winston smith Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 Over at some other forum a bloke is trying to piece together the story of his grandfathers military service starting with very very little information Could anyone here say owt about this knife Presumbly this was a trophy as he fought for the allies in WW2. Also could you recommend a good site for aiding the identifiction of medals/ribbons. Is this one rated do you know? http://www.omsa.org/forums/showthread.php?t=83 Thanks in advance. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flanker15 Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 The Iron cross engraving is from WW1 1914 it seems to say, that's all I can see. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winston smith Posted January 8, 2009 Author Share Posted January 8, 2009 The Iron cross engraving is from WW1 1914 it seems to say, that's all I can see. yeah, ..., one can easily imagine Hans Sr handing it to Hans Jr when he set off to war in '39/whenever, where he used it till an allied soldier took it from his cooling corpse, ..., but that just my imaginings I was hoping that it might be identifible to a unit or unit type & hope that the son was in a similar unit whose combat history was known, ..., or summat like that. I suspect I'm being way too optimistic, but if any collective would be likely to be able to identify it then I'd like to think the bfc collective was 'up to it' etc Like I said the bloke has, seemingly, very very little to go on. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergei Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 Your friend's granpa could just as well have bought or otherwise 'acquired' it from Germany after the war was over, or won it in a game of poker in a French brothel. The knife offers very little clue to that, unless that engraving is some kind of cryptic hint carved by the pops himself. But if your friend knows his grandfather's name, birth date and where he lived at the time, it should be relatively easy to find out to which unit he was put and then trace the unit's adventures. I'm sure that someone here or at some veteran association over there can help more with the 'how to' specifics. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winston smith Posted January 8, 2009 Author Share Posted January 8, 2009 Your friend's granpa could just as well have bought or otherwise 'acquired' it from Germany after the war was over, or won it in a game of poker in a French brothel. The knife offers very little clue to that, unless that engraving is some kind of cryptic hint carved by the pops himself. But if your friend knows his grandfather's name, birth date and where he lived at the time, it should be relatively easy to find out to which unit he was put and then trace the unit's adventures. I'm sure that someone here or at some veteran association over there can help more with the 'how to' specifics. thanks for advice like here? (as a grandson he doesnt count as 'next of kin') http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/public/general-public.html 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergei Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 Your link is to a US government site. Was he an American soldier? Just wondering, since your location is marked as UK... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScouseJedi Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 Hmm. I was going to post a link here, but its for a site selling ww1 knives so I won't. It looks like a boker ww1 knife from the knifecenter site. Other than the area of the blade just above the guard, it looks the same. There is one on sale in us ebay called a : Boker Damascus Fixed Blade Trench Knife 121918DAM New Are we allowed to post ebay links? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 You might try here. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iminhell Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 I'm the guy Winston is helping out. I got a few more pic's of the knife: The problem I keep running into is the grip. Every knife I find has 3 rivets holding the grip to the tang. This one only has 2. It does not look to have been repaired so I assume it was made with only 2. Only reason I can come up with is it's a very early production or was only intended for show. Someone had told me once what the crown, W and iron cross where, but I have forgotten. Was a makers mark IIRC, which I followed best I could and came up short. Really appreciate the help guys. -John ... and yes I really do need some photography classes, lol 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DASman Posted January 11, 2009 Share Posted January 11, 2009 The link below shows an Iron cross issued by the Kingdom of Wuerttemberg in World War I. http://home.att.net/~ordersandmedals/germany/Wuerttemberg_goldMVMbar_1.jpg Note that the Iron Cross looks like the emblem on the knife. E 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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