stashed away?
How'd they do that? I'd still be serving time if I'd tried to keep any of my issued rifles.
Bruce
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Campfire Ranger
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After-battle and separation procedures varied widely.
Some guys were allowed to bring (or send) just about anything back.
Some had to turn their issue guns in. (And had to watch other souvenir guns be "demilitarized" or confiscated)
And some managed to circumvent the standing operating procedures that were then current.
"Good enough" isn't.
Always take your responsibilities seriously but never yourself.
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First hand knowledge I have none.
IMO most of them are later purchases or stateside thefts instead of a personally issued rifle.
However, that said, it was possible in the mass confusion that occured after WWII and Korea. Some could have slipped through the cracks but I doubt many did. Most dischargees came home via ship and coming back I never heard of anyone who kept their rifle or pistol. Officers maybe.
It was possible to ship home war trophies how I do not know. I had uncles in WWII in both ETO and PTO who shipped home both Japanese and German guns. How I do not know and both are long dead.
BCR
Quando Omni Moritati
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That is a good question and maybe telling my father's experiences after WWII will help jog some memories of others.
He never was sent overseas and served in the Army Air corp as a weatherman in Pensacola, FL - he always joked that it was highly dangerous as one never knew when a thermometer might break .
When the war ended and they were being mustered out he said there were warehouses filled with equipment that was being loaded on barges and dumped into the gulf - so many of the guys - him included - loaded their vehicles with all they could carry rather than see it get dumped.
As a kid I remember he brought home a Luger and a P-38 ( I don't know where he found those) and an M-1 carbine and 1000 rounds of ammo. By the time I had finished Jr High school he had sold the pistols to his brother-in-laws and I had shot up most of the 30 carbine ammo. In addition to guns he brought silverware and even to this day there are many members of our families still eating off of WWII GI silverware.
Phil Shoemaker Alaska Master Guide, Alaska Hunter Ed Instructor FAA Master pilot www.grizzlyskinsofalaska.comAnyone who claims the 30-06 is not effective has either not used one, or else is unwittingly commenting on their marksmanship.
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Campfire Ranger
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Soon after VJ Day, my uncle Shep, AOM 1/c, plank-owner on the Antietam, led a detail of dischargees from the Sea of Japan to the States. He had two sea bags of his own and custody of a third sea bag full of bulky service jackets. He broke the seal on that third sea bag and handed those service jackets out to the other guys.
In a few minutes, the water around that pier was full of floating courts-martial records. That was one of the most officially angelic bunch of sailors who ever alit in San Francisco!
"Good enough" isn't.
Always take your responsibilities seriously but never yourself.
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Campfire Outfitter
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My great grandfather brought back stuff from WWI including a small artillery shell and a rifle. I don't think at that time it was as big of a deal as it is now. I never did ask him even tho he didn't die till I was nearly 20 years old.
Plus I think when a war ends that is as big as WWI/WWII "stuff" just sort of gets lost in the shuffle to get home and is nowhere near as cataloged and kept up with as in peace time.
Otto is my co-pilot.
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Campfire Ranger
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I should imaging Friend Ken. I remember Uncle Walter telling about brand new sherman tanks being driven off the ramps of LSTs into Tokyo Bay.
He just said the war was over, they were going home and didn't need them anymore.
BCR
Quando Omni Moritati
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I had an older cousin who was in the Marine Corps during the Korean conflict. He managed to smuggle his M-1, home broken down in his duffle bag. He brought it back to Beaumont, TX, with him after his separation. I used to get to hold occasionally it when I was a shirt-tail kid, wondering how anyone could carry that heavy rifle all day.
Several of his buddies knew about the M-1, as a small group of friends used to go out and shoot it once in a while. The father of one of them played golf with the FBI agent stationed in Beaumont and mentioned it to him one day. Several days later, the FBI showed up at my aunt's house and took the rifle with them when they left.
I knew several of my father's friends who managed to get home from WW II with their Government Model .45s--obviously more easily concealed than an M-1. One of them was my father's best friend from high school and his best man at my parent's wedding. He had been a Marine and served in most of the Pacific campaigns. He used his souvenir .45 to commit suicide in 1949...
Ben
Some days it takes most of the day for me to do practically nothing...
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My dad (now sadly gone) was in the Navy and ended the war in Okinawa. He said it was almost 3 months after the war with Japan ended until he and his buddies could get on a boat for home. He had accumulated (mostly thru poker and craps, altho he endured several suicide attacks) a whole sea bag full of stuff, including a watch off a Japanese kamikazee pilot, a .45 auto, some german binos, and I can't remember what else. When their ship pulled into San Francisco, he said the captain told them "anyone caught with any contraband will not be allowed to go home." He told me "son, I would have done anything to get home and I wasn't about to let that stuff in that bag keep me from it." So, he threw it over the side. He did bring home a small black metal oscillating fan that he said had hung over his bunk in the ship. He somehow jerryrigged it to run on our house current and it hung on the wall in his bedroom for years. Thanks for the thread, great memories for me.
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I've seen various ex-military pistols over the years. US and foreign. Obviously it was easy to acquire a GI 1911A1 off the battlefield and take it home.
I haven't had anyone tell me of themselves or a relative who smuggled back a US GI rifle, carbine, or sub-machine gun.
The other stories I've heard are of ships full of homecoming GI's being told that when the ship ties up at a stateside pier that the MPs are coming aboard. Searching for contraband. So in these stories a lot of contraband weapons end up being float tested so everybody can disembark without those MPs having to search.
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A friend of mine had a Schmeisser and a "grease gun." He buried 'em before he died, and nobody knows where.
"Good enough" isn't.
Always take your responsibilities seriously but never yourself.
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A friend's recently deceased father served in the Army during WWI. Lost his eye there. He brought back a Luger and holster in good condition. The Luger was noted on his discharge papers. Its a shame; out of his 9 children, none want the pistol in their houses.
NRA Life Member
"All hunters should be nature lovers"
~Theodore Roosevelt~
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WWII confiscated european theater German weapons (firearms) non full-auto could be brought home after obtaining a permit from the company commander. I have one of those permits that was issued at the end of WWII. More than likely this was also permitted in the Asian theater. Most never got the permits and just brought them home in their luggage. At one time I owned a P-38 that was brought back disassembled in a canteen that had been cut into then re-soldered. I think following WWI you were permitted to bring home the issued weapon.
If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared. MACHIAVELLI
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Campfire Kahuna
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bcp, I mentioned that my Son now has two "I used these in the Pacific Campaign" guns from his friend, an Marine that served in that theater.
The two guns, an Inland Carbine and a Colt 1911 are correct so far as I can tell for weapons that were used then and there.
As to the actual veracity of the claim that he brought them back after he was discharged, I suppose only he and the Lord really know.
Does it matter to my Son? Not a whit.
Sam......
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Campfire Regular
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I had an older cousin who was in the Marine Corps during the Korean conflict. He managed to smuggle his M-1, home broken down in his duffle bag. He brought it back to Beaumont, TX, with him after his separation. I used to get to hold occasionally it when I was a shirt-tail kid, wondering how anyone could carry that heavy rifle all day.
Several of his buddies knew about the M-1, as a small group of friends used to go out and shoot it once in a while. The father of one of them played golf with the FBI agent stationed in Beaumont and mentioned it to him one day. Several days later, the FBI showed up at my aunt's house and took the rifle with them when they left.
I knew several of my father's friends who managed to get home from WW II with their Government Model .45s--obviously more easily concealed than an M-1. One of them was my father's best friend from high school and his best man at my parent's wedding. He had been a Marine and served in most of the Pacific campaigns. He used his souvenir .45 to commit suicide in 1949... What are the chances the FBI agent had a "New" rifle?
Moe
"Pick out two!"
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My Father a WWII Vet brought back from Germany ,5 M98-8m/m a P-38 9m/m and Dress Knife and Dress Hatchet. My brother and I own 2 of the M98 which have been customized. -- Web
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Whether they were carried home legally or not is somewhat like waterboarding. It depends on who you asked "at the time". Shortly after the end of our Korean adventure these guns, especially .45's IIRC, were being sold for prices that would be unbelievable in today's market. I'm sure you could buy them by the basketful for around $25.00 apiece. That was through the mail with no I.D. checks required.
I always thought that if a guy was in a combat zone, and made it through, he should be able to keep whatever he had.
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Campfire Ranger
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Dad was in Europe under Patton and was a packrat. He'd have filled semi trailers full of loot if he could have figured out how to get it home. As it was, his most noteable takes were 3 Mausers, 2 Lugers, 2 Czech Model 27's and lots of other odds and ends. The one item that I am still fascinated with is a tail light beacon off a Ju-87 Stuka. A flight of Stukas worked his postition over pretty good and inflicted heavy casualties. Somebody shot it down-he has no idea who hit it. He was on a half track with a .50 mounted on it and the driver and the rifleman in the front seat both got killed. he went and found the wreck when the fighting died down and pried this beacon off the tail. Spoils of war, I guess.
molɔ̀ːn labé skýla
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My grandfather started out as an enlisted MP in 1938. He received his officers field commission in 1944 (maybe early 45). When he was killed in occupied Italy in 1946, they presented his 45ACP to my grandmother--my dad still has it.
Casey
Casey
Not being married to any particular political party sure makes it a lot easier to look at the world more objectively...
Having said that, MAGA.
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