Daddy brought home a fair amount of nice stuff from WWII. Most of it acquired after the war ended and they were sent into Berlin as part of the Army of Occupation.
The biggies were a Luger and P-38. Also a .32 which I can’t recall except he called it an Austro-Hungarian pistol. A lot of photos, some of them probably of historical interest such as the first Russian tank to enter Berlin.
One medal I recall was a German one which had an inscription something like: Winterschlact Im Osten. He didn’t get any medals except the ones everyone got except the expert rifleman.
With 5 children and a dozen grandchildren, all of it just seemed to melt away. He sold all the pistols while he and Mother were farming and money was close.
One thing I got from reading about his outfit which was disbanded and sent home in Nov. 1945, was that it was considered poor form to accept a purple heart for a minor wound when others were really badly hurt.
Osten medal is commonly known as “Eastern Front Medal”
German soldiers referred to it as “order of the frozen meat” in reference to the weather conditions in winter 41-42 in Soviet territory
IT is a fairly common medal...many were issued.
The ubiquitous can opener?