In loving memory of Kenis D. Keathley 6/4/81 - 3/27/22 Loving father, husband, brother, friend and firewood hoarder Rest in peace, Dexterday

Some shared History

Discussion in 'As You Were' started by HolsatiaRedneck, Dec 30, 2017.

  1. HolsatiaRedneck

    HolsatiaRedneck

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    Id like to share two pieces of history with you, these belonged to my wifes grandfather,
    who was deployed to Afrika and where he got captured.
    He got send to the USA to work on the cottonfields, he was a carpenter by trade,
    so while beeing POW he made a bunch of these little woodenboxes.

    It happend one day that he would build a piece of furniture for some Farmer,
    ive been told, who asked him if he wanted to stay permant as they had use for a fella like him.
    He refused politely and said he wanted to go home, when he left,
    the US gave him this Ring as displayed on the Fotos.
    After he left the US he got send for another year to the UK to work there -
    he must have been back by the end of 1945 or early '46.

    *On the bottom of the wee box it says Camp Joseph T. Robinson

    My two granduncles been POW's aswell 1 year US (harvesting Corn) and 1 year UK.
    They were Roofers by trade and were the 1st in Wuppertal, after the war,
    to go back into bizness as my Grand-Grandfather refused to become a NSDAP member.

    I remember seeing them a few times when i was a kid, bunch of funny fellas they were.


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    Last edited: Dec 30, 2017
  2. WeldrDave

    WeldrDave Military Outpost Moderator

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    That stuff is "Precious"! and Thanks so much for sharing!!! One of the reasons I'm on this forum is to honor and represent our Past and Present Veterans! God Bless these brave souls and alway's remember that these folks did everything but save the world! :salute: We are free today because of these great men!
     
  3. blacksmith

    blacksmith

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    That's an awsome story, I couldn't imagine what it would be like to be a POW! The box is beautiful and the ring is really cool as well. I guess he truly earned that ring!
     
  4. TurboDiesel

    TurboDiesel

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    Wow!
    This is some amazing history! Thanks for sharing!
     
  5. Canadian border VT

    Canadian border VT

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    Great history, from another view point of German side, excuse my ignorance but what is NSDAP?
     
  6. WeldrDave

    WeldrDave Military Outpost Moderator

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    Basically the NSDAP was the National Socialist German workers party. Basically the Nazi regime element.
     
  7. Chaz

    Chaz

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    Thanks for sharing that bit of history.
    I never knew that we gave POW rings to prisoners.

    Definitely a keepsake as well as the box.

    Chaz
     
  8. HolsatiaRedneck

    HolsatiaRedneck

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    I didnt know either, its 925 Sterling, until i found it. Seems as far as what i read about it, those POW's has been highly appreciated as craftsman and farmhands in the States.
    Those eastbound POW's had a way different fate. I think the US handled the Hearts and Mind stuff great in postwar Germany - other Allied werent as fond of it as the US was.
     
  9. HolsatiaRedneck

    HolsatiaRedneck

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  10. Sourwood

    Sourwood

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    I recall reading an account that German World War One veterans gave to German soldiers going into War in the second.

    “Do your duty- and surrender to the first American you find. “. There were several German POWs who managed to stay after the War. Several folks here have grandfathers from that background.

    A partner of mine wore a ring that his father brought back from the war, that he got hold on in some way. From my examination it was WW one trench art. Likely belonged to a veteran of the Great War, or was handed down to a younger soldier, and collected as a spoil by the American soldier.
     
  11. JotulYokel

    JotulYokel

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    Great, amazing story. My Uncle was in WW1 in France. When I was a boy he told me many times how in battle he would fire over the heads of the German soldiers. "I wasn't mad at no German boys." He would say, "I didn't want to kill them." At the end of the war, he came back to his farm, married and lived out his life on that farm. He died in 1976.

    In the 1980's I dated a young woman whose father had been a POW. He'd been a German soldier in North Africa and had been captured and sent to Arkansas to a POW camp. He escaped (I never learned how) and lived off the land for 6 months until captured by the FBI. He was sent back to the POW camp and after the war was repatriated to Germany. In the 1950's he immigrated to the U.S. and became an American. He owned and operated a machine shop when I knew him. He was a tough old buzzard.

    I was a U.S. Army Sgt. in 1970-71 but never was in combat.
     
  12. HolsatiaRedneck

    HolsatiaRedneck

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    Any chance to share a picture with us? Id like to see that ring.

    Yeah no time to whine, they all apear to be like that - as tuff as coffin nails...mad times.


    By the way love those stories folks!
     
    Last edited: May 1, 2018
  13. Sourwood

    Sourwood

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    Not likely I could get a photo, but another guy at work who was a freelance writer for gun publishing said is was likely fashioned from a shell casing. Said something like “Faterland danke “ deeply etched in block letters.