48-star American Flag flown on US Navy 'first wave' landing
craft during Invasion of Normandy, retrieved as souvenir by sailor
onboard ship, flies high at $73,800
WILLOUGHBY, Ohio, July 17,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- June
29th was an exciting day for war historians who attended or
bid remotely in Milestone Auctions' Premier Military Auction.
Collectors boldly stepped up to claim their unique prizes from a
700-lot selection representing conflicts from the Civil War through
Vietnam era. The auction closed
the books at $900,000 and, as
predicted, the top seller was a US Navy D-Day archive whose
centerpiece was a 48-star Ensign #10 American Battle Flag.
The iconic red, white and blue textile was flying on
LCI-538 as the "first wave" of naval craft landed at Omaha
Beach during the June 6, 1944
Invasion of Normandy. A near-sacred symbol of the coordinated
effort in which the Allied Armies' land, air and sea forces united
to achieve the largest military invasion in history, the flag was
retrieved as a souvenir by Motor Machinist's Mate First Class Frank
R Maratea, who was aboard LCI-538 as it made landfall on
that fateful day. The archive also included a WWII US Navy
Commission streamer flag, Maratea's own Honorable Discharge and
military papers; original photographs taken on Omaha Beach and on
the deck of LCI-538, and ephemera from the D-Day Landings
50th Anniversary Reunion. A unique grouping with impeccable
documentation, it sold for $73,800
against a pre-sale estimate of $40,000-$60,000.
Another highly important D-Day memento was a map critical to the
Omaha Beach West assault phase of "Operation Neptune," the code
name for the Battle of Normandy. Showing the area in and around the
community of Vierville-sur-Mer, the map also included landing and
associated airborne plans for the D-Day invasion. It was marked
"TOP SECRET BIGOT" – BIGOT being an acronym for "British Invasion
of German Occupied Territory." Carefully preserved for 80 years,
the mint-condition map easily found its way to $23,370 against an estimate of $4,000-$5,000.
A circa-1941/'42 Nazi German Luftwaffe "honor" goblet was
die-struck, hammered and of silverplate over nickel/silver
construction. Its obverse bore the image of two eagles engaged in
aerial combat, while its reverse showed the 1939 Iron Cross. The
German inscription included the recipient's name, rank and date of
the award plus a German phrase that translates to "For Exceptional
Achievement in the Air War." It sold for $6,765.
The auction included many significant items from the now-closed
American Armored Foundation Inc Tank and Ordnance Memorial Museum
of Danville, Virginia. With a
mission to display and preserve as many tank and cavalry artifacts
as possible, the 333,000-square-foot museum's core holding was the
private collection donated by high-tech entrepreneur and military
history expert William Gasser. Among
the museum's artillery holdings was a 1940s 20mm Orlikon MK II
"cutaway" cannon of a type that was used as a teaching device by
both sides during WWII. The auction example displayed ship/anchor
proofs throughout and was marked GM for its manufacturer,
General Motors. It sold within estimate for $11,070.
An unusual-looking WWII Nazi German totenkopf (skull and
crossbones) helmet painted with the skull shield of the Finnish 4th
Division, Kev Os 4 (Light Unit No. 4) rose to the top of the helmet
category. Soviets nicknamed the unit "Belaya Smjert," or "White
Death," in reference to the accomplished ski troops who painted the
macabre skull motif on their helmets to intimidate the enemy. The
helmet surpassed its $1,000-$5,000
estimate to achieve $6,900.
Visit Milestone online at www.milestoneauctions.com
Media Contact:
Miles
King, Milestone
Auctions
440-527-8060
380480@email4pr.com
View original content to download
multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/d-day-flag-declares-victory-as-top-lot-of-milestones-900k-premier-military-auction-302198824.html
SOURCE Milestone Auctions