That is a really nice Panzer Assault Badge.

Nice collection of insignias; you should get a repro wool M40 tunic and display them...

http://www.atthefrontshop.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=GUM43HT




ETA: Or at least make a nice shadow box using the grey woold as background - more cost effective.

http://www.atthefrontshop.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=gffgw

My grandfather picked these up at Okinawa.  

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Have you had any luck yet in obtaining the records?

These are not my mementos nor were they from anyone I knew.  They were bring backs from the Pacific war by unknown people that were put up for sale on the collectible market that I purchased for my collection.

It is a regrettable fact of life that, although a lot of such items are cherished by relatives as family heirlooms, not everyone thinks the same way.  A good number of these items, and I'll wager all of these items,  were inherited by uncaring next of kin who only saw them for the monetary value they had and sold them off to pay for their smokes.  Whatever honor and integrity those old solders had, and these items proved as a badge of honor, their relatives threw it into the trash along with these items, and I'd rather have someone like myself who sees these as historical artifacts from a forgotten time and wants to preserve them for future generations, instead of "cool, money!" like the douchebags who inherited them.

What are your own thoughts?

Random thoughts:

Back about 15 years ago, when I had the disposable income to collect militaria, I used to regarly see Bronze Stars, Silver Stars, and other items with a person's name on them.  If that belonged to my ancestor, they would be priceless.

On the other hand, a collector friend of mine had purchased a lot of uniforms and other items that belonged to a B-29 pilot.  He was killed in action over Japan, and his widow boxed everything up that belonged to him and put it in the attic.  She remarried and had children with her second husband and after she died, her children sold it because they had no connection to their mom's first husband.

My Grandfather served in the pre WWII New York National Guard, Army Air Force in WWII, Air Force Reserve from 1945-55 (including Korea with the 452nd Bomb Group) and US Air Force before he died on active duty in 1968.  My Grandmother was a pack rat.  She saved all his old uniforms, medals, dog tags, hats - everything he had for his whole career.  After she died, my Marijuana smoking cousin stole all it and sold it to buy weed.  All that was supposed to go to me because my grandmother knew of my interest in military history, family history and she knew I would appreciate it.  I did get his WWII Victory medal, American Defense medal, and UN Korean medal.  So when people say that "smoking marijuana never hurt anyone", I like to tell him this story of all our personal family history that has been lost forever.

Double post - sorry about that.

My Uncle Bill served on an amphibious ship in the Pacific Theater during the war.  When I was a kid he gave me his uniforms, a cool machete he go in the Philippians, and a Japanese Type 2 Paratrooper rifle!

I collect vintage militaria, so these items mean a lot to me.


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My mom is German and was a refugee during the war.  My Opa (grandfather) served in both World Wars - Prussian cavalry in the First World War at 16 years old (see photo) - Second World War as an Engineer officer.

He was captured by the Soviets in 1945 and force-marched west to an installation where German POWs were being divvied between the Soviets and U.S./Western Allied Forces.  Being assigned to a specific line to stand in, he discreetly stepped into another line of POWs when nobody was paying attention.  As a result, he ended up in American custody, and subsequently released after the war!

I have his ribbon bar (which you can see in the photo of him taken in 1945).

Also, I have a wooden walking stick which was decoratively carved for him by a fellow German prisoner during their long march westward.

On her last trip to Germany to see my Oma (Grandmother) before she passed away a few years ago, my mom brought back the "Mother's Cross" medallion which had belonged to my great-Grandmother.  This was awarded to German mothers who bore children for "the Reich."

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My Father was a career Soldier before me (he served 32 years, while I was in 28).  He brought me a helmet when he returned from Vietnam in '73, which is now hanging in my "man cave."

I have his helmet on the wall, above several patches, money and PSYOP leaflet he also brought home.

Next to this I've mounted one of the many Iraqi helmets I brought home from the '91 Gulf War and the Iraq War.


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Finally I submit some of the items I brought home from Gulf War 1, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan.  After years of my wife trying to get me to do it, I started to display some of my stuff from my Army career.  I tried to be creative in how I put these things up.  I've got a ton of this crap stored away in a few tough boxes in the garage.

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Last item I'd like to show off is a bad-ass hatchet I took out of a building we were clearing.  We found several contraband items (IED making materials), and without thinking about it I tucked it into my kit at the front of my body armor.

A buddy snapped a photo of me as we were wrapping up the operation.  When we returned to base and I was taking off my kit I realized that I still had he hatchet.  I kept it and have it on display in my "man cave," along with the other mementos.

In the photo of me, its tucked into the left side of my body armor.


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Grampa took this notebook off a dead Japanese soldier in the Philippines. He used it as an address book for the other soldiers in his unit. They were up in the highlands on Luzon trying to flush out the Japanese. He said they attacked them in their foxholes every night, and every night they killed all of them. He gave me a stack of pictures of dead Japanese soldiers but not really appropriate to post here, some are pretty mangled. Machine guns did some damage. There's an Irish poem in the back as well (his parents were from Ireland). Here's a couple of pages. I knew Albert Stas (Stasi) growing up, he'd drive up to Boston to visit the family.

He gave me a Japanese bayonet as well.









Nana and Grampa looking sharp in 1945. He just came home. Dad was born a year later.



He stayed in uniform. Boston PD sometime around 1960, he retired in '79. Both his sons were BPD as well.