Original Item: One of a Kind. To the victor belong the spoils! This is a great example of a wartime production Heer Army Officer 'Lion Head' sword, captured and shipped back home by Corporal Sheridan D. Smith, A.S.N. 42022057. Smith looks to have been with one of the Railway Operation Battalions when this was shipped back. The ship home box is made from unmatched pieces of wood, some laminated, and measures 40 1/2"L x  6"W x 2 1/4". It still bears the complete address information on the removed panel:

FROM:
CPL. SHERIDAN D. SMITH
A.S.N. 42022057
Co. B, 712TH RWY. OPN. BN.
A.P.O. 3507. P.M.
NEW YORK, N.Y.

TO: MR. & MRS. DENVER SMITH
535 HIGH ST.
BUFFALO, II NEW YORK
U.S.A.

The crate has delaminated a bit, but looks great from having been shipped home from Europe, and kept out of the elements since.

The sword inside is a beautiful classic Lionhead German WWII Army Officers sword, made by the well known firm of Ernst Pack & Söhne of Solingen, Germany, complete with its original scabbard. The hilt on this example is made from brass plated and gilt aluminum alloy, and consists of a finely detailed lion head cat with engraved backstrap and "P" guard. The Lion is fitted with blood red faceted "jewel" eyes. There is nice detail throughout his whiskers, chin, and muzzle. The handwork is beautifully rendered throughout hilt. The backstrap and side tabs bear lovely foliate designs, with an art deco style, showing what look to be acanthus leaves, with some rosettes on the side tabs. This grip ferrule displays some art-deco style oak leaves, while the guard has the iconic German "Oak Leaves & Acorns" motif on the bow in a very high relief design.

The chappe/langet has a closed wing art deco style eagle which looks to the viewer's left. The breast area of this eagle, as well as the wings, have been hand-enhanced. The reverse langet has a field for initials, however as with most we see it is not marked. The original gilding on the hilt is very well retained in many areas, with the expected wear around the grip areas. This has exposed the brass plating in areas, which now display a lovely aged patina, and there are few small areas where the aluminum base metal is visible.

The grip is a very nice black enamel painted alloy type, bound with a skein of four aluminum wires, arranged into twisted pairs. These are still tightly wrapped, and the finish on the grip shows some light overall wear and chipping, which has exposed the base metal. The hilt is still tightly attached to the tang, with no wobble we can detect, and the blue felt blade buffer is present and in great shape.

The 30 5/8 inch nickel plated blade of this example is of the highest quality steel, and is in excellent condition, with the plating almost fully retained. There is some light scuffing and roughness to the edge, but no evidence of sharpening, and only the very tip of the blade shows some oxidation due to the plating flaking. Really a fantastic blade.

The rear ricasso of the blade is etched with the large "Siegfried" trademark logo of Ernst Pack & Söhne, which is in excellent condition. The mark shows their trademark "Young Siegfried wielding a hammer" Logo, surrounded by a stylized banner. The whole trademark reads:

Per J. Anthony Carter's book GERMAN KNIFE AND SWORD MAKERS, this firm used this trademark on Army Officer swords during before the war and during the early years. They mostly made daggers so there is not as much information regarding the swords. The company survived the war, until it was sold in the 1960s to another knife company from Solingen, and the maker mark continued to be used into the 1990s.

The steel scabbard of this example is excellent condition, still straight and dent free. It still retains over 95% of the original factory black enamel finish, which shows just a bit of wear and chipping, mostly around the hanger ring, and there is some minor oxidation where the finish is missing. There is also a lovely pattern of light checking and crazing in the enamel, confirming the age. It still retains both throat screws, the hanger loop, and the slot for hitching up the sword to the belt when indoors.

Overall a great high quality sword from a well-known German sword maker based in Solingen, the "City of Blades" in Western Germany, mailed home by a USGI and still with the original ship home box! Ready to research and display!

Specifications:
Overall length: 35 5/8”
Blade length: 30 5/8”
Blade Style: Single Edged with Fuller
Guard dimensions: 5" width x 4 1/2” length
Scabbard Length: 33 3/4"

The German Army (German: Heer, was the land forces component of the Wehrmacht, the German armed forces, from 1935 to 1945. The Wehrmacht also included the Kriegsmarine (Navy) and the Luftwaffe (Air Force). During World War II, a total of about 15 million soldiers served in the German Army, of whom about seven million became casualties. Separate from the army, the Waffen-SS (Armed SS) was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich. Growing from three regiments to over 38 divisions during World War II, it served alongside the army but was never formally part of it.

Only 17 months after AH announced publicly the rearmament program, the Army reached its projected goal of 36 divisions. During the autumn of 1937, two more corps were formed. In 1938, four additional corps were formed with the inclusion of the five divisions of the Austrian Army after the Anschluss in March. During the period of its expansion by Adolf AH, the German Army continued to develop concepts pioneered during World War I, combining ground (Heer) and air (Luftwaffe) assets into combined arms teams. Coupled with operational and tactical methods such as encirclements and the "battle of annihilation", the German military managed quick victories in the two initial years of World War II, prompting the use of the word Blitzkrieg (literally lightning war, meaning lightning-fast war) for the techniques used.

The German Army entered the war with a majority of its infantry formations relying on the horse for transportation. The infantry remained foot soldiers throughout the war; artillery also remained primarily horse-drawn. The motorized formations received much attention in the world press in the opening years of the war, and were cited as the main reason for the success of the German invasions of Poland (September 1939), Norway and Denmark (April 1940), Belgium, France and Netherlands (May 1940), Yugoslavia (April 1941) and the early campaigns in the Soviet Union (June 1941). However their motorized and tank formations accounted for only 20% of the Heer's capacity at their peak strength.