WW2 Vet passed on grenades and boots to me..

[TawnyaR]

Hello, I found this website and was hoping that someone could help me. I worked at a grocery store for many years and made friends with a grumpy old man..lol. After he passed away last year, he left some of his gathered items from the war to me.

From what I can tell from research so far, I have a German potato masher, Mills grenade, and Italian Braxair mortar, his double buckle boots, and the best..a flashlight that he had scratched on the bottom where and when he was. I know the potato masher is diffused, not so sure about the other two.

My questions, is can anyone tell me more about these items? Not that I could ever sell them, but perhaps a value as well?

I have pictures, but can't figure out how to upload them because they are too big. If anyone cares to see anything they can private message me..

Thanks in advance..

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[RobSmith]

Post pictures, and assume all ordnance is live until verified to be inert ...

[JimF4M1s (Deceased)]

In 1989 a friend I worked with lost his father in law. He brought to me some WW2 items his mother in law had found in the garage. One was a pineapple fragmentation grenade. I unscrewed it and found it to be live. He had kept this for 45 years, why, who knows. Never told anybody he had it.
Local police had quite a field day.

[phillyriverrat57]

you have to watch with alot of this old stuff, the old vets used this stuff every day during the war, and it became almost like play toys to some of them. Last year. my neighbors father died and while cleaning out the house, he found 6 live gernades. police had a ball, and he spent the day in the police station with the ATF there figuring out why and how ( his dad was in the war. I recently purchesed a 12 pound Civil War cannon Ball from a Guy who lived out near gettysburg. It was a fused type with a plug in the hole, that was ground off and a smaller hole near it, well guess what, it was still full of black powder. the smaller hole was for a cuncussion fuse. I soaked this cannon ball in a bucket of water for a week, turning it upside down and watching the black powder mud leak out if it. it is now empty and safe to display. old ordinance can be scarey, so be sure it is deactavated, or you can get hurt or killed by it!!