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Post by one50 on May 28, 2009 22:29:22 GMT 8
As some of you have noticed, we have a new board. Weapons & Material. I encourage everyone to make requests about items you would like to know more about. Items such as WWII American and Japanese small arms and accessories. WWII American and Japanese field gear, uniforms, bayonets, helmets etc.
Please ask for info and we will do our best to give you answers, or feel free to share some of your collection with us. All these items played a part in history which should not be forgotten.
Thank you Dan
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Post by fots2 on May 28, 2009 22:46:43 GMT 8
Hi Dan,
I've got a request for you. What does a Japanese 'knee mortar' look like and how was it used?
Sounds like it was an effective weapon from what I have read.
Thanks.
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Post by one50 on Sept 16, 2010 0:32:18 GMT 8
We have a post for the Japanese "Knee Mortars" Check it out in the Weapons & Material section.
I moved some posts to the "Knee Mortar" thread to keep things a little more organized.
Thanks Dan
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Post by okla on Sept 16, 2010 3:31:28 GMT 8
Hey Dan.....Years ago an old neighbor woman of mine, knowing I was a military history buff,etc, gave me an old, beat up bayonet. It belonged to her long deceased husband and she thought he had said that it was from World War I. I am no authority on bayonets, but I did know at the time that it was not American nor probably British. I just assumed it to be German or French and let it go at that. It laid in my stuff (a couple of WW 1 steel helmets, a WW 2 helmet and liner, .45 automatic, holster and gun belt and M-1 Carbine)) and a not very extensive one at that. Finally, just after finding this website I decided to have an "expert" look at this relic. To my surprise, the custodian/superintendent of the Davis Gun Collection, the largest private collection in the US in Claremore, Oklahoma, told me that it was definitely Japanese. He showed me photos in a couple of different books at this museum and it is, without a doubt, the standard WW 2 Japanese Army bayonet. Now where this old man got this "sticker" I have no idea, but the elderly widow gave it to me in the 1960s. Where ever it came from it had, most certainly, laid in the muck or mud for an extensive length of time. The wooden handle/hand grip was rotted off on one side, the other is ready to fall off and the blade in places is so corroded that I could snap it in two without much effort. I now have no way of getting any background information on this "treasure" of mine, but I can't help but wonder what story is behind it. Did it spill the blood of American or British Commonwealth troops??? Or maybe helpless Chinese civilians. Did it belong to those butchers in the 1945 Manila liberation battle? Maybe belonged to a guard on the Bataan Death March? One thing for sure, it didn't come from some gun show. Some GI brought it home from the Pacific in all probability. Just thought I would throw this tidbit out there. As we speak it's looking down at me from my den wall as it guards its' dark secrets. Cheers.
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Post by one50 on Sept 19, 2010 10:27:15 GMT 8
I would love to see the bayonet. Take a clear pic of the overall bayonet and the makers mark on the blade. I can give you history about the blade if you like. Hopefully it,s not so bad of shape that you can make out the mark.
Dan
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Post by okla on Sept 20, 2010 23:27:46 GMT 8
Hey Dan...I appreciate your kind offer of assistance, but this relic is in such a fragile, corroded condition that no mark is visible. I fear too much effort to clean the blade well enough to reveal any makers mark would cause it to disintegrate more than it already has. This dude is on its last legs. That's the main reason I have hung it on the den wall and don't handle it anymore than necessary. I will always wonder what the story is behind it is. I suppose these things are still out there if one looks hard enough in places like Bataan, Leyte, Okinawa,the 'canal,etc. Thanks again for your kind offer.
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Post by darthdract on Jan 25, 2012 1:52:48 GMT 8
This is a picture of my Great Grand Dad I always wondered if the RIfle he was holding was a Krag Jorgensen or not. They say this was taken in Puertorico in 1899, my Great Grand father died here in Manila in 1959, he was laid to rest at the North Cemetery.
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Post by Karl Welteke on Jan 25, 2012 18:38:51 GMT 8
Wow, that is a nice historical picture, thanks for sharing. I guess I’m following in his footsteps in regards staying over.
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Post by batteryboy on Jan 25, 2012 19:25:00 GMT 8
Very interesting photo of your great grand pa. Yes he is holding a carbine version of the M1895 Krag Rifle.
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Post by darthdract on Jan 25, 2012 20:03:30 GMT 8
@karl-Welteke and Batteryboy Thanks.
to bad I don't have the info on where or when was this taken. some say in Puertorico, there is a house in the background but already faded, By looking at the Uniform can anyone Please tell about his Rank
His Name is Forrest lee Cease, Born in 1874, Kansas USA, Atleast thats what my Grandma told me, they say he is a Wagon master, when he retired from the Army he bacame a fireman at the Tanduay Fire dept in San Miguel Manila, he was one of the internees at UST, for me its somewhat cool that I studied in that University so every enrolment I would stare at the staircase at the mainbuilding.
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