M34 beretta. Holster binocs and . Capture docs

Received this today. It's a beautiful piece , looks new almost with a light coat of oil. it's got an almost new holster with spare magazine.. The capture documents are aged and feel like tissue paper but less, out for a second to take the picture and back in a document protector!

both the binocs and pistol are serialized and match the capture docs.

These are only my second pair of capture docs. the other belong to a Vietnam SKS.

The gentleman i got it from is 79 years old. Built in 1940 just like the gun! his words not mine. although i had thought often on getting one of these pistols, i never thought it would be a documented one.

enjoy...

Very cool piece.

I have circled an area of the paper, can you make out what it says there? It looks like it was folded on itself and ink ran. That is making things blurry!

Also, it looks like your document was signed by "1st Lt Su Co 407" Perhaps that is this company? They served with the airborne in Italy.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/407th_Forward_Support_Battalion

ugafx4 said:

Very cool piece.

I have circled an area of the paper, can you make out what it says there? It looks like it was folded on itself and ink ran. That is making things blurry!

Click to expand...

my wife and i were laughing. it looks like camp philip morris,, like the tobacco. that can't be right can it?

I guess so......

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigarette_Camp

Man Ty is on it! Haha. That’s a great pistol Tom, and way cooler with the history!

This is why I love capture papers....get to learn something about history I had no idea existed this morning. Sure enough there was a Camp Philip Morris in Le Havre France (LH).

They took the basic design of the standard Form #33 and made it to their own. I have not seen another one of these yet. I'll have to look through my records and see if I missed one. I have seen this customization of the headquarters stamp done more in the Mediterranean and Asian theatres. Cool to see in Europe.

It is Camp Phillip Morris staging area for transport home... BILL

ugafx4 said:

(LH).

They took the basic design of the standard Form #33 and made it to their own. I have not seen another one of these yet. .

Click to expand...

could you post the form 33 and one of the others for comparison? i always worry about fakes, i had a skilled friend look before i bought and you (to my knowledge) can't fake that level of patina and age.

if you have a couple for a learning moment, i would appreciate it.
thanks

tom

It is without a doubt real. Do not worry about that.

Here is a nice example of a basic Form 33 that was widely used. You can see they took the framework, and made their own paper out of it.

What a great peek into an interesting part of history.