Military - Overview
The Museum's superb military collections document the history of the men and women of the armed forces of the United States. The collections include ordnance, firearms, and swords; uniforms and insignia; national and military flags and banners; and many other objects.
The strength of the collections lies in their enormous depth. Some 3,000 military small arms and 2,400 civilian firearms document the mechanical and technological history of the infantryman's weapons from the beginning of the gunpowder era to the present. Among the 4,000 swords and knives in the collection are many spectacular presentation pieces. The collections also include Civil War era telegraph equipment, home front artifacts from both world wars, early computers such as ENIAC, Whirlwind, and Sage, and materials carried at antiwar demonstrations.
"Military - Overview" showing 13 items.
Page 1 of 2
German Submarine Jacket
- Description
- General History
- German Navy foul-weather submarine bridge jacket that would have been worn by an enlisted man.
- associated date
- 1941-1945
- ID Number
- 1980.0806.03
- accession number
- 1980.0806
- catalog number
- 1980.0806.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
German Field Marshal von Blomberg's Baton
- Description
- Physical Description
- Ceremonial baton, inscribed with "von Blomberg," decorated with Nazi swastikas and German national eagles, on blue velvet covering.
- Specific History
- Werner von Blomberg was born in Stargard, Germany, on September 2, 1878. He joined the German Army and served as a second lieutenant in the Seventy-third Fusilier Regiment. He attended the War Academy (1904-07) before joining the General Staff in 1908. On the outbreak of the World War I, Blomberg was General Staff officer with the Nineteenth Reserve Division. He served on the Western Front where he won the Pour le Mérite. By the end of the war he had reached the rank of major. Blomberg's two brothers were killed in the conflict. Blomberg remained in the army and in 1920 was promoted to lieutenant colonel and appointed chief of staff of the Doeberitz Brigade.
- Four years later General Hans von Seeckt appointed him as chief of army training. In 1927 Blomberg was promoted to major general and appointed chief of the Troop Office. In this position he clashed with Kurt von Schleicher and in 1929 was sent to East Prussia to serve under Walther von Reichenau. In 1932 Blomberg was head of the German delegation at the Geneva Disarmament Conference. The following year Adolf Hitler appointed him minister of defense and in 1935 minister of war and commander-in-chief of the German Army. It was Blomberg's idea to get all soldiers to pledge an oath of personal loyalty to Hitler.
- In April 1936 Blomberg became Hitler's first field marshal. He was outmaneuvered, however, by Hermann Goering, who was jealous of Blomberg's power and used the Gestapo to obtain embarrassing information about his pretty young second wife, who turned out to have been a prostitute with a criminal record. In January 1938, Blomberg resigned when he discovered Goering was planning make this information public. Blomberg and his wife were ordered to spend a year in exile on Capri. The scandal allowed Hitler to take direct control of the army. After the war Blomberg was captured by Allied troops and gave evidence at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial. Werner von Blomberg died while being held in detention on March 14, 1946.
- associated date
- 1935
- user
- Blomberg, Werner von
- ID Number
- AF*319919.01
- catalog number
- 319919.01
- 79374M
- accession number
- 319919
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
German Binoculars
- Description
- Physical Description
- Green-and-black painted metal with a leather strap.
- General History
- Dragon German binoculars like those worn by German soldiers.
- ID Number
- AF*58746-N
- catalog number
- 58746-N
- accession number
- 236599
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
German Afrika Corps Helmet
- Description
- Physical Description
- Model 1935 steel helmet. Cloth covers made of burlap with the insignia of a silver-white Wehrmacht eagle on a black shield on the crown.
- associated date
- 1935 - 1945
- ID Number
- AF*69723M
- catalog number
- 69723M
- accession number
- 272562
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Dagger
- Description
- Physical Description
- Silver metal with orange celluloid handle. Engraved with "Solingen." Swastika under eagle with a silver braid portapee hanger and scabbard.
- General History
- Solingen steel, used in making knives, scissors, razors, and surgical instruments, is world famous for its excellence. Solingen was chartered in 1374 and has been known for its fine blades since the Middle Ages. It belonged to the duchy of Berg until 1600 and passed to Prussia in 1815.
- associated date
- 1941 - 1945
- maker
- Solingen
- ID Number
- AF*77490M
- catalog number
- 77490M
- accession number
- 309977
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
German "Tellermine" Anti-Tank Mine
- Description
- Physical Description
- German Model 43, metal case, small metal carrying handle, marked T.Mi.PH7.43 T. Mi Z42.13A.
- General History
- The standard anti-tank mine used by the Germans in world War II was called the "Tellermine." It was loaded with one pound of TNT. It was a large, flattened, circular, plate-shaped mine with a carrying handle on one side. It featured a pull igniter for special use, but was more commonly ignited with a centrally mounted detonator charge screwed into the base charge. It took 350 pounds to set off this mine, which could rip the tracks off any tank.
- date made
- ca 1943
- ID Number
- AF*78553M
- catalog number
- 78553M
- accession number
- 308845
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
German "Nazi" Swastika Flag
- Description
- Physical Description
- Red wool bunting cloth with white circle in center. In the center of the white circle is a swastika.
- General History
- In 1920, Adolf Hitler decided that the Nazi Party needed its own insignia and flag. For Hitler, the new flag had to be “a symbol of our own struggle” as well as “highly effective as a poster.” On August 7, 1920, at the Salzburg Congress, this flag became the official emblem of the Nazi Party. In Mein Kampf, Hitler described the Nazis' new flag: “In red we see the social idea of the movement, in white the nationalistic idea, in the swastika the mission of the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man, and, by the same token, the victory of the idea of creative work, which as such always has been and always will be anti-Semitic.”
- ID Number
- 1977.0788.03
- catalog number
- 1977.0788.03
- accession number
- 1977.0788
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
American Red Cross Prisoner of War Food Package No. 10
- Description
- Physical Description
- Brown cardboard box, marked with a red cross and lettered in black "American Red Cross Prisoner of War Food Package No. 10 for Distribution through the International Red Cross Committee."
- General History
- Filled by Red Cross volunteers in the United States, in cooperation with the army's Quartermaster Corps, these boxes were then shipped to the International Committee of the Red Cross warehouse in Geneva Switzerland. From Switzerland, the boxes were shipped to the nearly 1.4 million Allied prisoners of war held in Germany. The boxes usually contained the following: army spread, canned bacon, luncheon meat, salmon, dehydrated corned beef, canned-cheese product, soluble coffee, powdered milk, and chocolate D bars. Non-food items included: toilet paper, soap, paper towels, can opener, needles, thread, patching cloth, vitamin capsules, salt, and tobacco.
- associated dates
- 1941-1945
- issuing authority
- Red Cross
- ID Number
- 1992.3030.30
- catalog number
- 1992.3030.30
- nonaccession number
- 1992.3030
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
German Walther P38 Pistol
- Description
- Physical Description
- German Walther P38 pistol, 9 mm.
- General History
- The Carl Walther Company began development of a new military pistol in the mid-1930s to replace the WW I Luger design. In 1938, the Werhmacht adopted Walther's design and called it the "Pistole 38." The pistol went into full production by mid-1940 and became standard issue in the World War II. Although never as famous as the Luger pistol, the P38 was issued to far more troops.
- licensee
- Walther
- maker
- Mauser
- ID Number
- AF*58195M
- catalog number
- 058195M
- accession number
- 209540
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
[Trade catalogs from Franz & Meyer]
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- Franz & Meyer
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_15738
- Data source
- Smithsonian Institution Libraries