Knife with a story!

[Greg]

 

Here is a small collectible with a story to tell. The item itself has been completely used up and seems to have very little value due to condition. However, condition tells the story here!

 

This is a Luftwaffe issues table/butter knife from WWII. It was issued and used at the Großenhain airbase in Saxony, about 45 minutes from Dresden. The airbase is one of the oldest in Germany and is where the Red Barron conducted his flight training during WWI. During WWII the base would certainly would have protected Dresden from allied bombers. After WWII it was heavily used by the Russian airforce as a base for Foxbat MIG-25 bombers.

 

At the close of WWII as the Russian army occupied Saxony and the German army pulled out of the region in retreat there was massive opportunity for locals to pillage the bases. My wife's grandfather, then a young farm boy in his teens, visited Großenhain airbase to poke about. There he found this knife and took it home with him.

 

For the next half century the knife was use by my wife's Grandfather on their farm in East Germany. Because of the shortage of near everything, farmers in the east used what they could. This lufftwaffe butter knife was of sufficient quality that it was sharpened and used in the farm workshop as a utility knife.

 

My wife's grandfather passed away a year ago but shortly before he died he was telling me the history of the farm and various tools and related the story of this knife. So, a nice heirloom with quite some history.

 

It is marked with the swastika and also: FL. U.V. and CH. 38

 

Ps... FLUV stands for: Flieger Unterkunft Verwaltung of flight barracks administration

[RAF635SQ]

 

Here is a small collectible with a story to tell. The item itself has been completely used up and seems to have very little value due to condition. However, condition tells the story here!

 

This is a Luftwaffe issues table/butter knife from WWII. It was issued and used at the Großenhain airbase in Saxony, about 45 minutes from Dresden. The airbase is one of the oldest in Germany and is where the Red Barron conducted his flight training during WWI. During WWII the base would certainly would have protected Dresden from allied bombers. After WWII it was heavily used by the Russian airforce as a base for Foxbat MIG-25 bombers.

 

At the close of WWII as the Russian army occupied Saxony and the German army pulled out of the region in retreat there was massive opportunity for locals to pillage the bases. My wife's grandfather, then a young farm boy in his teens, visited Großenhain airbase to poke about. There he found this knife and took it home with him.

 

For the next half century the knife was use by my wife's Grandfather on their farm in East Germany. Because of the shortage of near everything, farmers in the east used what they could. This lufftwaffe butter knife was of sufficient quality that it was sharpened and used in the farm workshop as a utility knife.

 

My wife's grandfather passed away a year ago but shortly before he died he was telling me the history of the farm and various tools and related the story of this knife. So, a nice heirloom with quite some history.

 

It is marked with the swastika and also: FL. U.V. and CH. 38

 

Ps... FLUV stands for: Flieger Unterkunft Verwaltung of flight barracks administration

Lovely Item and History nice job!

[Kenny Andrew]

That is certainly an unusual family heirloom Greg

[david f]

what a fantastic item with a great history behind it.

 

[Ross]

Excellent! I just love items with good solid stories behind them. Even nicer that the item is still in the family. I will post my "stick with a story" when I get time relating to a walking stick that my grandfather "acquired" in Germany during the war.