The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Veteran Got a U-boat Flag As a Souvenir

From the May 15, 2012, Daytona Beach (Fla.) News Journal "WWII bet kept enemy flag as souvenir of war" by Valerie Whitney.

William Lorusso, 87, was part of a special detail of sailors who landed after D-Day to look for German sound equipment which would then be shipped back to the States to be examined.

In Cherbourg, France, they saw a German battle flag flying from a U-boat.  Said Larusso, "I saw the flag waving and I said to my friend, 'I'm going to get that flag'."

Larusso did and now keeps it packed away, though he's been offered $550 for it.  He says he has no plans to sell it.  As far as the future, he thinks he might leave it to his descendants or he might donate it to a museum (which I hope he does).

Flags from U-boats are extremely rare.

During the war, they also went to a perfume factory that produced Chanel No. 5 and he picked up some and sent it to his sisters even though they were forbidden to wear perfume by their father.

A Flag and Perfume.  --GreGen

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