Original Vietnam War USAF 31st Fighter Wing Headquarters Lighter ‘SUPER ACE Japan’ 31st SFW Crest ‘Return with Honor’; Personalized to ‘Major H.M. McFann’ who was Lt. Col. Harry Miles McFann of Tulsa, OK (b. Jun 24 1918 – d. Jan 29 1997), WW2 Notable Pilot who was awarded the Silver Star and Distinguished Flying Cross for action taken aboard B-17 Paper Doll 96th Bomb Group during a bombing raid of Schweinfurt, Germany and appearing on the front page of Stars & Stripes under the headline ‘Navigator Flies Bomber Home with Pilot Dead Co-Pilot Hurt’ Oct 23, 1943 – Sir Winston Churchill personally congratulated Lt. McFann the day after; Good Issued / Used Condition as Photographed lots of thumb wear and light enamel damage as seen – functionality untested, Recent Collection Acquisition; Presented as Acquired (print of the obituary, unavailable online – acquired from The Union County Genealogical Society included, Stars & Stripes for reference, not included), Rare – Excerpt from Air Force Magazine ‘Back to Schweinfurt’ by Barrett Tillman Aug 21 2018 – STRUGGLING HOME However, the Americans got little respite on the egress as some German fighter groups flew far from their bases in the Netherlands and northern Germany. 1st Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 2 flew 180 miles to the 3rd Division’s outbound track. Generalleutnant Adolf Galland, commanding Germany’s day fighters, wrote, “We were able to break up several bomber formations and to destroy them almost completely. The approach and return routes were marked by the wreckage of shot-down aircraft.” Some of the fallen Flying Forts had strayed far afield. A 305th BG bomber, Lazy Baby, landed wheels up in Switzerland. Far in the opposite direction, another Chelveston aircraft was shot down near Hamburg, apparently trying to make it to Sweden. Even nearly home, losses continued. Almost out of fuel, the 303rd BG crew of the battle-damaged Cat-O-Nine Tails bailed out over England. All fliers landed within four miles of the crash, in a Risley resident’s backyard. Paper Doll of the 96th Group, three months old, returned with a dead pilot and badly wounded copilot. The navigator was Lt. Miles McFann, a prewar private pilot who got her down at an RAF field. He recalled, “We could have bailed out, instead of risking a crash-landing. I suppose a lot of fellows wouldn’t want to take a chance on having a navigator act as pilot, but they weren’t sticking because of their confidence in me. They all knew that [Lt. Robert] Bolick was dead inside that ship, and none of us was going to bail out and leave him in there. We just wouldn’t do it.” Some 2,900 airmen flew the mission, of whom 648 were listed killed, wounded, or missing in action; a staggering 18 percent casualty rate.The 1st Division took the heaviest losses by far: as noted, the 305th BG wrote off 13 bombers while the 306th lost 12. In contrast, the entire 3rd Division lost 15. Eighth Bomber Command listed 60 Flying Forts missing, plus five that crashed in England, with seven written off as “Category E,” or damaged beyond repair. All told, a horrific total loss of 72 bombers. Of the remainder, about three-quarters bore battle damage. Aircrew gunnery claims were typically extravagant; understandable with multiple B-17s often engaging the same fighters. The original figure was an unrealistic 288, reduced to 186 “confirmed” fighters downed. In fact, the Luftwaffe lost 53 aircraft with 29 aircrew killed or missing and 20 wounded. (Excerpt from Air Force Magazine ‘Back to Schweinfurt’ by Barrett Tillman Aug 21 2018)

An interesting little group of two items.  Tag is marked Kavallarie Ersatz Abt 14 – Bloodgroup: O, Serial Number: 5134 Wooden handmade item showing a POW in Huntsville in 1945.   A full report on the camp can be found here from Texas state university: https://www.shsu.edu/~jll004/publichistory/powcamp.pdf According to the amazing study and photos in the pdf history above, it was a camp specifically with Germans captured form the Africa Korps.

Nice original items, directly form the veteran during a reunion event. Schlaefereit, Heinz  1939-1941: Zugführer, Radfahr-Abteilung 1 – Hildesheim Polish, French and Russian campaigns Winter 1941-1942: Radfahr-Abteilung 1 converted to Kradschützen-Abteilung 4 – 24. Panzer-Division promoted to Leutnant 28.07.1942: WIA Survived Stalingrad 1943-1944: Chef, 4./ Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 24 – 24. Panzer-Division Promoted to Oberleutnant Promoted to Rittmeister 1945: Chef, 3./ Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 24 – 24. Panzer-Division Survived the war and was still alive in 2001.    Comments:  More photos and accounts about him can be found online, this a rare opportunity to own an actual attributed tag, which made it out of Stalingrad. A silent witness of great feats of bravery. He won the German Cross in Gold and had the Honor Roll Clasp. And last posting was as Schwadron Commander of a Panzer unit.  

A super nice grouping to:  Oberwachtmeister Horst Becker, who was a winner of the Panzer Badge 50.  Seven Photos of Becker, often in Panzer Wrap, includes a Soldbuch Style Photo. One Photo he can be seen sitting on his Tank.  Beckers Shoulder Board – Panzer Regiment 24  Beckers Dog Tag  – First issue, MG Company Reiter Regiment 2.  Panzer Skull belonging to Becker 24th Panzer Division Traditions Badge for headdress – Super Rare A copy of Beckers allowance to wear the traditional badge of the 24th Panzer Division, the Leaping Horseman.  Unit History: The 1st Cavalry Division was formed shortly after the outbreak of World War II, in November 1939, when the 1st Cavalry Brigade was expanded to division-size. The division was part of the German invasion of the northern Netherlands where it encountered only weak defences as it was not a strategically important area. After the Dutch surrender, the division took part in the final actions of the battle of France before serving as an occupation force there and, from September 1940, in Poland. It participated in the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa, where it was part of the Army Group Center before being sent back to East Prussia for conversion to a tank division. After initially being stationed in northern France the division served under the Fourth Panzer Army in Army Group South of the Eastern Front from June 1942. The division participated in the capture of Voronezh and, in late December 1942, was encircled in the Battle of Stalingrad and destroyed. The 24th Panzer Division was reformed in March 1943 and served in Normandy, Italy,[2] and then went back to the Eastern Front where it suffered heavy casualties in around Kiev and the Dniepr Bend. During spring-1944 it took part in the battle of Târgu Frumos, part of the First Jassy-Kishinev Offensive. Near the end of the war, it saw action in Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia. Parts of the division were evacuated to Schleswig-Holstein and surrendered there to British forces at the end of the war while the remainder surrendered to Soviet forces in East Prussia in May 1945. In keeping with the Division’s mounted origins, the 24th Panzer’s tank crewmen wore the golden-yellow Waffenfarbe of the cavalry rather than Panzer pink.   Comments: Sadly at some point Beckers Items were split after his death. His Soldbuch must be out there somewhere, and his medals were sold because of their appeal. Very sad, but still a nice little grouping to a real Panzer man.