This 101st Airborne grouping is guaranteed authentic.
It has taken me years to put this rare group of 101st Airborne Division items together.
UP FOR AUCTION IS AN ORIGINAL WWII LETTER FROM 101st AIRBORNE DIVISION 327th GLIDER INFANTRY D-DAY, NORMANDY AND HOLLAND (PURPLE HEART) COMBAT VETERAN "PVT. VINCENT G. DeMARTINO".
THIS LETTER WAS WITTEN BY PVT. DeMARTINO AND DATED FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1942.
IN THIS ONE PAGE LETTER PVT. DeMARTINO WRITES ABOUT HIS TRAINING "TRAINING FOR FOREST FIGHTING" AT FORT BRAGG, NC.
(This letter has great combat training content and is in good condition, There is no envelope.)
HERE IS SOME OF WHAT HE WRITES IN THE LETTER:
"I am fine and well last night I went to the show and to bed at 10:30 PM today we arose at 5:45 AM dressed ate and exercised at 9 o'clock we drilled and had dummy target practice then we went into the woods and trained for Forest fighting we ate at noon in the afternoon, we drilled and then had "manual of arms," then we played a little football for exercise. At 3 we had to talk and arms, and target practice again, we ate at 6 PM. I had I went to the PX and I am writing this letter at 7:40 PM. The weather today was sunny and hot we sweated and washed up..."
THE BACK SIDE OF THE LETTER FEATURES A HANDWRITTEN NOTE IN ITALIAN FROM HIS PARENTS AS PVT. DeMARTINO'S PARENTS WERE NATIVE ITALIAN SPEAKERS.
THE LETTER COMES WITH TWO ORIGINAL IN THEATER ARTIFACTS; A SMALL PIECE OF WWII D-DAY 101ST AIRBORNE PARACHUTE AND A CUT FROM PVT. DeMARTINO (CREATED IN THEATER) WRAP/SCARF.
(The 101st Airborne camouflaged 3 1/2" X 3 1/2"parachute piece was acquired from a man who bought the estate of a former theater actress who’s name was Bette Butterworth, she was married to Monte Meacham who was also in Theater. IN 1945 A letter was written to them and the parachute was provided to them from the writer. I will provide a copy of that letter as well as additional supporting information that indicates where the original parachute was found and who it was ultimately gifted to in 1945. The 4 x 4 piece of yellow scarf which was made in theater I acquired from the person who sold me the 101st Airborne letters and personal effects of PVT. DeMARTINO. I have the original full scarf and I cut the piece shown in the photos off, that too I will provide documentation as to the provenance of scarf.)
ALSO THERE ARE TWO SMALL PHOTOS, ONE IS OF PVT. DeMARTINO IN 1943 AND THE OTHER IS A PHOTO OF GENERAL PATTON GIVING AN AWAED TO A 101ST AIRBORNE PARATROOPER. THESE TWO PHOTO ARE COPIES AND NOT ORIGINAL PHOTOS.
THE SMALL PIECE OF WWII 101ST AIRBORNE PARACHUTE WAS NOT THE PRPOPERTY OF PVT. DeMARTINO BUT IT IS ORIGINAL FROM A 101ST AIRBORNE PARACHUTE OF THE D-DAY INVASION. THE WRAP/SCARF WAS HIS PERSONALLY AND WAS MADE IN EUROPE IN WWII. (I WILL PROVIDE DOCUMENTATION FOR BOTH THESE ARTIFACTS AND THE LETTER)
THE LETTER WAS PART OF THE VETERAN'S ESTATE WHICH INCLUDES UNIFORMS, HATS, INSIGNIA, WINGS, PATCHES, FIELD AND PERSONAL GEAR AND WAR TIME LETTERS FROM THIS GLIDER BORNE D-DAY VETERAN.
THE 101st AIRBORNE VETERAN'S NAME WAS "PVT. VINCENT G. DeMARTINO", HIS U.S. ARMY SERIAL NUMBER WAS "32475941". PVT. DeMARTINO WAS FROM SYRACUSE NEW YORK AND SERVED WITH COMPANY "A" OF THE 327th GLIDER INFANTRY OF THE 101st AIRBORNE DIVISION. IN EUROPE PVT. DeMARTINO SERVED WITH COMPANY "G" OF THE 327th GLIDER INFANTRY OF THE 101st AIRBORNE DIVISION.
PVT. DeMARTINO SERVED IN COMBAT FROM D-DAY, THRU THE NORMANDY CAMPAIGN (WHERE HE WAS WOUNDED BY A GERMAN MORTAR), OPERATION MARKET GARDEN, BATTLE OF THE BULGE IN BASTOGNE (WHERE HE GOT TRENCH FOOT) AND THRU AUSTRIA/GERMANY IN 1945. AFTER LEAVING AUSTRIA/GERMANY IN 1945 PVT. DeMARTINO RECOVERED FROM HIS WAR TIME WOUNDS AND INJURIES AT A MEDICAL HOSPITAL AT CAMP BUTNER, NORTH CAROLINA BEFORE BEING HONORABLE DISCHARGED FROM THE U.S. ARMY.
What you'll get:
You'll get everything shown in this listing, the original WWII 101st airborne letter and written by "PVT. VINCENT G. DeMARTINO" You will also get one original 3 1/2" X 3 1/2"piece of 101st airborne parachute. Also an original 3" X 3" piece from a scarf that once belong to PVT. DeMARTINO. You will also receive a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) for the 101st Airborne letter and the two artifacts along with a considerable amount of printed out documentation. This will be in the form of facsimiles of a few of PVT. DeMARTINO WWII letters. Also two small photographs (the two photographs are recent prints) Also over 30 facsimiles of 101st Airborne documents/letters. the facsimiles will be black and white printouts not in color.
Please email me if you have any questions.
About the seller:
I have been buying and selling Americana, rare books & documents, since the early 1970’s.
I have sold large collections and important individual items to some of the largest libraries, Auction Houses, Rare book rooms, Universities and Museum in the US.
I have published unique Americana works which are in University and private libraries throughout the world.
Some of the proceeds from my sales go to support WW2 Primary Source Material for class rooms at High Schools in my area. (If you are a teacher and are interested in WW2 Primary Source Material for your class room please email me.)
My main goal is by selling WW2 and other historical Primary Source material; I can distribute letters, documents and items around the world that tell the true story of the courage, bravery and sacrifice, made by millions of Americans and the Allied Forces during the war.
When you by a Primary Source letter or document to add to you collection you are doing what Thomas Jefferson did hundreds of years ago (Jefferson sold his library to the USA to create The Library of Congress) in preserving American history, which will be handed down to generation of future American and the World.
When you buy from me you have my guarantee that what you are buying is authentic.
Email me if you have questions.
See photos for condition and letter content.
Bidding conditions and mailing below:
I ship Priority Mail US Post Service, three day delivery. The reason why I ship Priority Mail is virtually all of the items I sell are one of a kind and even though an item may not have a high selling price it is sometime priceless to the buyer. Also Priority Mail US Post Service is insured and is tracked to guarantee delivery.
US buyers only. (I do make some exceptions for foreign buyers but please email me if you can to get approval for bidding.
You must have bought over 25 items on eBay, Paypal preferred and you must have a good rating in order to buy on this item/items.
I have a 100% rating and have sold many rare and important document, letters and items on Ebay so you know you will receive this original item.
See photos for condition.
Email me if you have any questions.
I've been doing more research on the parachute piece in this listing and in reading the original letter that accompanied the parachute the letter author writes that the parachute is 101st Airborne. He then goes on to write that the parachute is from the First Allied Parachute to land on the European continent and then indicates that the paratrooper landed on the Salerno Beachhead in Italy. So I believe the paratrooper was from the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion and not the 101st Airborne.