WWII Items... (Parts one and two.)

Hello all.. I wanted to share a few items that I picked up this weekend at the Militaria/gun show this weekend... Just for the record It was my Mothers 79th Birthday. She was born in '43... So I bought her a table at the gunshow... It was fun... We promoted our business.

Now before I get started.. This is going to be sort of a long thread. and a few of these pics may seem repetitive... I actually did not fo very good at this show, Not much jumped out at me and I had no direction for my museum...

But I did pick up a couple interesting pieces.

Ok. Just to start off, I want to show the set of Picket fence shelving that I made last weekend.






and I did not pick this up, ut to add a little excitement to this post, I have added this picture of how I framed Ration Stamps and the Ration book. One day I will go into detail about rationing and stamps. I enjoy home front items.






To start off with I picked up The Soldiers Guide to Biloxi Ms. What I learned from this little piece beside that there were 29 churches in Biloxi in '43... But Keesler UAAF Base was a large training station for B-24 mechanics.







Then I picked up is the University of Arkansas Yearbook 1944. Lots of Pretty Girls there boys.





This item here.. It's a photo of Bob Hope during a USO show taken by a soldier sitting in the Audience. Just using my best judgement from the dress of the MUsicians and the guy on stage in the background I believe that this photo was taken in the Pacific Theatre. ALthough the photo that I purchased is a reproduction of an original, I only paid $1.00 and it was taken by a serviceman sitting in one of the front rows.. I am going to use the photo in the screenplay that I am working on.





I live in OKC. Some might know me as Joe OKC on other football websites, but that's another story and I may be being stalked by some. But any ways I have sub catagories in my Collection. They are Food, Music, Christmas and Oklahoma. Although as you see I also buy things from other states as well. NOLA and Louisiana are a favorite too.

Anyways here is a postcard from a sailor to his Girlfriend whom it seems has not written him as often as he would like. She lived in a Fancy part of OKC with the richer folks and the ship that he served on was a HQ ship for the US army in the Pacific and was at the BAttle of Leyte Gulf right after this card was sent.

quote:

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USS Mount Olympus (AGC-8) was a Mount McKinley-class amphibious force command ship, named for the highest peak in the Olympic Mountains of the State of Washington. She was designed to be an amphibious forces flagship—a floating command post with advanced communications equipment and extensive combat information spaces to be used by the amphibious forces commander and landing force commander during large-scale operations.

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LINK


Next up is a Blue Star Flag. AKA Son in the Service Flag. This was extremely popular in the WWII and still used today. The Blue Star represents a Person in the service from the Family and it was placed in the front window for all to see. A Gold star meant that a person from the family had been killed. This is a two star flag and it represents that Two sons from this family were in the service. And they also did not have to be in the same branch of service, just in the service. As I stated it was extremely popular back then and Blue Mother Mothers are still active today.





A small soldiers New Testament.. Unknown owner.





This Item speaks for itself... But it was to help get civilians familiar with Names and Ranks in the services. Although servicemen could own one too, this was more of a home front item for the population to help them. This book was actually owned by someone who enlisted in 1942 as the wrote that on the back page... owner unknown.I paid $5







Wool Combat winter scarf... Bought for my GF cause she was cold, but I'll just keep it for her and give it to my mannequin - "Wilbur"






Sweetheart Jewelry. These pieces were worn at home on civilians clothing to signify that they had a loved one in the service. Mostly by Women... This piece is special because it has her man's rank on the chain signifying that he was an Officer in the Navy. Lieutenant to be exact. I think she was a little extra proud of that. I paid $20.00. But I live sweetheart Jewelry. Any of you Navy guys please feel free to chime in on the rank.






Now... Binoculars... Now I have US GI binoculars running out my ears... I have M3, M6 and M17 Binoculars. The difference is that the M6 were made in Britain and the m17 are large binoculars.. Now my Mannequin "Wilbur".. But his binoculars didn;t have a case, and this pair has a great Range finder embedded. So it was an major upgrade that I had to do because the seller was a friend and he gave me a fantastic deal on these.








I picked up some 1944 German 9MM Luger ammo. I don't plan on shooting it, but it will go great with my Luger and the other boxes of WWII ammo that I have.







Now before I post these next items I need to tell a tale. I picked up a couple canteens... Now I really didn;t want canteens and had no plan on getting them. But I was Deer hunting this fall and I carried a couple bottles of cheap water with me in my jacket pocket... As I was in my deer stand I would reach in my pocket to get a bottle of water for a drink.. and that cheap plastic bottle make a crunching noise that could be heard 10 miles away... I could not believe it. So I decide I would just start carring a canteen to be quieter and of course it would have to be WWII for me so I decided that I wanted an Italian canteen for my deer stand... It has a small plug in the top that just pulls out and you don;t even have to unscrew it....




Now I couldn't get an Italian Canteen and not get a German on to go with my USGI and my British one, so I picked one up too. It is actually stamped 1939 and I plan to oil the leather.





On to part two...