* Manion's Collecting News * Militaria and Collectible Updates from Manion's

Frank Buckles laid to rest

2011-03-16T13:14:00.002-06:00

Frank Buckles was buried Tuesday with the pomp and ceremony befitting the man who outlived 4.7 million other Americans who served in World War I.

His flag-draped casket was carried to his gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery on a caisson led by seven horses. A seven-man firing party fired three rifle volleys and a bugler played "Taps" as hundreds of onlookers saluted or held their hands to their hearts.

At the end of the graveside service, soldiers from the Army's vaunted "Old Guard" folded the flag as an Army band played "America the Beautiful." Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli presented it to Buckles' daughter, Susannah Flanagan.

"To our comrade in arms, Frank Woodruff Buckles, our nation bestows military honors," said Lt. Col. Keith N. Croom, an Army chaplain. "In life, he honored the flag. Now, the flag honors him."

Buckles lied about his age to enlist at 16. He died last month at his Charles Town, W.Va., home, at age 110.

Before the burial, his body lay in honor inside Arlington's Memorial Amphitheater Chapel, guarded by an Old Guard soldier in full dress uniform. Hundreds of visitors filed by silently to pay their respects and snap pictures.

Around 3 p.m., after the public viewing was over, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden arrived by motorcade to pay their respects. They spent about 10 minutes inside the chapel and offered their condolences to Flanagan.

Flanagan had wanted her father to lie in repose in the U.S. Capitol, but Congress failed to approve that plan as politicians clashed over how best to honor Buckles and other WWI veterans. The last person to lie in the Capitol rotunda was President Gerald Ford.

Flanagan and other invited guests at the burial did not speak to reporters.

Buckles' grave is on the side of a hill ringed by cedar trees with views of the Washington Monument, Capitol dome and Jefferson Memorial to the north. At the crest of the hill, 50 yards away, sits the grave of Gen. John Pershing, under whose command Buckles served, along with a plaque commemorating the 116,516 Americans who died in World War I.

A few hundred people attended the burial, including dozens of veterans from the Patriot Guard Riders and Rolling Thunder who rode through the cemetery on rumbling motorcycles. Six Native American veterans, in uniform and full headdresses, stood at attention and held flags at the gravesite.

Dignitaries in attendance included Army Secretary John McHugh, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki and Sens. John J. Rockefeller and Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

Buckles had devoted the last years of his life to campaigning for greater recognition for his former comrades, prodding politicians to support a national memorial in Washington.

Only two known WWI veterans remain worldwide: 110-year-old survivors Florence Green in Britain and Claude Choules in Australia.

Born in Missouri in 1901 and raised in Oklahoma, Buckles visited a string of military recruiters and was repeatedly rejected before convincing an Army captain he was 18. He served as an ambulance driver in England and France, and after Armistice Day, he helped return prisoners of war back to Germany. He returned to the United States in 1920 as a corporal.

During World War II, he was working as a civilian for a shipping company in the Philippines when he was captured as a prisoner of war. He spent more than three years in Japanese prison camps in Santo Tomas and Los Banos.

Among those who filed by Buckles' casket was Dale E. Smith, 88, a retired fighter pilot who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

"I've been through three wars," Smith said. "They were easy compared to what he went through."

From sfgate.com

State of the Militaria Hobby from the JAG File

2011-03-14T12:59:00.001-06:00

From the JAG File Blog by John Adams-Graf of Military Trader Magazine

Having just returned from the Show of Shows (SOS), I have fielded several questions about the health of hobby. The economic doldrums, the instability of Mideast, rising unemployment only outpaced by rising fuel costs and a general sense of apprehension have many asking, “What’s the health of the hobby?”

I certainly don’t have any special view, but I guess my position does afford me the opportunity to overhear a lot of conversations and to observe several patterns. Before drawing any conclusions, however, I have to ensure that I don’t let my own collecting successes and failures color my observations.

The first thing I will report about the SOS is that it remains the largest all-militaria show in the United States. With more than 1,600 tables, the show is sold out months ahead of the late February date and there is a long waiting list of collectors and dealers who want tables. Public attendance is generally in the 5,000-6,000 range over three days. This year was no different.

I had four tables covered with what I considered “Wal-mart” collectibles. Not great stuff, just general WWI and WWII items priced very low. This seems to be a formula that works for me: Quantity, solid quality (that is, no fakes, questionable items clearly indicated on labels), low prices marked on the items (nothing drives me away from a table faster than not seeing prices on items!), and having bins and tubs of small items to search through. I rarely had a chance to sit down from Wednesday night setup through Sunday afternoon teardown. Folks love bargains and the thrill of possibly discovering something the guy standing behind the table didn’t recognize.

I didn’t get away from tables except for bathroom breaks so any observations were made on the fly. What I did observe, though, was that many tables had exceptional, high-quality items. When I did stop to take a closer look, I experienced a high degree of “sticker shock.” Items that should have cost $1,000 or $1,500 were marked $4,000 or $5,000. The same was truer for smaller items… if an item normally sold for $100, it was marked $400 or $500. What was going on? Was the world economy impacting our tight little fraternity?

I discussed this with several veteran collectors who stopped at my table to chat. The general consensus was this: As many collectors drift away from selling on eBay, they have dug into their collections to select and price items with the attitude, “if someone is stupid enough to pay this, I will sell it.” It was like a real-time “Buy it Now” price like we see on eBay… way beyond normal retail, but if someone really wants it…

The “big” buyers, that is, dealers buying for resale, generally reported that the show was really off. A couple saying, “Worst buying SOS in a long time.” Conversely, the same dealers did report, “Best selling SOS.” It seems buyers were there ready with cash. Quality items sold fast. “Wal-mart militaria” (like what I had on my tables) sold equally fast, but you have to sell a whole lot of buttons and Ike jackets to pay the expenses! What I did notice, however, was middle-of-the-road militaria, if priced at last year’s retail, sat on the tables unsold for the entire weekend.

In my observation, I would venture that non-U.S. attendance was down this year. Stands to reason, the Euro, Pound and Yen are just as weak as the dollar these days.

Curiously, I had several conversations about Internet collector forums. It would seem more and more veteran collectors are leaving forums or simply don’t make the time for them anymore. Several did discuss that they use Facebook to connect with small, tight communities of “their own kind” (be they helmet collectors, WWI nuts, Civil War image traders or reenactors”). It is far too early to predict the demise of forums, but there is a very obvious shift occurring.

Finally, one trend that has existed in the hobby from the beginning is changing. In the past, one might walk up to a dealer’s table full of unpriced items and select an object with the question, “How much?”, only to receive an answer that began with, “Well, I’ve got X dollars in it….” I have railed on this before: As I collector, I don’t care one bit what someone has in a particular object. Starting the negotiating with telling me how much a person has spent on an object usually implies to me that they think it somehow justifies the price they paid, whether it was too much or not. At this year’s SOS, I heard the same statement uttered many times, but it really seem to be restricted to the older, veteran dealers and collectors. The younger set seem to accept the fact that people paid way too much for stuff in the 1990s and 2000s and that the potential buyer is not responsible for those poor purchase decisions. Coincidentally, this is the same trend happening out in “the real world.” In my humble opinion, it is great to see the militaria hobby developing the same tolerances and expectations as the rest of the business world.

The SOS can set the tone for the entire show season, and it remains to be seen if this is true for 2011. If it is, we will continue to see great items emerge to market, at first for way too much money but then, slowly descend to realistic prices allowing new, significant collections to form. We are on the cusp of a new collecting age. The next couple of years will reveal if the hobby leaps forward or falls flat.

Be wise, be patient and prepared to buy when that great piece appears,

John A-G
Editor, Military Trader & Military Vehicles Magazine

Matterhorn Book Review

2011-03-09T12:56:00.000-06:00

When "Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War" arrived in my mail for review from the Leatherneck editorial office in Quantico, a brief note was included. Publisher/Executive Editor Colonel Walt Ford, USMC (Ret) wrote: "We usually don't review novels in the magazine, but I thought this one was exceptional. Frankly, I was riveted from page one because it took me right back. The only things that the author changed or altered were the actual units and a few of the locations. Rarely has war fiction impressed me so much."

After reading the first few pages, any rough-and-ready who has experienced bullets whistling by and shells bursting all around will certainly agree.

Writing in the vivid, gritty tradition of Norman Mailer ("The Naked and the Dead"), James Jones ("The Thin Red Line"), and Mark Bowden ("Black Hawk Down"), Navy Cross Marine First Lieutenant Karl Marlantes immediately introduces us to young Marine Lieutenant Waino Mellas (obviously himself fictionalized) and his company as they maneuver into the mountain jungles of 1969 Vietnam.

Advancing as best they can in torrential monsoon rains and knee-deep mud, plucking off leeches and avoiding man-eating tigers along the way, the Marines find themselves surrounded and outnumbered by a North Vietnamese regiment. At that point, autobiography fuses with fiction to make for a stunning "let-me-put-you-there" 600-page read.

In reality, during the first five days of March 1969, Marlantes, serving as executive officer of Company C, 1st Battalion, Fourth Marine Regiment, Third Marine Division (Reinforced) of the Fleet Marine Force, faced the same kind of highly trained, solidly equipped unit just north of the infamous Rockpile, south of the DMZ and east of the Laotian border.

Sustaining numerous casualties from mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, small-arms and automatic-weapons fire, the company was near obliteration. Marlantes combined and reorganized the remaining members of the platoons and led an assault up a mountain infested with fortified bunkers, manned by highly skilled, well-armed enemy soldiers.

Under withering fire from surprised North Vietnamese troops, he ran across the fire-swept hilltop to wipe out four enemy bunkers in succession. Although seriously wounded by now, Marlantes refused medical attention until the perimeter defense was established and the other wounded evacuated. His Navy Cross citation notes: "His heroic actions and resolute determination inspired all who observed him and were instrumental in a decisive rout with minimal casualties. By his courage, aggressive fighting spirit, and unwavering devotion to duty in the face of grave personal danger, First Lieutenant Marlantes upheld the highest tradition of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.”

Such is the stuff "Matterhorn's" plot, characters and hero, Waino Mellas, are made of, to say nothing of how the terror and agony of fierce and vicious fighting matures each fictionalized personality. Note that any astute Marine who served during those months in “Bravo” Company's area of operation, and who knew the chain of command there, will place an easy fix on the actual names and locations.

Author Marlantes, who in addition to the Navy Cross was awarded the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals for valor, two Purple Hearts and 10 air medals, needed more than 30 years to complete "Matterhorn," originally a 1,600-page novel. No publisher or literary agent bothered to read it until recently when the unwieldy manuscript was reduced to its present size. The 31-page glossary of weapons, technical terms, slang and jargon alone is worth the price of the book.

It would be easy to hyperbolize "Matterhorn" with any number of glow-words from the reviewer's convenient arsenal of adjectives. But the high praise always remains the same: "Just go buy and read the classic-to-be for yourself."

From mca-marines.com

Japanese apologize to Australian veterans

2011-03-07T12:51:00.000-06:00

Transcript from Lateline

TONY JONES, PRESENTER: It's taken 60 years, but Japan today finally apologised to Australian soldiers for the brutal treatment they received as POWs during World War II.

A group of five diggers, now aged between 85 and 94, was invited to Japan by the country's foreign ministry.

And today they met the minister, Seiji Maehara, who offered them an apology for their suffering.

Some say it's too late and too little and that the current generation of Japanese shouldn't be held accountable for the sins of their forefathers.

North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy reports from Tokyo.

MARK WILLACY, REPORTER: From Japanese prisoners of war more than 60 years ago to honoured guests of the foreign minister today in Tokyo. As men the Imperial Army failed to break, these old diggers came here on a mission and with a message, delivered by 94-year-old Rowley Richards.

ROWLEY RICHARDS, FORMER JAPANESE POW: The important thing to our members - there are many of them, as you know, are looking for an official apology.

MARK WILLACY: These men survived the worst of Japanese barbarity. From the horror of Singapore's Changi Prison to the hell of the Thai Burma railway.

But for some of these former prisoners, an apology is too little too late.

HAROLD RAMSEY, FORMER JAPANESE POW: This apology would be worthless. And if they got some bloke who would apologise now, it's not worth a pinch of effort, so ...

MARK WILLACY: But today, 66 years after Japan's surrender, the country's foreign minister, Seiji Maehara, uttered the words many former POWs have long waited to hear.

NORM ANDERTON, FORMER JAPANESE POW: It was deep and expressed great remorse for the suffering that was inflicted on us and it was a very moving experience. He said to consider it a formal apology from the government.

MARK WILLACY: Even those who'd expressed some scepticism about an apology were moved by the minister's remorse.

FORMER JAPANESE POW IV: We've waited a long time, but it was sincere and at much better time than I've seen before, in 1944, when they dropped the two bombs. So, this is really good.

MARK WILLACY: By inviting these former POWs to Japan and apologising for their brutal treatment, the centre-left government here in Tokyo is showing that it is willing to confront the terrible sins of Japan's war-time past. And for their part, these old men have also shown a remarkable capacity for forgiveness.

FORMER JAPANESE POW V: I believe very firmly if any individual holds bitterness, there's only one person who suffers. That's the person who is being bitter.

YUKIHISA FJITA, JAPANESE GOVERNMENT MP: I think in order to have better future, it's very important to put right what was wrong in the past.

MARK WILLACY: The Japanese government says it's now planning to invite more former Australian prisoners to visit, acknowledging that with each passing year, fewer of these remarkable men remain.

Modern Day Lybia and WWII Africa - Tank Terrain

2011-03-07T12:38:00.000-06:00

The whipping sandstorms, low visibility, and stray camels make the five-hour car ride from Benghazi to the oil refinery town of Ras Lanuf a tense one even in normal times. But these days there is nothing normal going on in Ras Lanuf, which lies on the front lines of the clashes between Libya's volunteer rebel army and forces loyal to the country's dictator, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. On Saturday when TIME visited, the gates of Ras Lanuf were guarded by a platoon of opposition irregulars with anti-aircraft guns and recoilless rifles mounted onto the backs of pickup trucks.

But calling this a front-line may overstate the level of organization and planning behind the rebel advance. Though opposition forces have been slowly moving west from their stronghold in Benghazi along the about 700-mile coastal highway to Tripoli, the country's capital and the center of Gaddafi's power, Ras Lanuf has changed hands several times. As has Bin Jawad, the next town west down the coastal highway. And looking at the leaderless bands of pick-up trucks gathering at checkpoints to make fresh sorties on government positions with weapons newly acquired from raided government arsenals that they barely know how to use, it's hard to think of this as anything like a conventional army. But what's clear is Libya's desert geography — and Muammar Gaddafi's attempt to violently suppress what was once a peaceful movement — has transformed the country's pro-democracy uprising into the first military campaign of the Arab Spring. And it's also clear the desert is an arena in which people power plays at a disadvantage.

For a dictatorship that's been in power for 42 years, the Libyan government collapsed with remarkable speed in the eastern part of the country — a handful of days around February 17th. Besides the fact that Benghazi has long been a hotbed of dissent to rule from Tripoli, the terrain of the east — hills, forests, and a daisy chain of relatively dense urban centers along the coast — is also more sympathetic to a revolution. But west of Benghazi, the land flattens out, with the white sand of the Mediterranean shoreline giving way quickly to juniper and sage scrub and a seemingly endless expanse of dirt and discarded plastic bags. Towns along the way are small, easy to garrison, spread far apart, and located at highway intersections, or clustered around oil facilities.

If eastern Libya is guerrilla country, central Libya is tank terrain. Some of the great battles of World War Two were fought by legendary Axis and Allied tank commanders over the course of several years in a back-and-forth war along the north African coast between Tunisia and Egypt. Of course, nothing like the scale of those battles is going to occur in the Libyan civil war. Only the forces that remain loyal to the Gaddaffi regime have anything resembling a modern army. But therein lies the problem for the opposition. Though much of the Libyan military — already under-funded by a suspicious Gaddafi, who lavished money and materiel on his personal security forces instead — defected to the opposition camp, it has been unable to impose any authority or organization on the rebellion's volunteers who have been doing most of the fighting. And without air support and armor, speeding down straight desert highways with no cover is almost suicide.

Indeed, given their lack of discipline and training it's incredible there aren't more self-inflicted casualties. Besides the usual bouts of idiotic celebratory gunfire, among the many nerve wracking scenes of boys playing with dangerous toys that TIME witnessed near Ras Lanuf included a youngster sitting on top of a huge heap of ammunition boxes at a highway checkpoint and nearly knocking over an open artillery shell crate just so he could get more comfortable. And though the opposition claims an explosion at an ammunition depot near Benghazi that killed more than 20 people on Friday was the work of government saboteurs, it could just as likely have been the result of an accident. Meanwhile, though the Libyan government forces fled Benghazi in disarray, they appear to have regained a measure of composure, and according to reports, have dug into Bin Jawad with sniper positions backed by artillery, helicopters, and fighter jets. Fighting will get even tougher if the rebels move closer to Sert, Gaddaff's hometown, located about midway between Benghazi and Tripoli.

Just how long Free Libya's desert campaign will last is anyone's guess. During the North African campaign in WWII, supply lines proved crucial. When the Allied air and sea power cut fuel deliveries to German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel's Arfika Corps, its Panzer tanks ran out of gas in a region where, ironically, some of the world's largest oil fields were later discovered. Nowadays the rebel government says it has enough cash to pay salaries for the next two months. It's asking foreign countries to begin recognizing it as Libya's legitimate authority, a prelude to formally asking oil companies to begin paying them rather than the government in Tripoli. The Benghazi government also says at least one national oil company, the Sert Oil Company located in Ras Lanuf, has broken with Tripoli and sided with the rebels, and the refineries at Ras Lunuf were refueling opposition vehicles free of charge. The rebels are also getting foreign donations of food and medicine delivered to Benghazi's port. "This isn't Darfur, there's not going to be a humanitarian crisis here," said one rebel government spokesman in Benghazi . "But let's not kid ourselves. This is a revolution by amateurs. We can't keep doing this forever."

Morale may end up playing the decisive factor in this conflict — though it can't be too high on the Gaddafi side as they shoot on their own people, amid rumors that many soldiers are ordered to fight by their officers at gunpoint. But the regime and its supporters are fighting for their survival. Swift sanctions, asset freezes and threats from international bodies to investigate the regime for crimes against humanity have given the government little incentive to surrender peacefully.

The rebellion too is fighting for its life. Though the Arab League has offered to help broker negotiations, the opposition says there is nothing to discuss and fears that any return by the regime will be the beginning of a massacre. But fear is in short supply among the rebel volunteers, many of whom believe that their miraculous against-the-odds successes are a sign that God is on their side. After an attack helicopter appeared and began rocketing the vicinity, TIME beat a hasty retreat from Ras Lanuf back to Benghazi. But car after car of young men with guns and flags of the old Libyan monarchy, which has become the new emblem of Free Libya, kept speeding down the other side of the highway to fill the breach. One truck was also flying the skull and cross-bones of a Jolly Roger pirate flag, which perhaps better captured the wild spirit of the rebel campaign, which may yet tilt in their favor. As one veteran of north African desert battles, American General George Patton, said: "Nobody ever defended anything successfully. There is only attack and attack, and attack some more."

From Time Magazine Online

Nazi Chic or Sinister Outburst?

2011-03-03T12:42:00.000-06:00

Once upon a time, two young men named Mick Jones and Tony James were attempting to form a rock band called London SS. Their prospective manager, one Bernard Rhodes, summoned them to a meeting in a pub, and then dumped a bagful of Nazi memorabilia and militaria – badges, knives, caps and the like – over the table. "If you keep that name," he told them, "you'll be spending the rest of your lives having to discuss and justify stuff like this."

They got the message. The name "London SS" was formally buried, and the pool of musicians upon which it was based later ended up in The Clash, The Damned, Generation X and The Pretenders, with swastikas and "Nazi chic" being left to the likes of Sid Vicious. Dr Hunter S Thompson once remarked that if the Hells Angels had really wanted to freak out Middle America, they'd have worn the hammer-and-sickle rather than the swastika, and by sporting red stars and a Brigade Rosse T-shirt, the late Joe Strummer took the good doctor at his word.

That instantly infamous clip of a drunken John Galliano letting his inner bigot out for a stroll has more in common with Eric Clapton's notorious Powellite rant (delivered from a Birmingham stage in 1976 and directly stimulating the founding of Rock Against Racism) than it does with any pseudo-decadent dabbling in Weimar chic induced by one too many viewings of Cabaret. Both disturb because they suggested that, tongues unlocked and inhibitions dissolved by alcohol, Galliano and Clapton were revealing their true feelings about certain groupings of their fellow humans: the sneering, hateful racist lurking beneath the veneer of civilised urbane sophistication.

In direct contrast, nobody could seriously suggest that Lemmy, an obsessive collector of precisely the sort of bits and pieces with which Rhodes had confronted Jones and James, has any truck with rightwing politics. "I'd collect Belgian army stuff if the Belgians had had the best gear", he says.

For those who grew up in the shadow of the second world war, or with endless reruns of Dad's Army, there is an element of kitsch – demystifying and defanging the monster by subverting its symbolism – and a simple impulse towards transgression, shocking parents (or the parent culture) by pretending to cuddle up to the stuff of nightmare.

Essentially, we're dealing with two very different phenomena. On the one hand, a fascination with the camp aesthetics of the Nazi era and a fondness for Weimar Cabaret stylings and its associated iconography (let me make a clean Brecht of it: I'm a sucker for a nice long black leather trenchcoat) can be intensely misleading. Kurt Weill was by no means vile: he and Brecht were committed leftists.

On the other hand, there are actual pro-fascist sympathies. No modern fascist wants anything to do with the imagery of the Third Reich – a recent news story reported a poll revealing that a worrying number of people in the UK, by no means all of whom are white, would support an anti-immigration party provided it carried no overt associations with the downmarket bootboy neo-Nazism of the BNP.

The latter is genuinely worrying, while the former is perhaps merely foolish. As for John Galliano: his employers' decision to immediately dropkick him into the middle distance shows just how much they wanted to avoid inadvertently founding "Rock Against Dior".

From guardian.co.uk

GREAT Show of Shows

2011-02-27T11:28:00.004-06:00

Our guys had a GREAT experience at the Show of Shows and are bringing back a TON of consignment - be sure to check www.manions.com next week as items begin to make it on the site and open for bidding. Here's a few more pics from our "Manion in the field" (and my buddy Ben) - thanks for reading!

Show of Shows 2011 - pics from our man on the scene!

2011-02-24T13:50:00.006-06:00

Hey everyone.

Guy Manion is our "man in the field" this year at the S.O.S. militaria show in Louisville, Kentucky. He's sent a couple of photos of the Thursday happenings and plans to send on some more of individual people, items and happenings - if he's not too busy packing up military collectibles for consignment with Manion's Auction. Here's the first few - check back
throughout the weekend for more.

Himmler death photo surfaces in England

2011-02-17T12:57:00.002-06:00

The mustache is gone but the familiar round glasses are still there in this chilling photograph of Heinrich Himmler seconds after he killed himself.

This is the first time this picture has been seen of the architect of the Holocaust, which claimed the lives of six million Jews, just after he crunched a cyanide capsule in his mouth.

The photograph, which is due to be auctioned, was taken by British intelligence officer Guy Adderleyin in May 1945.

Disheveled Himmler, who had been arrested by the British, was due to be interrogated by intelligence chiefs over his war crimes the following day.

Moments after death: This photograph of Nazi death camp overlord Heinrich Himmler was taken just minutes after he committed suicide by biting into a cyanide pill in 1945

A poison vial found on Himmler's body in a search of his clothing before he committed suicide. For this he crunched a cyanide capsule in his mouth.

After his death, Army chiefs released propaganda photographs of the monster's corpse slumped on the floor and a makeshift bed.

But Lance Corporal Adderley kept the stark, grainy close-up taken at a British safe house in Luneburg amongst his own wartime mementoes. His official statement at the time read: 'This photograph was taken while he was still warm.'

Now Adderley's family plan to sell the photograph at auctioneer Dreweatt's militaria sale in Bristol on March 29.

It has a pre-sale estimate of £2,000 to £3,000, but fierce bidding is expected to push it higher.
Auctioneer and militaria expert Malcolm Claridge said: 'This is a very important and historic collection.

'Himmler was Hitler's Reichsfuhrer, the second most powerful man in Nazi Germany.
'He oversaw the Gestapo and the concentration camps and is regarded as the architect of the Holocaust which resulted in the deaths of six million Jews and an estimated four million Poles.'
Heinrich Himmler was born in 1905 in Munich to a middle-class family. He began training as an officer during World War I but the conflict had ended before he could be sent to the front. He went on to study agriculture and for a short while was a chicken farmer.

He joined Hitler's fledgling Nazi party and soon became a trusted aide and even towards the end of the war the German leader referred to him as 'der treue Heinrich' (the loyal Heinrich).

Leading members of the Nazi Party two years before the outbreak of World War II. From left, Heinrich Himmler, Viktor Lutze, Adolf Hitler, Rudolf Hess, and Julius Streicher

Mr Claridge said: 'Adderley's collection takes us right to the heart of Himmler's arrest and right into the very room in the British safe house in Luneburg where he bit into the cyanide capsule he had concealed in his mouth.

'Guy Adderley was one of the team that arrested Himmler, he took the photographs of his body and there are two photographs showing senior British and Russian officers in the safe house with Adderley in the background.

'We also have Adderley's military identity card with his photograph confirming he was a lance-corporal and stating "The bearer of this card is a member of the Intelligence Corps (Field Security Wing) and is authorized to wear civilian clothes.

"He should be granted every assistance in the performance of his duties."

'The identity card bears an official purple stamp 'Security Officer - No2 Protected Area Orkney & Shetland.'

'We've already had enormous interest in this collection from Third Reich collectors and we are expecting especially strong interest from collectors in Germany.'

Secret agent Guy Adderley was one of the undercover team who arrested Himmler and his two Waffen SS bodyguards at Bremervoerde, Germany, in May 1945.

Initially the British were unaware who they had captured. Himmler was among a group of German soldiers captured after the Nazi surrender - disguised in a sergeant's uniform with a patch over one eye.

But his ruse was blown by the soldiers who told their British captors of his presence.

After his death, and under the cover of darkness, Himmler was buried in an unmarked grave on Luneburg Heath, in northern Germany. Those who buried him were made to sign the Official Secrets Act and told never to speak of the matter again.

The episode has been classified by the Ministry of Defense until 2045 - 100 years after the event.

Adderley, who died in his late 80s, was the photographer detailed to take the official pictures of Himmler's body after he took his own life.

The mystery surrounding Himmler's death on May 23, 1945, has been compounded by the covert way in which four British soldiers took his body from the Luneburg safe house, bundled it into an Army truck and secretly buried it in an unmarked grave on windswept Luneburg Heath. It has never been found.

In 1945 disillusioned Himmler believed victory had slipped from Germany's grasp and secretly attempted to start peace negotiations with Eisenhower in a bid to escape a war crimes trial.
But Eisenhower refused to have anything to do with Himmler. A furious Hitler declared Himmler a traitor, stripped him of his powers and the SS chief went on the run.

When Himmler was arrested by the British at Bremervoerde on May 22, 1945, he had disguised himself by shaving off his moustache, wearing an eye patch over his left eye and he was carrying false identity papers.

Lance Cpl Adderley's collection includes a photocopied statement describing how Himmler was handed over to British intelligence chief Major Michael Murphy who had him driven to the safe house at Luneburg for interrogation.

Adderley's statement reads: 'Presented by Cpl Adderley. For the record. 'Himmler was captured by and remained in the care of Guy Adderley, who handled him correctly and so was quite composed at that stage.

'The trick was to keep the prisoner so until the poison pill secreted between his teeth could be removed.

'A senior staff officer took control of the situation from Guy Adderley, with much noise and ceremony.

'Himmler became alarmed, crunched the poison pill, and that was the end of the story.
'This photograph was taken while he was still warm.'

From Mail Online

Huge Militiaria Heist in Calgary

2011-02-15T12:53:00.001-06:00

While some Calgary antique dealers are keeping an eye out for items stolen from The Military Museums, others said they had yet to be informed of the theft spree.

As first reported by Metro, roughly 100 display items — including sets of medals, badges and belts — were taken from the institution between August and December of last year.

Dan Thomson, a 25-year military veteran and owner of Inglewood Antiques & Florist, said he was shocked authorities had not contacted him be-cause typically it is “very easy” to sell military memorabilia at local shops and online.

“This is a major heist ... generally we are the first ones that are alerted,” he said.

Tom Doucette, executive director of The Military Museums, said his organization wanted to gather as much information as possible before notifying the public.

Reid Moseley, owner of Shoulder to Shoulder Militaria & Collectibles, said investigators did stop by to check his inventory two weeks ago, but he figures the stolen items are likely being sold outside the city.

“I wouldn’t spend too much time looking in Calgary,” he said.

From Metro Calgary

Vis 35 used in shootout with police

2011-02-13T16:48:00.000-06:00

Carmody, who died Wednesday afternoon after three days on life support, was armed with a German-made Vis 35 9mm semi-automatic handgun, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said.

The Vis 35 was originally made in Poland and was a staple of the Polish Army. The Germans took over the factory when they invaded in 1939 and forced Polish workers to continue to build the gun for the German army and police. The weapon was built between 1935 and 1945.

Wartime versions of the guns can sell for more than $500, while pre-war models can fetch more than $2,000.

Authorities have not yet said where Carmody got the weapon.

From Ridgewood Patch

Georgia Vets Get Legion of Honor

2011-02-12T12:42:00.000-06:00

Thirteen World War II veterans from Alabama and Georgia received France's highest honor on Thursday for their role in the liberation of that country in 1944 and 1945.

Before a crowd that included families, friends and members of the military, the veterans were awarded the Legion of Honor by France's consul general in Atlanta, Pascal Le Deunff.

"We will never be able to give enough praise for the heroism of those who fought for the liberation of France and Europe," Le Deunff said. "You are, all of you, true heroes. You were there in France when hope began to disappear, but you never lost hope."

Le Deunff addressed each veteran individually, detailing his service during the war and listing the other honors he'd received. The consul general then pinned a medal on the chest of each veteran.

George Weitner of Snellville, Ga., was among the troops who stormed Omaha Beach in Normandy on D-Day, but it's not a memory he treasures: "I try to forget about it."

He has fonder memories from his next visit to France 50 years later for an anniversary celebration.

"I had a great time," he said. "The French people were wonderful to us, very respectful, very thankful."

Joseph Thornton of Hampton, Ga., parachuted into Normandy on June 6, 1944, about four hours before the beach invasion began. He said he was humbled to be honored by France.

"It feels great," he said. "I very much appreciate it."

But after spending six weeks there, he said he's never had a desire to go back: "Once was enough."

The National Order of the Legion of Honor was established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802. It recognizes eminent service to France. Recipients are approved by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

To receive the honor, recipients - or often their friends or family - fill out an application and go through a vetting process. Le Deunff - who represents France in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississipi, North Carolina and South Carolina - tries to hold ceremonies to award the medal as often as possible. He said he's trying to accelerate the application vetting process to be able to honor as many veterans as possible while they're still alive.

The veterans who received the medal Thursday were:

- Colonel L Gene Sidwell, of Smyrna, Ga.

- Captain Harold Hicks, of Townsend, Ga.

- Sergeant Fred Thomason, of Duluth, Ga.

- Staff Sergeant Robert Wann, of Decatur, Ga.

- Technical Sergeant Axel Thomsen, of Marietta, Ga.

- Staff Sergeant Robert Ricks, of Snellville, Ga.

- Private First Class Philip Alterizio, Madison, Ala.

- Private First Class John Garett, of Mableton, Ga.

- Private First Class Orbie Harris, of Fairburn, Ga.

- Private First Class Pizzolato, of Marietta, Ga.

- Seaman First Class Walter Robertson, of Atlanta.

- Private Joseph Thornton Jr., of Hampton, Ga.

- Private First Class George Weitner, of Snellville, Ga.

Paris exhibit honors AP Vietnam War photographer

2011-02-09T12:36:00.001-06:00

PARIS (AP) — A U.S. Army medic peers through dirty bandages on his own head while caring for a wounded comrade. A helicopter winches up the lifeless body of an American soldier, silhouetted against a bare white sky.

Such images from the Vietnam War feature in a new museum exhibit in Paris focusing on Associated Press photographer Henri Huet, who was killed 40 years ago when a helicopter he was riding in was shot down over Laos.

Co-curated by the AP, "Henri Huet: Vietnam" focuses on about 70 photos that he took during the war. The show starts Tuesday and runs through April 3 at the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie in Paris' Marais district.

Huet, who was half-French and half-Vietnamese, and three foreign photographers died Feb. 10, 1971 when the South Vietnamese helicopter they were on was shot down while they covered a cross-border invasion.

Huet, Larry Burrows of Life magazine, Kent Potter of United Press International, and Keizaburo Shimamoto of Newsweek were on board with U.S.-backed Vietnamese forces, killed in the flash of an anti-aircraft gun. Huet was 43.

The exhibit aims to bring to light the impact of Huet on the public's understanding of Vietnam and as a reference for today's generation of photojournalists — in terms of style, shot selection and emotional impact.

Huet captured the pain, fatigue, frustration, grittiness and a gamut of emotions with his black and white photos that made newspaper and magazine covers worldwide throughout the conflict.

He had "a sense of artistry, because he was a painter, he showed his sense of feeling for the Vietnamese," said former AP reporter Richard Pyle, who served as Saigon bureau chief during the war.

"People in Vietnam won prizes, and won accolades, for their work as photographers and the irony of this was that Henri — who was probably the finest combat photographer of his time, maybe in any war ... never got the attention nor the credit that he deserved," Pyle said.

In days long before satellite transmission, the Internet, digital photos and laptop computers, Huet would trek off for days with the U.S. military, and return with a trove of photos shipped to AP headquarters in New York.

Sometimes, a single picture captured the essence of the war.

"You had one Henri Huet picture on the front page of the New York Times, and that was it — that was the battle of Vietnam," said Horst Faas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning AP photographer who worked with Huet in Vietnam.

"There was mud in there, there was frustration in there, a bit of loneliness in there — all these things that a soldier went through in the circumstances, or a civilian, or anyone else," Faas said.

Faas, Pyle and other colleagues have come to Paris for the exhibit, and remembered Huet's compassion, respect for both Vietnamese civilians and U.S. soldiers, and tendency to stay to himself once the work day was done.

"If I had to pick the three finest people that I ever met in my life ... Henri Huet would be one of those three, maybe even No. 1," said Pyle at a news conference Monday.

Lemmy

2011-02-07T10:13:00.005-06:00

One of our more famous (or infamous) customers mentioned us recently in a Chicago newspaper interview. While we keep our customer information confidential, something tells me Lemmy won't be bothered by this blog post mentioning the article and letting his fellow collectors know his documentary is currently playing in theaters around the United States and will air on VH1 Feb. 11. Check out the official site: http://www.lemmymovie.com/

Here's a teaser trailer below - if you are easily offended in any way you had better not watch . . .

New Hitler Photos Bring Big Bucks at Auction

2011-01-19T11:34:00.001-06:00

Unseen Adolf Hitler photos sell for £30,000 at auction

A collection of previously unseen photographs of Adolf Hitler has sold at auction in Northamptonshire for £30,000.

From BBC

The group of hundreds of photographs went under the hammer on Tuesday night as part of a 300-lot militaria sale at JP Humbert Auctioneers in Towcester.

Hitler's personal photographer Heinrich Hoffmann took the images during the Nazi party's rise to power.

Hoffmann's work was used for postage stamps, postcards and posters.

Nazi party's rise

A large archive was seized by the United States government during the Allied occupation of Germany, and was held by the National Archives and Records Administration.

The auctioned images, some of which had been digitally developed by the auction house, featured Hitler at the Nuremberg Rally in 1934, meeting Benito Mussolini and at an SS training camp.

They are thought to have been given by Hoffman to an elderly man in Germany.

Auctioneer Jonathan Humbert said: "I was astonished by the interest we had in the photographs, even from Germany.

"They provided a never-seen-before insight into the rise of the Nazi party, and some personal views of Hitler himself.

"Rather than pictures taken from the crowd at these rallies, they really were up close to him."

Hoffmann, who worked as a photographer in Munich from 1908, joined the Nazi party in 1920.

He was arrested by the Americans in May 1945 and after the war was tried and sentenced to four years for Nazi profiteering.

WWII Jeep Still Serves the US Army Today

2011-01-14T12:11:00.001-06:00

As the Fort Irwin and National Training Center G-3 chief of operations, Lt. Col. Stephen Thrasher is always on the move, but in his spare time he keeps a piece of American history rolling down the road in his World War II jeep, a 1942 Ford GPW.

"It's essential because the material culture elicits the story," Thrasher said. "It will get vets to tell their story if they see it. It gives you an opportunity to get kids interested in that, so you can tell them a little bit about it if you talk about the war and what went on."

The jeep provides the opportunity to compare and contrast how things were during World War II with how they are now during the war on terror, he said.

"During World War II there were scrap drives and everyone had to grow a Victory Garden, and there was food rationing, shoe rationing and all that kind of thing," he said. "People either don't know or don't stop to think how it is now and how it was then when you're talking total mobilization of the country compared to the Army and the Marine Corps being mobilized."

Over the course of the past 15 years, Thrasher's jeep has made appearances in the Savannah, Ga., St. Patrick's Day and Veterans Day parades, as well as other public showings.

Thrasher has taken part in public events near Fort Hood, Texas, where he purchased the jeep, as well as Fort Sill, Okla., and Fort Stewart, Ga., with a tour in Korea in between.

The decision to purchase the jeep took about six months after Thrasher attended an air show in Waco, Texas, and met a gentleman who was displaying two vintage military vehicles, and about three cots worth of vintage World War II TA-50.

"There was no clue in my mind that private individuals could own vintage WWII vehicles," Thrasher recalled.

When his friend showed him two jeeps he had available for sale, Thrasher said he lucked into purchasing the Ford instead of the more popular Willys.

"I really just kind of bumbled into it," he said. "I bought mine because it's early enough that it's got the Ford script on the back and it has the original data plates on it with the (Vehicle Identification Number) and the date of delivery."

When the United States entered World War II, three companies - Bantam, Ford and Willys - vied for the jeep contract with Bantam producing a vehicle closest to the required specifications in 45 days.

However, due to Bantam's inability to meet the production requirements, Ford and Willys ended up making the jeeps, which were a combination of the best of all three submissions. During World War II Ford made 281,448 jeeps, Willys made 362,841 jeeps and Bantam made 2,675.

The distinctions between the Ford and Willys World War II jeeps are insignificant as about 90 to 95 percent of the parts are interchangeable, Thrasher said.

At the time he purchased the jeep, Thrasher admitted his mechanical knowledge was limited to changing oil and not much more, but his friend provided him a workshop and guided him through the restoration process.

When he purchased the jeep, it was missing its radiator, gas tank and carburetor and had to be totally stripped down to the frame and rebuilt.

"It took 2 Â½ years to get it back on the road," he said. "I had to contract out most of the reconstruction because I was getting close to PCSing from Fort Hood."

After returning from his tour in Korea, Thrasher added a personal touch to his jeep as the bumper now carries the identification of his unit in Korea, which served proudly during World War II as part of the 2nd Infantry Division.

When asked about his future plans for vehicle restoration, Thrasher admitted he's been bitten by the restoration bug.

"I'm in the midst of restoring a 1941 Dodge pick-up, which I'm right back in the same boat of paying someone to put it back together," he said.

US Army press release

Richard Winters 1918-2011

2011-01-10T20:38:00.002-06:00

Even as Parkinson's disease began taking its toll on Dick Winters, who led his "Band of Brothers" through some of World War II's fiercest European battles, the unassuming hero refused, as always, to let his men down.

Friends accompanied him to public events, subtly clearing a path through the adoring crowds for the living legend, whose Easy Company's achievements were documented by a book and HBO miniseries. His gait had grown unsteady, and he did not want to be seen stumbling.

Winters "didn't want the members of Easy Company to know," William Jackson said Monday of his longtime friend, who died last week at age 92. "Right up to the end, he was the company commander."

An intensely private and humble man, Winters had asked that news of his death be withheld until after his funeral, Jackson said. Winters lived in Hershey, Pa., but died in an assisted-living center in neighboring Palmyra.

The men Winters led through harrowing circumstances and under fire from the German army never let the toll of time dull their own admiration for their commander.

"When he said 'Let's go,' he was right in the front," William Guarnere, 88, and dubbed "Wild Bill" by his comrades, said Sunday night from his south Philadelphia home. "He was never in the back. A leader personified."

Another member of the unit living in Philadelphia, Edward Heffron, 87, called Winters "one hell of a guy, one of the greatest soldiers I was ever under."

"He was a wonderful officer, a wonderful leader," said Heffron, who had the nickname "Babe" in the company. "He had what you needed: Guts and brains. He took care of his men, that's very important."

Winters was born Jan. 21, 1918, and studied economics at Franklin & Marshall College before enlisting, according to a biography on Penn State's website.

Winters became the leader of Company E, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, on D-Day after the death of the company commander during the invasion of Normandy.

During that invasion, Winters led 13 of his men in destroying an enemy battery and obtained a detailed map of German defenses along Utah Beach. In September 1944, he led 20 men in a successful attack on a German force of 200 soldiers. Occupying the Bastogne area of Belgium at the time of the Battle of the Bulge, he and his men held their place until the Third Army broke through enemy lines, and Winters shortly afterward was promoted to major.

"His leadership example both on and off the battlefield will continue to inspire 'Screaming Eagle' soldiers for years to come," said Lt. Col. Patrick Seiber, a spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division, currently deployed to Afghanistan. "His principles for success on the battlefield are timeless, as they are as critical today in Afghanistan as they were on 'Fortress Europe' during World War II."

After returning home, Winters married his wife, Ethel, in May 1948, and trained infantry and Army Ranger units at Fort Dix in New Jersey during the Korean War. He started a company selling livestock feed to farmers, and he and his family eventually settled in a farmhouse in Hershey, where he later retired.

Historian Stephen Ambrose interviewed Winters for the 1992 book "Band of Brothers," upon which the HBO miniseries that began airing in September 2001 was based.

The miniseries followed Easy Company from its training in Georgia all the way to the war's end in May 1945. Its producers included actor Tom Hanks and Steve Spielberg. Damian Lewis portrayed Winters.

"Dick Winters was at the Vanguard of representing 'The Greatest Generation' in bringing honor to all his Band of Brothers when he collaborated with Tom Hanks, Stephen Ambrose and me in the mounting of our tribute series," Spielberg said in a statement. "He would not have wanted this credit. He would have simply asked all of us to never forget how his generation served this nation and the world in WWII."

Winters himself published a memoir in 2006 titled "Beyond Band of Brothers."

In 2009, an exhibit devoted to Winters was dedicated at the Hershey-Derry Township Historical Society. Winters was also the subject of a campaign to raise money to erect a monument in his honor near the beaches of Normandy.

Winters talked about his view of leadership for an August 2004 article in American History Magazine.

"If you can," he wrote, "find that peace within yourself, that peace and quiet and confidence that you can pass on to others, so that they know that you are honest and you are fair and will help them, no matter what, when the chips are down."

When people asked whether he was a hero, he echoed the words of his World War II buddy Mike Ranney: "No, but I served in a company of heroes."

"He was a good man, a very good man," Guarnere said. "I would follow him to hell and back. So would the men from E Company."

Arrangements for a public memorial service are pending.

From LA Times

Who wants a WWII B-25?

2011-01-06T12:11:00.001-06:00

WWII B-25 ‘Skunkie’ looking for a home

Skunkie, the World War II B-25 Mitchell bomber raised from Lake Greenwood in the 1980s and stored in Columbia since 1992, is looking for a home.

The Richland County Airport Commission has turned back a request by the newly formed S.C. Historic Aviation Foundation to house the plane in the historic, but crumbling, Curtiss-Wright hangar at Owens Field — where it had been stored until a few months ago — citing insurance liability. The foundation, which purchased the plane from the Celebrate Freedom Foundation for $15,000 last month, says it may have to take the plane — which is now tethered outside of the hangar — out of Richland County if the commission doesn’t reconsider its position.

“I went into this meeting thinking that the airport commission would be thrilled to death with what we were doing for this historic aircraft,” said SCHAF president C. Cantzon Foster. “We just needed a little help.”

But the hangar, built in 1929, is arguably in a more precarious condition than the plane. It has holes in the roof and missing windows, and a decade of efforts to raise an estimated $3 million for its restoration have gone nowhere.

“The commission was concerned about the structural integrity of the hangar and traffic in it by non-county employees,” said Chris Eversmann, director of Columbia’s Hamilton-Owens Airport, where the hangar is located. “Work is needed to see if it is safe and sound.”

The hangar, built by the Curtiss-Wright Co. at the advent of the Great Depression and dedicated as Columbia Municipal Airport in 1930, has seen aviation grow from biplanes navigated by lighthouse-like beacons to global positioning satellites.

The Curtiss-Wright Co. was formed when businesses owned by the Wright Brothers, inventors of the airplane, and motorcycle enthusiast Glenn Curtiss merged. The company built hangars as maintenance facilities at airports nationwide. Only a handful still exist.

Wilbur Wright died in 1912, and it’s unknown whether Orville Wright ever visited the hangar. But famed aviator Amelia Earhart’s signature is still listed in the Columbia airport’s log book: 11:30 a.m. Nov. 16, 1931. She logged her aircraft as a Beech-Nut Autogiro flying from Greenville to Charleston.

President Franklin Roosevelt also flew into the airport in the late 1930s.

Efforts to renovate the hangar, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, began in the late 1990s, but they stalled significantly on Sept. 11, 2001, with the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. They have yet to be revived.

The B-25 was housed in the crumbling hangar for several years when it was owned by the Celebrate Freedom Foundation. But earlier this year the organization moved it outside because of the hangar’s deteriorating condition. Since then, the B-25 has been tethered to the tarmac outside the hangar, exposed to the elements.

The airport commission offered to continue to rent the tie-down space to the foundation for $40 per month, but Foster said the bomber needs to be stored indoors.

Exposing it “to the elements is the worst thing that could happen to this historic aircraft,” he said. “We just need a place to store it for 12 months while we develop a restoration plan.”

Eagle Aviation offered to store the plane in one of its maintenance hangars at Hamilton-Owens, but because of its size the bomber would have to be dismantled. “And we want the public to have access to it and use for fundraising events,” Foster said.

Foster added that the foundation would ask the commission to reconsider its decision at its Jan. 15 meeting, and may also appeal to Richland County Council.

However, the airport commission is an advisory board to the council, and it might be a hard sell to get the council to overrule the commission’s decision, said council member Greg Pearce, who is council’s liaison to the commission.

“You could put a tarp over the top of (the plane) and get as much protection as the Curtiss-Wright Hangar (offers); it’s pretty beat up,” he said. “I don’t know what their arguments would be to overrule the airport commission.”

Should they not be allowed use of the hangar, “We might have to take the plane out of Richland County,” Foster said. “That would be very unfortunate for Richland County.”

The B-25 was brought to Columbia from Greenwood and restored to its present state in 1992. Although it is not directly related to the Doolittle Raid, the names of Doolittle’s crew were painted below the cockpit. It became the centerpiece of the Doolittle Raiders’ 50th anniversary, held in Columbia in 1992, and subsequent reunions.

The Raiders volunteered for what many considered a suicide mission in 1942 at Columbia Air Base, which was the largest B-25 training base in the nation during World War II.

The plane cost $30,000 to restore initially, and the funds were raised by Don McElveen of Columbia, founding partner of the CMK Engineering firm, and John Rainey of Camden, an attorney and political activist, as a way to honor the Raiders. McElveen and Rainey deeded the plane to the city of Columbia after a plan to display it at the State Museum didn’t work out.

In 2007, the city gave the plane to the Celebrate Freedom Foundation, which had organized the Doolittle reunions and held annual festivals honoring the military. Those festivals included vintage aircraft. Since then, Celebrate Freedom’s focus has changed from World War II to the Vietnam War, and it offered the B-25 for sale.

Of the 1,660 “C” model B-25s that were built, only seven still exist, including Skunkie, and none fly. Most of those planes came to South Carolina and Columbia Air Base.

SCHAF has estimated the cost of getting the plane flying at $1 million. Once flying, the plane could be used as an ambassador for South Carolina at air shows and events across the country, officials said.

To help raise the money for stabilization, restoration, and perhaps eventually flight, the foundation is offering memberships ranging from $100 (flight engineer) to $5,000 (Raider).

For more information, contact SCHAF at Foster’s law office, (803) 400-1921.

From "The State"

Christmas: 1945 - New Book

2010-12-29T11:04:00.002-06:00

Author attempts to capture essence of Christmas 1945

Book examines how throng of military personnel tried to get home for holidays after WWII

Christmas is a special time of year for many families, but the Christmas of 1945 was special to the entire nation because it was the first Christmas after the end of World War II.

Matthew Litt, a 1995 graduate of Manalapan High School, has set about capturing the essence and spirit of that special Christmas in his newly released book, “Christmas 1945, The Story of the Greatest Celebration in American History (History Publishing Company, 2010).”

“I was looking for an uplifting topic and thought Christmas came to mind,” said Litt, a 33-year-old lawyer with the firm of Capehart Scatchard in Mount Laurel. “I love history and started coming across some interesting stories about the end of World War II and how that Christmas of 1945 was celebrated.”

Litt, who has a degree in politics from Ithaca College in New York and a law degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law, has written numerous articles about law. He used those same research and interviewing skills for “Christmas 1945.”

Matthew Litt “I visited libraries, went to senior centers, churches, synagogues and clicked on websites for newspaper articles of the time,” Litt said. “About 80 percent of the information documented in the book came from local newspapers describing how they welcomed home their native servicemen and servicewomen and celebrated a Christmas free of war.”

In his book, Litt said that Christmas Day 1945 was a Tuesday, and a four-day holiday was declared by President Harry S. Truman to allow federal workers, who worked through four war-year Christmases, time to return to their homes. The nation made it a four-day event, too.hrough Operation Magic Carpet, the military attempted to return to America tens of thousands of troops from Europe and Asia. And through Operation Santa Claus, the U.S. Army and Navy attempted to process the discharge of these military personnel in time to be home for Christmas. As a result, the military strove to solve a logistical nightmare with all forms of transportation stressed beyond their limits.

Litt’s book describes the creativity, ingenuity and gratefulness of the American people who overcame numerous problems of weather and shortages to welcome home its native sons and daughters in time for Christmas.

Though food items and gasoline were rationed, the American people banded together and gathered presents for the service personnel. People opened their homes and wallets for soldiers who were not able to make it to their own hometowns. Cab drivers drove soldiers from ports to their inland towns, asking only for gas fare. Photos show towns with “Welcome Home” banners and bright Christmas decorations as the whole nation celebrated a Christmas without war.

A section of the book, said Litt, who is Jewish, covers Hanukkah of 1945.

“Hanukkah of 1945 was early and celebrated on November 29,” he said. “It is not a high holy day and its importance is related to its proximity to Christmas. Still, in light of the horror of the Holocaust, coming home to family members was very special that year.”

A native of Manalapan, Litt said the book took six years to complete. The hardest part was getting “no” from agents and publishers, until one said yes.

“I’m completely blown away by interest in the book now that it is finished,” said Litt, who had a scheduled interview with National Public Radio in New York City on Dec. 13. “The interviews and reviews are very encouraging.”

The book, he said, could not have been possible without the support of friends and family, including his parents, Marilyn and Michael Litt, longtime residents of Manalapan who recently moved to Florida. Also, his wife, Erin, and her parents, Sherry and Jim Brady, who are residents of Manalapan, were invaluable to him.

“Matthew worked really hard and I am very proud of him,” said Erin Litt, a Manalapan native and a 1996 graduate of St. John Vianney High School in Holmdel. “He was playing Christmas carols throughout the year to get in the mood and to meet deadlines and jokes that he had the largest collection of Christmas CDs of any Jewish man.”

Even the cover of the book that was selected by the publisher has a family connection. “The cover shows a typical snow-covered street in a small town,” said Erin, a former third-grade teacher at Taylor Mills School in Manalapan. “When I sent a copy of the book to my brother, James, he recognized it as Church Street in Burlington, Vermont, where he went to the University of Vermont.”

Litt hopes that “Christmas 1945” brings an old-fashioned spirit of Christmas to its readers as well as memories for those who lived through that Christmas. Also, it serves as a history lesson of America’s greatest celebration.

Litt and his wife, Erin, reside with their son, Max, in Chesterfield, and await the birth of their second child in 2011. “Christmas 1945” is available online at Amazon. com or in local bookstores, such as Barnes & Noble.

BY PATRICIA YOCZIS from Examiner.com

Collectors Vie For WWII Artifacts

2010-12-16T12:14:00.001-06:00

'It's a downright profanation," declares Xavier Pierson, director of the Verdun Memorial, which was burgled for the first time in its 33-year history at the end of October.

The privately run memorial, which commemorates the 1916 Battle of Verdun, doubles as a museum where approximately 3,000 pieces of French and German World War I memorabilia are on permanent display. According to Mr. Pierson, a retired French Army colonel, the burglars stole more than 40 of the museum's most valuable objects, including battle helmets, firearms and a whole display cabinet full of cigarette lighters. The entire haul was worth about €30,000, or $40,000.

And this robbery wasn't an isolated incident. Earlier in October, two smaller WWI memorial sites—Fort Vaux and Fort de la Falouse—were also ransacked.

Mr. Pierson believes the person or people behind the robbery at the Verdun Memorial were stealing to order. Collectors say incidents like this are the underside of renewed French interest in WWI memorabilia.

The march of time, the relative scarcity of undamaged material from 1914-1918, the advent of popular Internet trading sites like eBay and the fact that collectibles have always been a good hedge against inflation have persuaded French collectors that the Great War still has a lot to offer them.

"Ten or 15 years ago very few people [in France] were interested in collecting World War I memorabilia, unless it was an object belonging to a high ranking officer like [Marshal] Foch," says Jean-Claude Dey, an expert in antique weapons and historical memorabilia, who sold the holder for the pen used to sign the Armistice for about 22,000 francs (about $5,000) 12 years ago.

"Now there are a growing number of young collectors who are becoming interested in World War I," Mr. Dey adds. "They've heard their family talk about the Great War so it's a period they're familiar with. They've also read a lot of books and seen a lot of films. The prices remain very reasonable, so it's an ideal field for them to break into."

Whereas World War II or Napoleonic-era militaria are popular with collectors world-wide, enthusiasm for WWI memorabilia is predominantly a French thing.

Mr. Pierson, a veteran of the French Foreign Legion, believes this is because most of the major battles of the Great War, like Verdun, the Somme and Ypres, were fought on French or nearby Belgian soil, and that French schoolchildren have grown up surrounded by this history.

"You have to remember that France was psychologically tormented during and after the Great War," he says. "For four years, 15 French departments were occupied by the Germans. Apart from Germany, France suffered more deaths than any other European country. Parts of the Red Zone [area along the Western Front] still cannot be cultivated because there are mines and grenades that haven't yet been detonated."

French historian Jean-Pierre Vernay, who began amassing one of the world's biggest collections of World War I memorabilia 60 years ago at the age of five, believes there are several thousand collectors in France alone. He says collectors in Britain, Germany, Russia and the U.S. are also becoming more interested.

"The Internet provides an opportunity to make some fantastic discoveries because you can now see what's available from all over the world," says Mr Vernay. "Sometimes the prices are totally unreasonable, but I'm very careful and I set myself a limit."

Five years ago, Mr Vernay donated his entire collection of World War I memorabilia—which comprises 22,000 objects of militaria, 30,000 documents and 6,000 books—to a new French museum devoted to the Great War.

Situated in the northeastern region of Meuse, the Musée de la Grande Guerre, as it will be called, is costing €26 million. It will open on Nov. 11, 2011, at the foot of expatriate American sculptor Frederick William MacMonnies' colossal statue "La Liberté Eplorée" ("Liberty in Distress"), which was a gift to the French state from the U.S. in recognition of its efforts in the Great War. It will be the country's biggest museum devoted to a war that claimed almost 1.7 million French lives, or more than 4% of the population at the time.

After decades of rejection as a symbol of outdated patriotism, the poilu (French slang for infantryman) has become a cultural icon in recent years, celebrated in films like "Joyeux Noel" (2005) and in books like "Lettres des Poilus," which has sold more than 300,000 copies since publication in 1998.

The poilus' official rehabilitation began in 1995 when then-President Jacques Chirac decided to award the Legion of Honour to all living WWI combatants. The process of remembrance picked up further pace in 2003, when the Ministry of Defense set up a website "Memoires des hommes" (www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr/), which has helped many French citizens to find out exactly where a family member died, in which battle, and where they are buried. Then in 2008 an official ceremony was held to mark the death of Lazare Ponticelli, the "last poilu."

But despite this growing interest in the Great War, Mr. Dey warns prospective collectors not to get too carried away just yet.

"It's still a bit early to make a bundle," he says. "The other problem is there isn't all that much material that really stands out. During World War I it was khaki for everyone and all cut to the same size. The most attractive memorabilia tends to be from the German side, especially the pointed helmets, which regularly fetch €5,000."

Fashionistas, though, should beware: in his gritty WWI memoir "Old Soldiers Never Die" (1933), Frank Richards, a former private in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, recounted how captured German helmets were often used as makeshift latrines in the cramped Allied trenches.

From WSJ.com

Collectibles breaking world records

2010-12-11T19:37:00.004-06:00

Many high power collectors know about Paul Fraser. His website and email provide amounts of great information for a collector, and entertainment as well. Doubt I'll ever buy anything from him as, like numerous collectors, I enjoy the hunt more than dropping a couple of mil at auction (yes, that's jealousy) Here are some highlights from his latest email.

Collectibles were breaking more world records yesterday... four items sold for over $10m

Bob Dylan's lyrics to "The Times They Are a-Changin" sold at Sotheby's - a world record price of more than $400,000.

The same sale saw an important Abraham Lincoln document sell for nearly $4m. Another world record price, and almost doubling the previous world record.

Also hitting the auction block were James Naismith's "Rules of Basketball" - they sold for $4.5m - the highest price ever paid for a sports memorabilia item.

Then came a flag from General Custer's Last Stand - it sold for over $2m - a world record for a flag.

I can't say I'm surprised by the prices; it's something we've been predicting for a long time.

We use the term 'nostalgia investors' - they're part of the baby boomer demographic who now control 80% of the world's wealth. And they're increasingly buying rare collectibles.

After all, where else can you realistically put your money right now?

So, maybe not all militaria related, but you can figure it out. It also goes on to a very interesting report about the Asian market. We all know the potential of militaria, and the potential gained by buying and selling militaria with Manion's. With the new 30 day payoff now is a FANTASTIC time to take advantage. From musette bags to Mussolini's boots - and every where in-between: www.manions.com.

WWII B-29 crash and submarine recovery caught on tape!

2010-12-07T10:24:00.001-06:00

FANTASTIC!

Ghost Army reuinion - and documentary!

2010-11-29T09:36:00.005-06:00

I'm sure many of our customers in the Northern part of the US (I like to call it "Lower Canada") of our customers read this story in the Journal Sentinel; let's hope it makes it across the country ("all the way to Upper Mexico). In the meantime, I've re-posted the article below as well as other links and video.

I suppose the movie will be out soon - the ghost army wiki article says as of 2010 it is under production. There was a recent eBay auction of an original work of art by artist Harold Laynor to benefit the production of the movie, which unfortunately lost funding a while back, but I haven't figured out the final price. Anyway, visit the Ghost Army website and support the film however you can. Here's a trailer:

Secret WWII Army unit reunites on film

From Journal Sentinel

For 50 years, Al Albrecht did not talk about his unit's missions during World War II.

He was still following orders.

Albrecht, now 86, served with what became known as the Ghost Army. Long top-secret, it was a combat deception unit, using disinformation to support the Allied war effort. Weapons included giant rubber inflatable tanks and sound recordings that could be heard for miles.

"We were told we couldn't tell our wives or anybody about what we did" for 50 years, he later said. "It was totally secret."

Finally free to speak, Albrecht was happy to attend the first reunion of Ghost Army veterans, held 51 years after the end of the war. It proved to be just the beginning of the conversation.

Rick Beyer, a Lexington, Mass., filmmaker working on a film about the Ghost Army, discovered him at a reunion in Washington, D.C. Albrecht was one of more than 20 veterans interviewed for the film.

Now dying of pancreatic cancer, Albrecht was the star Saturday at a special screening of Beyer's film. Bedridden, he was wheeled into the auditorium at the Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Other vets at the hospital attended, too, as did Albrecht's friends and family.

"He's been talking away like crazy about the Ghost Army," daughter Karen Skibba said earlier, "because he's so excited about the movie."

Officially, 82 officers and 1,023 enlisted men served with the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops. They completed 21 missions between D-Day and the end of the war, including clandestine work in France, Luxembourg, Belgium and Germany.

"Where else did you have a unit that had rubber tanks, rubber trucks, rubber aircraft and false sound equipment?" Albrecht said in an interview with Beyer.

The camouflage unit had artists - including Bill Blass, later known as a fashion designer - responsible for deploying the large-as-life props. Radio unit personnel worked from elaborate scripts to feed false information to enemy ears.

Albrecht, a native of Two Rivers, was drafted right out of high school and assigned to the sonic unit. Sonic members were responsible for projecting recordings of the sounds, big and small, that mimicked an army on the move. At full blast, the 500-pound speakers could be heard 15 miles away.

"I drove a halftrack," Albrecht told Beyer. "I tell my children that was the biggest boom box you ever heard."

In some instances, Ghost Army efforts were enough to divert and distract the Germans, including enemy pilots reporting to their commanders. Some "special effects" artillery booming added to the illusion.

"This is the part I like," Albrecht continued. "We could deflate all the rubber tanks and disappear. In about two hours, we were gone.

"Can you picture the German commander . . . going over there, but finding nothing? Maybe a lot of tank tracks," he said. "We slipped away in the night. That's the Ghost Army."

Operations were so secret that, even among the Ghost Army units, information was on a need-to-know basis. Albrecht recalled traveling with explosives under their truck seats and orders not to let equipment fall into enemy hands.

The Ghost Army also took on the task of impersonating other personnel - Albrecht still has a collection of patches from outfits he never belonged to - with incorrect patches and ranks and vehicle markings. Sometimes they would visit villages, sampling enough of the local beverages to make disinformation seem credible.

"We were playacting," Albrecht said last week from his hospital bed. "This was a different unit."

"Even his discharge papers were false," his daughter said. "It said he was part of the infantry, but that was false."

Nighttime subterfuge

The units moved under cover of darkness, hoping to confound the enemy and disguise Allied troop movements.

One story became the stuff of Ghost Army lore. Two Frenchmen saw four soldiers pick up a tank - 90-some pounds instead of tons - and turn it around. Arthur Shilstone, who served with the camouflage unit, was on guard duty and saw the Frenchmen's faces.

"The Americans are very strong," Shilstone said, later repeating the story to Beyer.

Under fire, though, rubber tanks and howitzers were not the answer. The Ghost Army's worst days came during Operation Bouzonville in March 1945. Two men were killed and 15 wounded.

"We knew that at any time, we could be attacked, and we had nothing," Albrecht said. "Hey, we had no real weapons. They were mostly all artificial.

"Yes, we were scared," he said. "We didn't know whether we would come back the next day. . . . It was possible that that mission would be our last."

Albrecht returned home and fell in love with a young woman from Two Rivers, Doris Mae Grenier. They married 62 years ago, later moving to Milwaukee. They raised five children and became grandparents and great-grandparents.

He was a natural talking to groups and giving speeches about the Ghost Army, once he was free to do so.

"He took the show on the road as long as he could," Skibba said.

Historians can now debate just how effective the Ghost Army was, but it proved a crucial element in at least one engagement. That came during Operation Viersen later in March 1945, as they created the illusion of a massive Allied movement miles from where the real 9th Army was crossing the Rhine River.

"There's strong evidence, particularly with that operation on the Rhine, that they succeeded in fooling the enemy and saving lives," Beyer said.

"It's one thing to use inflatable tanks and it's another to use inflatable tanks within the sound of enemy artillery, within, in some cases, 600 yards of the front line," Beyer said. "They were 1,000 guys pretending to be 10,000 or 20,000. In their final deception, with the help of some other units, they pretended to be 40,000."

The ruse worked.

"I'm sure the biggest thing that we accomplished was saving many Americans - and also Germans," Albrecht told Beyer. "War is meant to shoot people and kill people, and we saved people. And to me, that made me very proud."

2010-11-26T09:22:00.002-06:00

Airmen invented them. Soldiers collected them. U.S. presidents owned them. Not being able to produce one could cost you a round of drinks. Yet the craze died almost as quickly as it caught on. Back in the day, everyone had his own “short snorter.”

Short snorters were basically dollar bills signed by friends, unit comrades, and/or famous people. They were carried by those in the military for good luck, and if asked to show yours, you had better have it or you would be required to buy small drinks for everyone. “Snort” was slang for a mixed drink, hence the term short snorter.

The tradition is said to have originated with Alaskan pilots during the 1920s. Soon, people crossing the ocean joined the short snorter “club.” If you did not have one you were obligated to pay a dollar to anyone who asked. The practice may also trace its roots back to Civil War soldiers who wrote the names of places they visited on their canteens.

During World War II, airmen collected them, signed by crewmembers, and it wasn’t long before everyone in the armed services wanted their own keepsakes, too. Often, foreign currency was used instead of dollar bills. Indeed, some men had so many pieces of currency signed that they would tape them together, making one long bill that was rolled up and carried in a pocket. The fad was so widespread that in 1943, in “There Once Was A War” John Steinbeck wrote a brief tirade against the “Short Snorter War Menace.” Steinbeck mentions the large numbers of politicians and celebrities who signed them and even carried their own.

George Patton had a short snorter signed by, among others, George Marshall, “Hap” Arnold, Omar Bradley, and Louis Mountbatten. Patton’s signature is preserved on the short snorters of others. Other signatures found on various bills include Dwight Eisenhower, Franklin Roosevelt, Chester Nimitz, Bob Hope, Greg “Pappy” Boyington, John Wayne and Winston Churchill. Eleanor Roosevelt carried her short snorter with her during World War II and was pictured signing many bills for Soldiers. Marlene Dietrich is said to have had her own as well. In 1944, Coca-Cola ran an ad in a journal depicting a soldier showing off his autographed bill to others. An old 78 rpm jazz record titled “Short Snorter” has even been unearthed. It seemed everyone in uniform had a souvenir of this type, and servicemen would sit around clubs comparing them, and often the person with the least number of signatures would buy the drinks.

Although the fad appeared to die out after World War II, to this day commemorative short snorters are still printed. Additionally, the idea of signing dollar bills isn’t a completely lost art. American Idol’s David Cook signed a short snorter during a USO tour of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Both original short snorters and commemorative ones appear at auction, and are usually not worth much, unless of course they are signed by a famous name. A few are on display in museums. Eleanor Roosevelt’s can be seen in the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. Occasionally, books and magazines dealing with currency collectibles will have an article.

Short snorters are another example of American uniqueness, and one of many ways troops have found to entertain themselves while away from home.

From Ft. Leavenworth Lamp

Students enjoy annual Vietnam lesson

2010-11-24T14:44:00.000-06:00

Since 2001 Haddonfield Memorial High School history teacher Michael Busarello has been teaching students about one of the most divisive wars in American history, the Vietnam War. The HMHS teacher inherited the program from Patty Kolodi, who began the class in 1991, and it remains one of the most popular electives at the high school.

While it’s important for students to know the dates and figures of the war, it’s always been the program’s intention to have the students become more familiar with the men and women who fought and served during the conflict, he said. One of the most important features of the class is a deep-well of Vietnam veterans who have been coming to the high school for many years to share their stories with HMHS students.

Last week Andy Tally, perhaps the longest tenured speaker of the program, visited HMHS with some of his massive collection of Vietnam War memorabilia. The Camden native was drafted to the conflict in August 1967 and served with the 1st Battalion 22nd Regiment for a term.

Tally has been speaking with HMHS students since the early 1990s when the program started, he said last week.

“The Army gave me discipline and structure. It definitely helped me later on in life,” Tally said as he spoke about his career as a state policeman after the war. Going through state police training was easy compared to his basic training for the military.

It’s easily the highlight of the class for the students, as various speakers come in and share their experiences. During every presentation he gives, Tally picks a student from the audience and dresses him or her in the full uniform and equipment.

Pat Donnellon, a senior, offered up his services and donned the 60-pound outfit that Tally had to wear each day for a year as he and his battalion marched through the jungles of Vietnam. Ammunition, a flak jacket, MREs – it was all there as Donnellon took each piece of equipment and slung it over his shoulders like Tally.

Donnellon said it was heavy just standing in the classroom. Tally said that the walking regiment would hump the equipment every day for the equivalent distance of Haddonfield to the Echelon Mall.

Helping the students get a better understanding of what men and women went through in the conflict keeps him coming back each year, Tally said.

From The Haddenfield Sun