View Single Post
  #6  
Old 07-14-2017, 12:00 PM
Jacknola's Avatar
Jacknola Jacknola is offline
Skilled
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: New Orleans
Posts: 651
Rather than start a new line about WWII combat blades, I thought I'd cut and paste this one from the line about General Hal Moore.

I contacted General Hal Moore's son, Steve Moore, and explained my Vietnam service and the Randall-collecting community. He then forwarded some amazing pictures and the story of this knife. This does not appear to be the same knife pictured with then-LTC Moore and his DSC in Vietnam. Never-the-less, in my opinion this documented knife makes it one of the more unique Randalls from the early era. The pictures of Col. Compton's knife appear to be a mid/late WWII (? - need help here - Ron?) with double pinned stag handle. Here are the pictures.









Steve Moore wrote: "The knife actually belonged to my grandfather, Col. Compton - Dad?s father in law, as you can see from the name inscribed on the blade."

"In WWII, [Col. L. J. Compton] was with the Artillery Section of the 15th Army and was actually the commander of the Army during its deployment from the US (11/3/44 ? 1/2/45). He did receive a Bronze Star for his actions when his troop ship was torpedoed in the English Channel. After the war, he was on the military tribunals in Germany ? we have a picture of him and other members in LOOK (or maybe LIFE) magazine. No reason to believe he did not carry the knife in Germany."


Note: from Wikipedia, re: 15th US Army: "On 25 December 1944 the main body left Doddington Hall for a staging area in Southampton, England and boarded the British landing ship Empire Javelin the next afternoon. The Fifteenth Army headquarters consisted of 208 officers and 624 enlisted men. An additional 652 men plus the British crew were on board. Crossing the English Channel a few days later, on 28 December 1944, an explosion rocked the ship, possibly from a mine. A French frigate, L'Escarmouche, and some smaller vessels came to the rescue. L'Escarmouche was attached to the side of the Empire Javelin and many of the men jumped from the deck of the Empire Javelin to L'Escarmouche. Some men were rescued from life rafts and one life boat and some were pulled out of the water. About 10 minutes after a second explosion, the Empire Javelin sank at about 5:25 pm. Thirteen men were missing in action and 20 men were injured in this incident."

Last edited by Jacknola; 08-01-2017 at 02:45 PM.
Reply With Quote