Funny, Strange, Random Pics

Can anyone identify these medals? Obviously one is purple heart.

Also, is the mess kit / canteen American or German?

fris said:

Can anyone identify these medals? Obviously one is purple heart.

Also, is the mess kit / canteen American or German?

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Ziggy beat me to it but I found these.


Your mess kit looks German: German Wehrmacht Mess Kits “Kochgeschirr” (Identifying Finds, Photos+) – Hobby Detecting Blog

fris said:

Can anyone identify these medals? Obviously one is purple heart.

Also, is the mess kit / canteen American or German?
View attachment 417494View attachment 417495

Click to expand...

All from WWII

Red with white strips (medal and ribbons) : Army Good Conduct
Purple and bronze (medal and ribbons): purple heart with clusters.
Large with rifle: Combat Infantry badge
Light Blue ribbon next to badge: American Campaign
lrft ribbons with stars: European, African, Middle East campaign (each star denotes a seperate campain)
Yellow ribbon" American Defense
Red w 3 stripes: Army Good Condusct
Blue w/ Gold border: Army Presidential unit citation

Who ever those belong to saw alot of action.


Jesus in for the win...

StJesuz said:

Your mess kit looks German: German Wehrmacht Mess Kits “Kochgeschirr” (Identifying Finds, Photos+) – Hobby Detecting Blog

Click to expand...

fucking love you guys

so story time. my grand dad (like many my age) served in WW2, 101st airborne. landing was fubar, wasn't dropped where he was supposed to be dropped. anyways, his group captured a hill, lots of dead germans. he and 1 other soldier were left behind to hold that hill. turns out one of the dead germans wasn't dead, started moaning. his fear was the moaning would reveal their position, so he ended that german. felt bad rest of his life for it. took what the guy had on him, a letter the guy had written w/o any name or address to. when my grand dad landed, he soon lost his mess kit. the story goes that the american mess kit was small, flimsy, etc. but the german one was bigger and more useful. so after taking what that german had, he then had the best mess kit of his group. he was eventually shot, bullet went in his jaw, out the other side. he tried to retreat by crawling onto a tank and get a ride back to med. he fell off when a morter round landed near. if you use a morter and you miss, you can tell how to adjust by where the miss lands and always hit 2nd shot. so knowing a tank was worth more than a solder, he waved the tank off and laid down to die. more came by and dragged him off to med. turns out the bullet that went in and out his face, also went in his shoulder and out his back, thus why he couldn't climb up the tank well. but given his face was in pieces, he didn't notice. they took out a rib and made him a new jaw. his lower teeth started falling out in his late 80s, and the gov't fixed them for him for free, lifetime warranty on war wounds. he showed me the bullet scare on his shoulder and back once. he didn't like talking about war, thought it wasn't honorable. so this story is pieced together by what he told my dad and uncle and me over the years. I have a few more obvious german items, eagle belt buckle and such. these weren't war trophies but reminders of his sins. he died 97 years old, content that he was 'going to hell where his friends were'. Spent most of his time after his wife died volunteering with a local hospice group.

Please accept this random bunny in my neighborhood as payment



And here's a pic on his last trip to the WW2 memorial in dc