stephanvdz Posted July 19, 2008 Share #41 Posted July 19, 2008 Advertisement (gone after registration) cameras at war... vast subject Capa was working with contaxes and rolleiflex... as seen on the pictures in the thread... A lot of leica cameras were duly "liberated" usually by allied officers. one french pilot of the Normandie Niemen squad even wrote about that in his book... about a leica he found in Königsberg and decided to make his own... I personnaly bought recently a leica IIIc red curtain that is said by the seller to be the one of his late father (being a high ranking officer in the american army during the war).. it's clearly a wartime leica with a wartime zeiss for leica (very early serial n° about 1942) sonnar 1,5 T... that officer would have bought it at the end of the war... or found it somewhere on the road. I also have found other wartime "liberated" cameras : - a voïgtländer bessa, taken on a dead german soldier during an action at a train depot in Belgium in 1943 (with a written note by the partisan that took it, because he thought that it was a binocular...). Evidence are the written the late resistant with date, hour of the action...and the reality of the action... since only 2 german soldiers were killed that day, it could be possible to trace the bessa further... - a very rare UGEIN II, said to have been taken to a japanese officer (build in 1943 and by the way only known surviving exemple of that wartime camera with olympus shutter)... with some probant explanation from the seller (family history). - a superikonta A "for China" (1933) also "found" in a pacific island battle... probably confiscated in China by a japanese officer and confiscated again later... All those four stories are quite possible since none of those sellers spoke about those provenance before the deal and furthermore because all those four camera were bargains (leica RC + Sonnar for 200$, ugein for 20$, bessa for 20€ and the SI for 47$)... usually unknown camera with real history come cheap... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted July 19, 2008 Posted July 19, 2008 Hi stephanvdz, Take a look here Patton's Leica: A really NEGLECTED historic piece. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
stephanvdz Posted July 19, 2008 Share #42 Posted July 19, 2008 second thought... about leica during the war Great Britain and USA did try to make leica copies during the war... the REID III and the Kardon are not postwar copies for civilian market... but wartime contracts to produce leica quality cameras without taking any notice of patents, the Kardon (US signal corps) was available in 1945 and the reid a bit latter... (too late to participate). It was not the time for leica US to act in court against those vile counterfeits cameras ;-) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest flatfour Posted July 20, 2008 Share #43 Posted July 20, 2008 Patton's Leica may have been enemy made but the Leitz family were no lovers of Hitler or his ideas. They assisted many Jews to flee Nazi Germany. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkCambridgeshire Posted September 1, 2008 Share #44 Posted September 1, 2008 Can be an interesting point... but I suppose that the Patton Museum has been setup years after than Germany ceased to be an enemy for US.BTW, there really was an US made camera someway comparable to Leica... the Kodak Ektra... but it was introduced in 1941... probably Patton was already on duty and hadn't time to shopping for one Kodak Ektra cameras do not come up for sale very often ... I was offered one today by Peter Loy http://www.peterloy.com/ but had to decline ... it is not listed on his website ... I have seen pictures of it and it looks to be in good condition. Cheers dunk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrid Posted September 1, 2008 Share #45 Posted September 1, 2008 cameras at war... vast subject Capa was working with contaxes and rolleiflex... as seen on the pictures in the thread... A lot of leica cameras were duly "liberated" usually by allied officers. one french pilot of the Normandie Niemen squad even wrote about that in his book... about a leica he found in Königsberg and decided to make his own.... Ok, now I'm curious. How on earth did a French pilot end up in Russian occupied Königsberg (formerly East Prussia)? Königsberg or as it is now known as Kaliningrad, is located on the Baltic Sea. In 1945 that was pretty far behind the Soviet line, which extended all the way to Berlin. Königsberg / Kaliningrad remains in Russian hand to this day. For one thing it is their only ice free port to the Baltic Sea. They also paid an awfully high price for it during the war. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHAG Posted September 1, 2008 Share #46 Posted September 1, 2008 Ok, now I'm curious. How on earth did a French pilot end up in Russian occupied Königsberg (formerly East Prussia)? The Free French set up a flight of fighters and bombers which battled along the Russian against the Nazis and took part of the siege of Königsberg, from january to april 45. The French flew back to Paris in june. Escadron de chasse 1/30 Normandie-Niemen - Wikipédia Normandie-Niemen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douglasco Posted September 2, 2008 Share #47 Posted September 2, 2008 Advertisement (gone after registration) If a fund is set up to restore the camera I would make a donation Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
picker77 Posted June 17, 2010 Share #48 Posted June 17, 2010 Better late than never, I suppose. I just stumbled across this thread and remembered I had a couple of color shots of this display case taken a couple of years ago at the same museum. Autofocus through glass and pop-up flash notwithstanding, these might offer a better view of the Patton Leica and lenses. Should you ever get the chance, go by the Patton Museum near Ft Knox, KY. It's off base and civilian-accessible during normal hours, and is an outstanding look at WWII hardware and Patton memorabilia. And I wholeheartedly support the idea that some of this stuff should be in the Smithsonian. Any progress made on this to date? Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/20531-pattons-leica-a-really-neglected-historic-piece/?do=findComment&comment=1354789'>More sharing options...
LeicaTom Posted August 18, 2010 Share #49 Posted August 18, 2010 Better late than never, I suppose. I just stumbled across this thread and remembered I had a couple of color shots of this display case taken a couple of years ago at the same museum. Autofocus through glass and pop-up flash notwithstanding, these might offer a better view of the Patton Leica and lenses. Should you ever get the chance, go by the Patton Museum near Ft Knox, KY. It's off base and civilian-accessible during normal hours, and is an outstanding look at WWII hardware and Patton memorabilia. And I wholeheartedly support the idea that some of this stuff should be in the Smithsonian. Any progress made on this to date? Smithsonian? Ohh no please don't send it there......there's so many great things from American history there now, that are packed away from the public eye "never to be seen" again. I say keep the camera in Ft. Knox, that's where it belongs and just clean the fungus/corrosion away from the camera and lens, were it won't do further damage. I get WW2 Leica's all the time (Grey IIIC K's) and all of them need cleaning off of that nasty green stuff, that's not taking away history, but removing harmfull chemical reactions from the camera equipment. (that camera could be correctly cleaned and preserved in less than an hour and not even cost $50 to do) Ohh and about the use of Leica's by the Allies during WW2, some of the first examples of Leica's "brand new" IIIC were captured in England from downed Luftwaffe aircrew during the Battle Of Britian (1940) and also brought in from the back and forth trips from Scotland to Norway (via Sweden) thanks to the Royal Navy's "Shetland Bus". (Carl Zeiss Jena Leica Mount Lenses also found their way into England later during the war via this route as well) American's used Leica's during WW2, mostly captured equipment, though some equipment was directly issued to the US Army Siginal Corps by Leitz New York ~ after May 7th 1945 all Leica production was issued (SOLD) to the US Army, used by Officers and Enlisted alike, also as of late 1946 Leitz also suppiled the American Armed Forces Exchange Service (PX) with cameras, both in the European and Pacific Theaters of operation. Tom Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gberger Posted August 18, 2010 Share #50 Posted August 18, 2010 I was in Germany, 1945-48, and purchased a IIIc through the PX in November, 1945. Also, I purchased a set of Leitz Marsept 7x50 binoculars (used by Panzer commanders) My son-in-law still has the IIIc and uses it frequently. It's been through at least three CLAs. The binocs were stolen in 1983. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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