101st AB - Germany April 1945

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zepher11
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101st AB - Germany April 1945

Post by zepher11 » Fri Jan 27, 2012 7:09 pm

I just was given a few photos by my 87 year old cousin, Iris, of her husband Bill Sobiski. Bill was in the 101st Airborne, Battery B, 377th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion (377th PFAB). Bill joined the army prior to hostilities and advanced to sergeant in the 16th Field Artillery. I have a lot of his paperwork documenting his promotions as well as one of his jump wings and a belt buckle he made with another one of his jump wings. I have one of his original Screaming Eagle Airborne SSI as well as one of his red overseas cap patches signifying artillery. Iris also gave me the 1942 Luger that he removed from an SS officer during his stint in the town of Bastogne in late December 1944. Bill’s brother-in-law, Kelly, told me the story about what took place when Bill got the Luger. It is pretty intense and made my hair stand on end! I also have the certificate that authorized Bill to bring back the Luger as a war souvenir from the ETO. I have another photo somewhere of Bill wearing a holster with the Luger that I think was in April 1945 as well. I’ll post that if anyone is interested.

Anyway, Iris told me that Bill and his buddy jumped on a Greyhound bus in Stockton, California one evening in 1942 when the driver was off the bus. They took the bus on a little joy ride…of course the bus was full of passengers. Evidently, the army didn't share their sense of humor and Bill was busted back to private and ended up transferring to the 101st. I am unclear of the timing of all of this, but I am piecing it together based on his promotion and discharge paperwork. I know he ended up as a Corporal at discharge. I believe he missed the Normandy jump, but he jumped into Holland and went the distance. Iris told me his picture is in the Epic of the 101st Airborne when he was at Berchtesgaden. I am hoping to acquire a copy of this book someday.

Bill was a great guy and worked with my Dad years ago at the County as a surveyor and mapper. I remember the day he passed away in 1985. He was a marathon runner and suffered a heart attack while training after work one day. Iris donated his Jump Jacket and Ike Jacket to a museum in Cincinnati years ago. I have some photo copies of a picture of the display there, but I would really like to find someone to get better pictures of his uniforms to include with my display of Bill’s other wartime items. I would also love to share them with Iris as well.

I thought this was a great picture of Bill in April 1945 near a Jeep with the 101st markings:

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Sorry to be so long winded!
Last edited by zepher11 on Sun May 12, 2013 8:33 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: 101st AB - Germany April 1945

Post by Rick O » Sat Jan 28, 2012 2:35 pm

Outstanding!

"Kelly, told me the story about what took place when Bill got the Luger. It is pretty intense and made my hair stand on end!"

Lets hear the story!!!! and see the pics please.........
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Re: 101st AB - Germany April 1945

Post by Tapper02 » Sat Jan 28, 2012 3:58 pm

Thanks for sharing that with us Zeph...it's the only way these guys will be remembered. Looking forward to hearing Part II.

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Re: 101st AB - Germany April 1945

Post by thidisbogus » Sat Jan 28, 2012 7:10 pm

Wow Zeph, some more items to add to your extensive collection. Thanks for taking the time and effort to share this.

Let's hear the story about the Luger.

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Re: 101st AB - Germany April 1945

Post by zepher11 » Sat Jan 28, 2012 8:43 pm

Here is the story about Bill’s Luger. Iris has always told me that Bill never ever spoke of the war, and he never talked to her about how he came about the Luger. She never asked. I know he mentioned the Luger on the back of a photo he sent to Iris during the war, so he was proud of it to some degree. She also told me that they never left for trips away from home without the Luger. They lived in Reno right after the war so they went there often. It’s about a three hour drive from where we live. Bill studied to become a jeweler briefly and that is where he made the belt buckle I have with the jump wings on it.

Anyway, Iris’s brother-in-law, Kelly, was a B-17 pilot and he was shot down over France and evaded with the help of the underground. Kelly is who I am dedicating my current ’42 GPW project to. He told me the story one day of which Bill had told him one time only when Bill was “half drunk” one day. Bill rarely drank. Kelly told me that Bill was on the line on the outskirts of Bastogne for quite a number of days with three other GI’s in a fox hole of some sort. He told Kelly that they would go out at night in the field in front of them and drag some of the frozen German soldiers back to the hole as sort of protection around their fox hole. Ammunition was in short supply and they were in quite a few firefights and eventually ran out of ammunition and were overrun. Two of the four in Bill’s fox hole were KIA. Bill and his remaining buddy having been overrun were taken prisoner. As the two were marched back to the rear of the German lines by regular German troops, a German SS officer came upon them and said he would “take these two.” The SS officer then marched Bill and his buddy into the woods, made them strip, pulled out his Luger, chambered a round and pointed it at Bill’s head just as a GI sniper shot the SS officer. The officer fell onto Bill and bled out. Bill and his buddy scrambled and got their uniforms back on and he grabbed the Luger and yanked a medal off of the SS officer and made it back to the American line. I believe I have the medal as well. I looked it up before and it is a German medal, but I think it is from WWI. Maybe the medal was awarded to the SS officer in WWI? I don’t know. I really don’t know how true this story is as told to me by Kelly, but Kelly is still sharp as a tack at 90 and he never seems to embellish anything. Even his story of evading with the help of the underground after being shot down is hair-raising. His co-pilot wrote a book and Kelly’s account is basically the same, so Bill’s story as related by Kelly seems plausible to me. I can tell you that it really did make my hair crawl the first time I heard it! Most likely because I knew bill for a long time, but never knew the story.

Bill sent the middle picture that is in this display frame I built to Iris during the war. It was small but I had a digital copy made and enlarged to preserve it. The photo had the following written on the reverse of the original by Bill: “Düsseldorf, Germany - April ’45. This is not so good. I developed it myself and messed it up. The hole in back of me was my home. Pardon the hat it is silly. The holster is the Luger.”

I don’t know if it would be okay to post a photo of Bill’s US holster that he used and the Luger I have here. I could also post the German medal and maybe someone could help in identifying it as well. Here is the display I built for Bill. I have a picture of both Bill and Iris before they were married in the display. They were married after the war. I made the display deep so that I could insert some of the items, especially the belt buckle into a 3/4” piece of particle board. I traced each item and then used my router to make the indentations. The frame is redwood deck railing slats I picked up a Home Depot. They are like $2.99 each and one makes two sides. I routed the backside to inset the particle board and glass. As I mentioned earlier, I am very honored to be the caretaker of Bill’s war history.

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This is a close up of the one picture that I really like of Bill. I'm guessing, happy to be alive!

Image

Regards,
Zeph

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Re: 101st AB - Germany April 1945

Post by Steve Webb » Sun Jan 29, 2012 9:29 am

You post anything you want and for knowledge of the medal I would put it on the reenacting knowledge forum.
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Re: 101st AB - Germany April 1945

Post by thidisbogus » Sun Jan 29, 2012 12:14 pm

Zeph,

If you post in another forum the luger or medal please PM me so that I will know to look....

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Re: 101st AB - Germany April 1945

Post by gerrykan » Sun Jan 29, 2012 1:03 pm

Any modern photos of items relevant to the original photos should be posted here.

They are part of his story and should be included.

Anyone that doesn't want to view them can click the back button.
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Re: 101st AB - Germany April 1945

Post by zepher11 » Sun Jan 29, 2012 5:52 pm

Thanks guys, here is some additional information.

Okay, here are some other photos related to this story. Also, I had a member here contact me who lives near Cincinnati and offered to take photos of Bill’s display there and send them along. That would be awesome! Hopefully, we can figure out what museum…

Here is a photo of the German medal. I just have the story and this medal with the other items of Bill’s that I have. It may just be something that was picked up along the way, I don’t know. Tonight while looking for the German medal, however, I think I found Bill’s shrunk down military discharge record. It is really small, black with white lettering and is laminated. I didn’t realize I had this. I have a couple these in my collection of other WWII GI’s. Now I need to dig out the magnifying glass. I also took some photos of the holster which is dated 1943, the paperwork for the Luger and the Luger:

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Paperwork for the bring back of the Luger:

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The luger is dated 1942 and all of the parts on it are marked with the number 17. I did a little research awhile back and I believe that these were not massed produced. I think that swapping parts between lugers was a no no because they were individually produced.. It also has some German markings on it as well:

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And I found the digital image I had made to preserve the original photo of Bill with the holster and Luger. It may look better here than the images above. I just think this is a great photo and really gets my mind wandering each time I look at it:

Image

Any comments on the medal or anything else is appreciated.
Zeph

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Re: 101st AB - Germany April 1945

Post by Steve Webb » Mon Jan 30, 2012 3:14 am

I can't comment on the medals but that is one very nice pistol. They were massed produced but were hand fitted, so that is why the 2 digits on the parts match the last 2 digits of the guns sn. That is a pretty low number.
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Re: 101st AB - Germany April 1945

Post by thidisbogus » Mon Jan 30, 2012 7:29 am

Thanks Zeph!

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Re: 101st AB - Germany April 1945

Post by tipdog » Mon Jan 30, 2012 9:26 am

The white medal appears to be from Barvaria - maybe from WWI veteran's organization (V.B.F.c..V.)? On the back it says "Bayr. (Bayern = Barvaria) War Memorial Cross." Might be a private issue commerative medal, not an "official"medal issued by the government.

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Re: 101st AB - Germany April 1945

Post by zepher11 » Mon Jan 30, 2012 7:50 pm

Steve Webb wrote:I can't comment on the medals but that is one very nice pistol. They were massed produced but were hand fitted, so that is why the 2 digits on the parts match the last 2 digits of the guns sn. That is a pretty low number.
Hmmm...I didn't realize the "17" on the individual parts related to the last two digit of the serial number. I don't know a lot about Lugers, but that makes sense. I haven't shot the Luger, but Iris said that they used to shoot it once in awhile years and years ago. I have some old winchester 9mm ammo that Iris had. It looks like it has been around awhile. Thank you for the input. I think I need to build a larger display for all of Bill's items for my war room.

Thanks for the comments, Steve.
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Re: 101st AB - Germany April 1945

Post by zepher11 » Mon Jan 30, 2012 8:04 pm

tipdog wrote:The white medal appears to be from Barvaria - maybe from WWI veteran's organization (V.B.F.c..V.)? On the back it says "Bayr. (Bayern = Barvaria) War Memorial Cross." Might be a private issue commerative medal, not an "official"medal issued by the government.
Thanks for the information, tipdog. I really wish I knew how Bill came into possession of this medal. I did find this information on the ww2-airborne.us web site about the 377th PFAB that Bill belonged to during the war:

"On 18 December 1944, the 101st Airborne Division was hastily transported to Bastogne, Belgium, to help stop the German Ardennes Offensive, “ The Battle of the Bulge”. The 377th provided support for the 502d near Champs, Longchamps and Monaville nothwest of Bastogne. After the division’s magnificent defense of Bastogne against four German Divisions and elements of three others, the 377th occupied the village of Foy on January 16th. The village which was easier to take than hold was the scene of two days of intense attacks and counterattacks before the battalions occupation of it. On January 18th the 101st assembled five hundred representative troops from the division in the battered square of Bastogne to participate in the presentation of medals. That same day the division was relieved by the 11th Armored Division, attached to the Seventh Army and transported to Haguenau in Alsace until late February. The bulk of the 101st which included the 377th returned to Mourmelon by rail in 40-and-8 boxcars.

In early April, 1945, the 101st moved into the Ruhr. The 377th PFAB and the 907th GFAB bivouacked around Neuss not far from Dusseldorf. The last mission of the 377th was in support of the 506th capture of Berchtesgaden. After the 101st stay in Austria, the 377th moved to Seignelay, north of Auxerre, France until it was deactivated on 30 November 1945."


I think this explains why Bill's jump jacket that I have seen photos of has the widowmaker patch of the 502nd PIR on the pocket and confirms that he was in Dusseldorf as is mentioned on the back of some of his photographs. I found a 377th PFAB patch online, but I don't know if this was from WWII. I had never seen one before.

Thanks for all the comments,
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Re: 101st AB - Germany April 1945

Post by Chuck Lutz » Mon Aug 27, 2012 5:45 pm

Zeph....

The Luger (made by Mauser in Oberndorf)....appears to be what had been nicknamed a "Black Widow" by Ralph Shattuck from AZ before he passed away. I would bet it has "41" (maybe a "42") on the top of the chamber and "byf" on the toggle link (Mauser made). That one is magnificent and unless it was reblued at some point (doubt that) it is an excellent example! (Look at the end of the barrel...is the crown blued or "in the white"? Look into the mag well for blueing also) You will find the last two digits on most parts that are too small for all four numbers.....Lugers were numbered from 1 to 9999, then a lower case "a" was added, they repeated the proceedure, then added a "b", etc.

The magazine may or may not have anything stamped into the aluminum bottom plug, but it it matches....all the better but a blank on would indicate a field armorers replacement.

Look under the barrel for the serial number and the bore (8,83 for instance) and an Eagle on the right side near the frame. Look on the front of the trigger guard for the FULL serial number and...perhaps a lower-case letter...I think this one will have a letter there from around the middle of the alphabet. Check on the right side just behind the barrel....those Eagles may have "655" or "135" under them. The Capture Documents rarely listed the letter, just the number of the pistol.

Highly collectable if ALL numbers match and this is the factory blueing (technically not really "blueing")...better if the mag is matching also....that would depend on the serial number & letter (when produced) if this one had a numbered mag but I think it did.

DO NOT SHOOT THIS PISTOL! While the odds on breaking anything are remote...it's like throwing a rod in the motor of your matching numbers GPW.....the value of which goes down immediately! Shooters can be found for a few hundred dollars...mismatched and in less than the pristine condition this one appears to be in.

As I said...if matching numbers and original finish on it....quite an outstanding example. If you have the Luger holster...pics of that can tell you even more....and you might find a Luger takedown tool in the pouch with another Eagle "655" on it also!
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