I am marketing this outstanding grouping to the wider community on behalf of a friend of mine and fellow collector, who operates a very professional, historically oriented informational website. He acquired this historic grouping in the course of his collecting quests. I am including his complete descriptions of the items, as the grouping is an incredible assembly and story of one man’s 29th Infantry Division D-Day fighting history and must be kept together to every extent possible. KH
This Splinter pattern Fallschirmjäger smock was captured by Fred Threlfall, of the 224th Field Artillery Battalion, 29th Infantry Division, sometime around June/July 1944. (It is pictured here being held by Fred’s son at the time the collector acquired the grouping).
Precisely where Fred acquired the smock is unknown. The 29th Division came up against fierce resistance from the 3rd Fallschirmjäger Division outside St. Lo — but no doubt they faced scattered remnants of the infamous 6th Fallschirmjäger Regiment too, as they slogged their way through the bocage.
“Outside Courvains, the Stonewallers had captured an unusual prisoner. He was German, all right, but he wasn’t wearing the standard German army uniform. The prisoner identified himself as a paratrooper from the 3rd Fallschirmjäger Division.”
There are no identifying marks in the smock, other than the usual Rb number. At some point, the insignia was ‘souvenired’, suggesting perhaps this particular paratrooper was captured and processed as a PW.
During the collector’s conversation with the family, he was able to obtain more details about Fred’s training, and wartime service.
“As for my father, after basic training he went to Fort Hood, Texas, for Tank Destroyer training, then to Fort A.P Hill, Virginia. On D Day, my father was in a landing craft with a British crew. They made two attempts to put in, but were turned away because of enemy fire. On the third attempt, they landed at about 10am. He would eventually go up the Vierville Draw and spend the first night in a ditch along a hedgerow where the American Cemetery is now located.”
Later that day during clearing of Vierville, Fred souvenired the Nazi flag on a table in an abandoned house in the town.
All items pictured are incredible artifacts from one individual, including his daily logbook, his awards and certificates, other souvenirs such as the trigger-finger gauntlets, etc. An astounding vet assemblage, from one member of the “Fighting 29th.” Full COA accompanies.
