I don't want to disappoint you, so here is the next weird story:
After the German capitulation in WW II American troops have been stationed also in Wethen and Rhoden in the former Dukedom of Waldeck. There also lived American soldiers in my grandparents’ house. My grandma and grandpa had to leave the house, but my great grandfather Friedrich was allowed to stay, because he was too old for leaving the house. the family was thankful that great grandfather needn't move.
The soldiers behaved very well in our house. My grandfather (Picture: My grandparents in 1943) told them that all the sausages and hams in the „Wurstekammer“ (a room where sausages and ham was stored) were not their own, but would belong to other people of the village. My grandfather used to slaughter pigs during wintertime and he made ham and several kinds of sausages, which he smoked or salted and stored in the Wurstekammer until people came fetching their meat or sausages . Well, this was, what my grandfather explained the soldiers and I don’t know how he managed it, because he couldn't speak a single word American. But they didn’t touch all the yummy food, which filled the Wurstekammer up to the ceiling. Only my father’s plane models were destroyed. But this wasn't the aim of the soldiers: They thought that all the tiny planes my father had constructed before he had to leave his home for becoming a soldier, would be able to fly. So they threw them out of the windows and all the planes busted on the street. When my father came back home several weeks later he was very sorry about this loss. It had been hundreds of hours of work which was gone...
But the American soldiers also forgot something in our house: On the attic, which was full of hay and strew at that time, they forgot a bayonet or maybe it was fallen to the ground and they couldn't find it any more. It is a really huge knife, very sharp, and has the following inscription: AFH, US, 1943 and a picture of a flaming bomb.
I looked around a bit and found out, that this bayonet was called M1. This special kind was manufactured in 1942/1943. AFH means „American Fork & Hoe“ and means the plant, which had produced it. The flaming bomb is also a symbol for this plant. The blade is 10 inches and therefore it’s the shorter version. There has been also a 16-inch bayonet, which looks the same.
That's me holding the bayonet. I often thought of what this knife would have to tell if it could. When I cleaned it I noticed that it was obviously used because there was dirt in the chinks, some kind of orange dirt.I guess they used it only for cutting something. Unfortunately this bayonet won't tell us.
So I asked Aunt Google and she told me something about The American Fork and Hoe Company:
"The American Fork and Hoe Company was formed in 1902 through the merger of 17 regional steel goods companies. Among them was the Old Stone Shop of Wallingford, VT founded by Alexander Miller in 1808 (later the Batcheller and Sons Company), maker of forged steel rakes, hoes, potato hooks and scythes. This was the oldest fork company in America. By the late 1930s AFH produced a very wide range of steel products for farm and industrial use. During World War 2, headquarters were in Geneva, OH. Plants involved in larger scale War Production were located at Evansville, IN (axes, mattocks, hammers, sledges, and tools); Akron, IN (machetes, intrenching shovels); Ashtabula, OH (bayonets and bayonet modification); Charleston, WV (axes, machetes, picks, sledges, and tools); Dunkin, NY (tools); Geneva, OH (tools and steel); and Wallingford, VT (snowshoes). In 1949 the company was renamed True Temper, by which name it is still known. In 1967 True Temper merged into Allegheny Ludlum. In 1978 Allegheny Ludlum sold True Temper to Wilkinson Sword in exchange for a 45% interest in Wilkinson Sword. Two years later Allegheny International acquired the remainder of Wilkinson Sword, bringing True Temper back to Allegheny ownership. In 1985 Allegheny sold True Temper to Emhart Corporation, which was subsequently acquired by Black & Decker in April 1989 Among other companies presently part of the True Temper family is Ames Co., the largest maker of shovels for the military for many years. "
Source:http://www.usmilitaryknives.com/bayo_points_22.htm
"The TRUE TEMPER CORP., a major manufacturer of hand tools, began as the American Fork & Hoe when 17 tool-making firms merged in 1902. Although incorporated in New Jersey, the company had its general offices in the Keith Bldg. at 1623 Euclid, and in 1910 it was reincorporated in Ohio. When the company was enlarged by a $20 million merger of small corporations by 1930, it became the largest hand-tool company in America, supplying about 90% of the hand tools used by U.S. farmers. Although American Fork & Hoe retained general offices in Cleveland, its manufacturing plants were in Geneva and Ashtabula, OH. The Geneva plant made rakes and pitchforks and developed a tubular fishing rod, a golf-club shaft, and ski poles. The Ashtabula plant produced forged components, and during World War II manufactured steel shell casings and a newly designed bayonet. AF&H changed its name to True Temper Corp. in 1949 to reflect the anticipated growth of its residential sales in the postwar period. In the late 1950s, True Temper and other major tool and sports equipment manufacturers were convicted of fixing hand-tool prices and 2 True Temper executives and 7 others were given 90 day jail sentences--a first in American corporate history. In the 1960s the company began a program of consolidation, closing the Ashtabula plant, centralizing the Geneva plant, and building a major new 88-acre $3.5 million plant in nearby Saybrook, OH. In 1970 its Northeast Ohio operations employed some 1,100 workers. True Temper was acquired by Allegheny-Ludlum Steel Co. of Pittsburgh in 1967 and in 1981, after the company was divided into True Temper Hardware and True Temper Sports, its headquarters were moved from Cleveland to Pittsburgh."
Source:http://library.case.edu/digitalcase/datastreamListing.aspx?PID=ksl:ech-ttc#0
Picture: Ashtabula at Lake Erie today
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Sources:
Pictures:
- Taken by Georgia, all rights reserved
- Public domain (Figure 60, Ashtabula and detail of the bayonet)
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