What Pens Would Soldiers In Wwii Be Using?

[jar]

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.

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty pen.

[Pepin]

What about the Italian and Spanish Army? What pens did they use?

[Vintagepens]

It should be kept in mind that while a large number of soldiers from the wealthier countries would have been able to afford a good fountain pen, the situation would have been very different elsewhere. You can bet that fountain pens were pretty uncommon among Soviet conscripts, for example.

 

I don't know what the average Italian soldier would have had in the way of writing instruments, but it's a certainly that it wouldn't have been one the top-line brands so esteemed by collectors today.

[camoandconcrete]

It should be kept in mind that while a large number of soldiers from the wealthier countries would have been able to afford a good fountain pen, the situation would have been very different elsewhere. You can bet that fountain pens were pretty uncommon among Soviet conscripts, for example.

 

I don't know what the average Italian soldier would have had in the way of writing instruments, but it's a certainly that it wouldn't have been one the top-line brands so esteemed by collectors today.

 

 

Would it be a safe assumption that the Italian soldiers used brands like Pelikan, Montblanc, Osmia or Faber Castell, since the German Army had a massive presence in Italy ever since Mussolini's troops couldn't defend their positions in Africa? Correct me if I'm wrong, please.

 

MiamiArcStudent

[Kaweco]

Hello David and Arc Student

Why this? Actually Italy had very good fountainpenindustries since the 20th like Ancora Aurora Columbus Fendograph Montegrappa Omas Penco Radius Tabo or Tibaldi. Why should an average person purchase an expensive import model? Aurora produced a special white fountainpen model for the soldiers during the occupation of the fascist regime in Italy 1935, the Aurora Etiopia. (Source: Lambrou, Fountainpens Vintage and Modern)

Kind Regards, Thomas

[Kabe]

Can't help but wonder how they carried ink...

[Jerome Tarshis]

Thanks to Thomas for anticipating one element of my reply: there were plenty of Italian brands for Italian soldiers to use. Many more than exist today. The same was true of American pen companies, English, French, and German. Automobile manufacturers, too. The world of 2009 is very different from the world of 1925 or 1935 when it comes to choices of manufactured goods. As Thomas has said in another posting, Montblanc was not nearly as prominent a company during most of its history as it has become since the meltdown of the fountain-pen industry. Nor Pelikan, really. There were so many more brands to choose from. (Pelikan was large in inks, dyes, art and classroom supplies; just not the colossus in FPs it may now seem to be.)

 

A different point, which Thomas does not allude to, is that the increasing German presence in Italy after the American invasion was not welcomed by Italians. Many Italians weren't really eager to go on fighting in a war they were destined to lose, and saw the German army as invaders more than as welcome friends. (Actually many Germans weren't so eager to go on fighting, either.) If I were an Italian soldier in 1942 and 1943 I wouldn't be saving my lire so I could buy a German pen. A Parker 51, that's a different story.

[Vintagepens]

What is more, the Germans in Italy were NOT there to rep for the German fountain pen industry!

 

And to return to what I was trying to emphasize in my last post, not only would the average Italian soldier not be using imports, he would also not be using ANY of the top-tier Italian brands that everyone here recognizes. Of course, there would have been SOME soldiers from better-off backgrounds who might have been given an Aurora or OMAS by their families when heading off to war. But Italy as a whole was a poor country, with lots of illiteracy. Among those conscripts who were literate, the sort of pen typically owned would have been a few cuts below the top tier.

 

It's easy to get a distorted view of how pens were actually used by viewing the past through a collector's eye. Most of the pens that collectors seek out -- and even more, the pens singled out for attention in collecting reference books -- were at the top end of the market. They were luxury items, and even where in wealthy countries such as the USA they became widely affordable luxury items, luxury items they remained -- with many who could afford them choosing more economical alternatives instead. Another trap is wishful underestimation of how exceptional collector-loved exotica really was. The Etiopia, for example, is rare as can be; yes, it was marketed against the backdrop of Italian colonial conquest, but it would be a serious distortion to claim that it was used to any demonstrable extent by actual soldiers. It's sort of like how writers of historical fiction can't seem to write a story about the American Civil War without sticking a LeMat into some character's fist -- and don't get me started about stories of Japanese-American families that insist on introducing an ancient heirloom sword passed down from samurai ancestors.

[richardandtracy]

My Grandfather used a Parker (probably a Vac, my dad remembers it as 'stripy' with a knob on the end) during the war. He saw action in France in 1940, North Africa & Palestine, then France & Western Europe in 1944/5. Followed by a pretty rough time in India up to 1948.

My Grandmother replied using her gold overlay Onoto 3000 dating from 1924 (photo https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=40712 ). It turns out that this was the pen she replied to my Grandfather's proposal in 1927 - and we have that letter still. This pen was her only pen for all the time she worked as a teacher - retiring in the 1950's.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

[HBlaine]

I remember running across a reference (maybe in Steinberg's first pen book) on an Italian parliamentarian in the inter-war period denouncing those who would buy foreign pens as taking money out of the economy and giving it to foreigners.

Edited November 11, 2009 by HBlaine

[Ron Z]

I repaired a pen that had belonged to a client's dad a couple of years ago.

 

The well used green Parker Vacumatic Major crossed Omaha Beach, and survived the Battle of the Bulge. I later got an email from it's owner saying that it was going with him to Europe that summer, the first time over without a gun going along.

[Vintagepens]

I remember running across a reference (maybe in Steinberg's first pen book) on an Italian parliamentarian in the inter-war period denouncing those who would buy foreign pens as taking money out of the economy and giving it to foreigners.

One of the major goals of the Fascists was autarchia -- economic self-sufficiency.

This was official government policy, actively implemented.

[Johnny Appleseed]

To further build on David's point - in the US at the end of 1941, at the onset US involvement in the war, only 12 percent of US fountain pens featured gold nibs. 88 percent featured steel nibs, and would be what we would consider 2nd or 3rd tier at best. The vast majority of Americans used a 2nd or 3rd tier pen, let alone what soldiers would have taken with them in the field. It is possibly of course that the families of soldiers would have sent them off with a pen of better quality than they themselves would use, but that breakdown should be kept in mind.

 

John

[simp]

Hello David and Arc Student

Why this? Actually Italy had very good fountainpenindustries since the 20th like Ancora Aurora Columbus Fendograph Montegrappa Omas Penco Radius Tabo or Tibaldi. Why should an average person purchase an expensive import model? Aurora produced a special white fountainpen model for the soldiers during the occupation of the fascist regime in Italy 1935, the Aurora Etiopia. (Source: Lambrou, Fountainpens Vintage and Modern)

Kind Regards, Thomas

Sorry but the history about the Aurora Etiopia beeing produced to be given to soldiers during the Etiopia occupation is know to be a fake.

 

Many collectors believe this, also because Aurora cleverly used the fascist regime propaganda as a base for its merchandising, but the Etiopia reached the market in 1936, when the Etiopia campaign was already concluded. And it was sold through regular resellers, like the others ordinary models. There are also other examples, like the ML line, of Aurora pen told to be produced exclusively for the military (so with higher standard for durability) but sold like all others ordinary pens.

 

And please, be aware than that if Etiopia is not a common pen, also it is not so extremely rare as told in this article (http://www.stylophilesonline.com/archive/jan03/05vint.htm). I personally saw at least a tens of that, and I know a collector having more then 10 just by himself. They also show themselves quite often in Italian pen show.

 

I will also point you that it will be quite difficult for a WWII italian soldier to buy a Penco Pen, because that brand name was used by the Fratelli Rossi Vicenza (the real name of the producer, active from about the 1930) only after the war, when the emphasis of the fascist regime over the use of italian names for everything was gone (Pen-Co, the name they used, stands for Pen Company Manifacturer).

 

Regards

Simone

[simp]

I remember running across a reference (maybe in Steinberg's first pen book) on an Italian parliamentarian in the inter-war period denouncing those who would buy foreign pens as taking money out of the economy and giving it to foreigners.

One of the major goals of the Fascists was autarchia -- economic self-sufficiency.

This was official government policy, actively implemented.

During the fascist regime there it was also a strong propaganda to remove any foreign word from the country, and many brands had to change their name.

 

Simone

[Pepin]

To further build on David's point - in the US at the end of 1941, at the onset US involvement in the war, only 12 percent of US fountain pens featured gold nibs. 88 percent featured steel nibs, and would be what we would consider 2nd or 3rd tier at best. The vast majority of Americans used a 2nd or 3rd tier pen, let alone what soldiers would have taken with them in the field. It is possibly of course that the families of soldiers would have sent them off with a pen of better quality than they themselves would use, but that breakdown should be kept in mind.

 

John

 

This is the most enlightening piece of period information I read so far. Quality vintage pens, except for certain brand and models, have actually depreciated in value for the most part. For newbs like me, this depreciation presents a false image of the past. While I could buy a vintage pen made of 14k gold nib today under $30, I believe this option was not available to many pre-war families. The seemingly "abundance" of quality vintage pens is a reflection of the relatively small consumer base for these pens.

[Vintagepens]

This is the most enlightening piece of period information I read so far. Quality vintage pens, except for certain brand and models, have actually depreciated in value for the most part. For newbs like me, this depreciation presents a false image of the past. While I could buy a vintage pen made of 14k gold nib today under $30, I believe this option was not available to many pre-war families. The seemingly "abundance" of quality vintage pens is a reflection of the relatively small consumer base for these pens.

Absolutely correct. If you had put your money into brand-new Parkers in 1940, you would have a nice collection now -- but nothing like the returns you would have seen from the stock market, or real estate. Though some older collectors may complain about the price of fine vintage pens nowadays, in historical terms, they remain an incredible bargain.

[welch]

My Grandfather used a Parker (probably a Vac, my dad remembers it as 'stripy' with a knob on the end) during the war. He saw action in France in 1940, North Africa & Palestine, then France & Western Europe in 1944/5. Followed by a pretty rough time in India up to 1948.

My Grandmother replied using her gold overlay Onoto 3000 dating from 1924 (photo https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=40712 ). It turns out that this was the pen she replied to my Grandfather's proposal in 1927 - and we have that letter still. This pen was her only pen for all the time she worked as a teacher - retiring in the 1950's.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

 

My Dad used a Parker aboard ship in the Pacific. Mom gave it to him, and he says he "wrote lots of letters with that pen". It was gray and marbled, so I'd guess that he, also, had a Vac. Incidentally, family legend says that a child who is now me found Dad's pen one day a played "stab the desk" with it. Argh!

 

They were not wealthy, so Mom must have saved from her job as a typist to get him the Parker.

 

Incidentally:

 

- I have used Parkers of one sort or another, including ballpoints, ever since I got a P45 in about 1961.

 

- Thanks to David I, I'll give Dad a gray/pearl Parker Vacumatic this month.

[Bill]

In researching a 1944 Parker "51" that had belonged to my father-in-law I learned that there was a shortage of them in the civilian market because the majority was allocated to the military, along with a few exports. He had been serving in the West Indies as a missionary since 1937 so may have acquired there.

I have yet to get through all his old photos and movies showing island life, including wartime bombers on patrol, but it would be nice to see the pen in action.

Bill

[Vintagepens]

My Dad used a Parker aboard ship in the Pacific. Mom gave it to him, and he says he "wrote lots of letters with that pen". It was gray and marbled, so I'd guess that he, also, had a Vac.

 

If marbled and not striped, it could also have been a Challenger.