Long shot but thought it would be awesome if anyone had a weapon that saw action on the beaches of D-Day and put up pics.. Or is that too much being able to actually document a guns moment in history like that?

I have a German K98 that was brought home as a war trophy from D-Day. The capture papers are dated June 8 1944, the vet that brought it home gave it to me. I will dig it out and get some pics today.

There are tons of guns out there with unknown histories. There must be loads of guns that fought on D-Day and other historical battles, with that info now lost or forgotten.

There are tons of guns out there with unknown histories. There must be loads of guns that fought on D-Day and other historical battles, with that info now lost or forgotten.

 

I own two m1 Garands, a Springfield made in July 1942 and a Winchester made in January 1943. Either could very well have gone ashore in Normandy on June 6, 1944! Only the soldier (If any) that carried them would know for sure the places they have been!

It would probably be pretty hard to have a know documented Allied weapon used there. I dont 't think the troops got to keep their weapons at the end of the war. I know the German weapon serials were documented in their soldbuch. A German weapon could be more easily identified in my opinion by use of a capture paper and having the troops soldbuch. I dont know how well the Allies kept there records of equipment but the Germans did a good job. My 3 WW2 BMW motorcycles have their unit histories from the BMW archives.

It would probably be pretty hard to have a know documented Allied weapon used there. I dont 't think the troops got to keep their weapons at the end of the war. I know the German weapon serials were documented in their soldbuch. A German weapon could be more easily identified in my opinion by use of a capture paper and having the troops soldbuch. I dont know how well the Allies kept there records of equipment but the Germans did a good job. My 3 WW2 BMW motorcycles have their unit histories from the BMW archives.

 

were any of your mc's driven by Steve McQueen trying to escape?

were any of your mc's driven by Steve McQueen trying to escape?

no, he was driving a British BSA in the movie. Many of the older war movies don't have original vehicles in them.

i have a garand from jan - feb of 43 so its a possibility

There are tons of guns out there with unknown histories. There must be loads of guns that fought on D-Day and other historical battles, with that info now lost or forgotten.

 

 

I own two m1 Garands, a Springfield made in July 1942 and a Winchester made in January 1943. Either could very well have gone ashore in Normandy on June 6, 1944! Only the soldier (If any) that carried them would know for sure the places they have been!

 

It would probably be pretty hard to have a know documented Allied weapon used there. I dont 't think the troops got to keep their weapons at the end of the war. I know the German weapon serials were documented in their soldbuch. A German weapon could be more easily identified in my opinion by use of a capture paper and having the troops soldbuch. I dont know how well the Allies kept there records of equipment but the Germans did a good job. My 3 WW2 BMW motorcycles have their unit histories from the BMW archives.

 

There is a outfit called Springfield Research Service that has records for about 100,000 US military firearms. It used to be free to research but they charge something like $75 and up to research and provide a letter documenting it. They don't give the entire history of the firearm but just places it at a specific place at a specific time. One find was someone had a 03 Springfield that was salvaged from one of the warships sunk at Pearl Harbor. Quite a find! However, the hit rate for this service is very low considering the number of weapons used in the wars.

 

I also read where a guy who bought a Garand from CMP reunited it with a Korean War vet who had used the rifle in combat.

 

Bush 41 had given the S&W 38 he was carrying when he was picked up by the submarine after he was shot down to the sub's Captain. The skipper gave it back to Bush when he was president and its now on display at his library IIRC.

 

US military small arms are very difficult to place at a certain battle. Many that were written off as combat losses really weren't and should we say "lost their way". For example when my father landed in Sicily and I asked him how he landed there he told me "my landing craft took a hit from something big (artillery or mortar) and I had to dump all my stuff and swim the last 200 yards or so". I asked him if he dumped all his stuff what did he do for a rifle. He said "there were plenty of rifles on the beach". I didn't understand what he meant until I got older. He picked up a Garand on the beach and although he was a 4.2 mortar man he spent his first few days in Sicily as a rifleman until he got hooked up with his mortars. He then acquired a M1 carbine (which was his standard weapon) probably the same way he got the Garand. It's easy to see how a unit's property book didn't reflect what the unit actually had. Once weapons were accounted for as combat losses or by turn in most records of where they were disappeared. Remember all this stuff was on paper, there were no computers.

 

The last time I know of US troops being permitted to keep any of their weapons was WWI. There were a lot of handguns (1911s and 1917 S&Ws and Colts) as a handgun was handier in the trenches. A friend of mine's father was a WWI vet and when the transport brought him to Hoboken the troops were tol "if you want to keep your pistol that's okay if not just turn it in here". I don't know if this was done everywhere then but about 50% of the handguns that went to WWI never made it back into the inventory.