What Pens Would Soldiers In Wwii Be Using?

[zubipen]

Many thanks for your very well informed clarification. It would be marvelous to see that letter of Mr Voss. Some time before I read that the German army had a kind of color-code with the ink they use in their seals and signatures.¿You know something about that?

 

 

  On 10/25/2009 at 3:45 PM, Kaweco said:

  On 10/25/2009 at 3:45 AM, zubipen said:

And from the German side? Montblanc always has been a luxury brand so I think the regular soldiers use something lik pelikan, matador, osmia

Hi all

German soldiers wrote with fountainpens. It was the best writing article and they sent masses of letters home. During each wartime the demand for good writing equipment inflated dramatically, the production during ww2 increased to its peak in 1940. Then, because of the shortage of rare materials, the production went down but was in 1945 even higher as in 1936! There were lots of primary orders from the military government and the producers had often not been able to fulfill the longlasting contracts with the wholesalers and shops. I have a letter in my collection with the personal signature of Mr. Voss, who was one of the MB owners, where he beagged at a client for foreign military order receipts to be able to serve more for private people. MB was only one among many other brands in these ancient times! They really did not make "better" fps than Kaweco, Soennecken or Osmia. The fountainpen as a tacky sign of luxury is an invention of our modern times.

Another problem for the fp producers during the war was that Speer converted the factories partially to wheapon- and other war- products. Therefore some smaller factories like GEHA and Discus had to stop their fp production totally.

My grandpa and his family had a fp repair shop and one of those numerous submicro fp productions. Actually they made business during ww2. In a letter from France the brother of my grandpa ordered pistons for repair and fountainpens for the black market at the front line in Paris. There they purchased Cognac, female French underwear and other fancy stuff which they sent to Germany. There it was exchanged to food to survive.

Kind Regards, Thomas

[Ernst Bitterman]

  Quote

My military experience (1969 - 1971) says that the average soldier in WWII probably didn't carry a pen or pencil around in his pocket at all.... Letter writing was mostly done back at a barracks or billet where his baggage was

 

My understanding of the WWII experience is that it was rather more fluid, at least on the Allied side-- constant movement, no fixed barracks, all that good fun. As to the thrust of the question, does it really matter if he carried it in his pocket (in danger of being fallen upon), or kept it in his duffel (loot for the REMF crowd)?

[Johnny Appleseed]

Another point is that soldiers came from all walks of life. I have a great-uncle who died flying supplies over the hump in Burma. He was the youngest son of one of the wealthier families in New Haven, and volunteered shortly after Pearl Harbor, as I am sure did many sons of the upper class. While education and pull probably put them in the Officer corp, they served and fought, and would have probably carried a 1st tier pen.

 

John

[Deirdre]

  On 10/25/2009 at 3:45 AM, zubipen said:

And from the German side? Montblanc always has been a luxury brand so I think the regular soldiers use something lik pelikan, matador, osmia

Sure, they've always been a luxury brand -- that explains making student steel-nibbed models like the 342, doesn't it?

 

I can't speak to whether their student pens were upmarket compared to other makers -- or not -- but they did have everyday pens that were not luxury models.

[gmberg]

My Dad, though U.S. Army Medical Corps in WWII, went as "ship's compliment". He made 16 Atlantic crossings and several trips to the Philippines. All the letters he wrote home as well as the diary he kept were written in ink. I wish I knew what pen he used. He remembers only his post-War pens. Still: not bad memory at age 91!

Gerry

[camoandconcrete]

I also would love to see that letter if possible.

 

Thanks

[zubipen]

there is a Topic with pics in the montblanc forum about a Montblanc pen found in german sub. Amazing

[Philips]

  On 10/25/2009 at 3:45 PM, Kaweco said:

Therefore some smaller factories like GEHA and Discus had to stop their fp production totally.

 

Hello there, I'm always interested in reading about these kind of things. Do you know what these companies would have been asked to produce instead of fountain pens during these dark days?

[HBlaine]

Well, it's past the WWII period, but my Dad served in the occupation of German, 51-53. He certainly didn't come from a "wealthy" family, being the youngest of six boys off a farm in rural WV. I do know that he bought and carried his own Sheaffer "fat" Touchdown Sheaffer Statesman set while he was in the service. Not an inexpensive purchase, by any stretch. I have letters he wrote home from Germany, and (having written with the pen) I know he wrote them with this particular Sheaffer. (I also know that someone bought him a Parker 51 for a graduation present in 1947, but he didn't carry that with him.)

 

As far as the war period, I'm pretty sure one of Dad's brothers, who served in the Pacific Theater, had a standard black Eversharp Skyline (which he later gave to me) which he carried. I've seen letters written home from him that were written with a fountain pen. I've also seen letters home from my oldest uncle (who also served in the Pacific), that were obviously written with a fountain pen, but I have no idea if it was his, borrowed, or what. (I have seen letters written in pencil, too.)

[zubipen]

Here is the link about the Montblanc found in a U Boat during WW II https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=129456 is amazing

[Hirsch]

A while ago I spoke with an elderly gentleman at a pen show. He had served in the Pacific theater in WWII (air support), and mentioned having been at Guadalcanal. At one point, I had mentioned a pen as a "ring top". He quickly corrected me, and told me that it was in fact a "ladies' pen". At the time, soldiers couldn't have a pen loose in their pockets, or they would lose it. So, almost everyone in his unit used a ladies' pen on a lanyard. They did not use the euphemism "ring top" at the time, and the gentleman I was speaking to was adamant that the correct terminology was "ladies' pen". For the soldiers, use of a ladies' pen was a practical necessity at the time. Not everyone who used a ladies' pen was a lady.

 

It made a lot of sense. A ladies' pen is small, relatively inexpensive (even then), and difficult to lose...exactly what a military situation would require.

[Johnny Appleseed]

That is consistant with what I have noticed about the nomenclature around ring-top pens. In 1900-1920s, they were often called "vest pocket" pens and aimed at men to weat in their wastecoat pocket, or women to wear on a neck-chain. From the late 20s-1940s or so they became "Ladies pens", with only occasional appearances after 1950.

 

John

[jar]

Well, I've been doing some more research and it appears that Dad used his Parker Vacumatic during most of the war. It seems he lost it somewhere in North Africa and that the family sent him a replacement.

 

He was a disappointment to the family since my Grandfather was a Sheaffer pen men but the Parker Vacumatic also met the dress regs while most Sheaffers did not.

 

 

There are lots of folk claiming that the Sheaffer Tuckaways were military pens but actually they did not sit deep enough.

[Ernst Bitterman]

  Quote

There are lots of folk claiming that the Sheaffer Tuckaways were military pens but actually they did not sit deep enough.

 

That's probably residual effect of the confusion between the tuckaway clasp and the military clip-- the former being exclusive to the dinky little pens, and being a wee trapezoid that almost certainly wouldn't cling through jogging, while the latter is essentially a regular Sheaffer clip mounted upside down and bent right over the top of the cap on a regularly sized pen (although they seem to have been all slender models). I was wearing one yesterday, a Vigilant, and it seems as likely to hold as a Parker or Waterman clip in a pocket with a flap on it.

 

Alas, I lack demonstrative pictures.

[jar]

  On 11/2/2009 at 10:12 PM, Ernst Bitterman said:

  Quote

There are lots of folk claiming that the Sheaffer Tuckaways were military pens but actually they did not sit deep enough.

 

That's probably residual effect of the confusion between the tuckaway clasp and the military clip-- the former being exclusive to the dinky little pens, and being a wee trapezoid that almost certainly wouldn't cling through jogging, while the latter is essentially a regular Sheaffer clip mounted upside down and bent right over the top of the cap on a regularly sized pen (although they seem to have been all slender models). I was wearing one yesterday, a Vigilant, and it seems as likely to hold as a Parker or Waterman clip in a pocket with a flap on it.

 

Alas, I lack demonstrative pictures.

 

Exactly. The reason the Tuckaways wouldn't pass review was that they have a typical clip placement, still a ways down from the peak. They would not fit under the pocket flap without showing a bulge.

[AllWriteNow]

I posted this one earlier in the Sager thread.

This is a 1940s Inkmaker. The clip would certainly conform to the pocket requirement.

The user added water and the 'stick' in the barrel, I guess, contained concentrated ink.

I've filled it once and it made faint Blue ink.

Steve

 

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_XpjXF6kqtEI/SudYpOlFrBI/AAAAAAAACMI/h7Rmut0PivM/s720/Sager_Inkmaker%20006.JPG

 

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_XpjXF6kqtEI/SudYsNdkOhI/AAAAAAAACMM/AxbjBYj3h8E/Sager_Inkmaker%20007.JPG

Edited November 3, 2009 by AllWriteNow

[Ernst Bitterman]

I took a picture this morning-- and if I can take a picture like this while sitting comfortably in my own den, is it any wonder that pictures of UFOs and Sasquatch are so blurry?

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/takematsu/SheafferMilvTuck.jpg

[jar]

  On 11/3/2009 at 2:35 PM, Ernst Bitterman said:

I took a picture this morning-- and if I can take a picture like this while sitting comfortably in my own den, is it any wonder that pictures of UFOs and Sasquatch are so blurry?

 

 

 

Thank you. You make even my pictures look good. :insert missing bunny:

[Mille]

  On 11/2/2009 at 8:52 PM, jar said:

Well, I've been doing some more research and it appears that Dad used his Parker Vacumatic during most of the war. It seems he lost it somewhere in North Africa and that the family sent him a replacement.

 

He was a disappointment to the family since my Grandfather was a Sheaffer pen men but the Parker Vacumatic also met the dress regs while most Sheaffers did not.

 

 

There are lots of folk claiming that the Sheaffer Tuckaways were military pens but actually they did not sit deep enough.

 

Some people took pens seriously back then as well.

[BearsPaw]

I think many people, regardless of class, used fountain pens during the war. My grandfather's family were farmers from Iowa, and he wrote letters to my grandmother using a Sheaffer Triumph Lifetime (help me out if that's the wrong name) that she bought him before he shipped off. He became a police officer after the war, and continued using it. These must be bulletproof because he never serviced it and it still worked when he gave it to me a few years ago. Unfortunately, small drops of ink started coming out of the plunger shortly afterwards. Ron Zorn restored it for me, and it is still in service.

 

These are not the best photos in the world.

 

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f110/bearspaw12/sheaffer1.jpg

 

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f110/bearspaw12/sheaffer2.jpg