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G98 with ww1 Bring back story

N

ND1889

Well-known member
This rifle Danzig 1916 2178DD was brought back by Carl Vearl Kruse as written under the handguard in pencil. He was born in 1896 to Charles and Christina Kruse in Van Buren county Iowa. He was Drafted on June 25th 1918 and trained at camp dodge and then assigned to A company 313th engineer regiment of the 88th Division. He was shipped overseas to France on August 16th 1918. Apon arrival he and his Division were sent occupy quiet sectors near Alsace in early October. The Division was then sent to the front again near Metz for the planned offensive of November 13th 1918, obviously this didn’t happen and the 313th was to construct a railway from Arnaville to Jarny. He picked up this rifle in Arnaville as is inscribed on the inside of the top hand guard “Found in Arnaville France of 1918. C.V. Kruse Ottumwa Iowa” I was curious what German division might have had the rifle prior to “loosing” it and the 255th Infantry Division was the unit in that area and was defending the heights on the west side of the Moselle River by the railway hub Metz. “The attack of the 12th of September threw the division back on Vandieres and Preny, where it was still in line at the time of the armistice.” Preny is the village south of Arnaville. I will include a map of German and Us divisions on the front line on November 11th 1918. It is likely the gun sat on its left side on the ground for a while. Carl survived the war and returned home in June 1919 and was living on his parent’s farm in 1920. In 1923 he found work as a machinist working for the Burlington railroad in Ottumwa Iowa and married his wife Rowena in 1924 they had one adopted daughter named Clara Eaves. He retired from the railroad in 1963 after 40 years. He died in 1971 at the age of 74. I am currently looking for a picture of Carl and will include if found.

Pics:
https://imgur.com/a/0z56hQF

There has been a previous thread on this rifle which I will link here:https://www.k98kforum.com/threads/gewehr-98-doughboy-bring-back.28362/
 
must feel surreal knowing the story behind the rifle you hold in your hands-very cool story, thanks for sharing!
 
Wicked rifle with some incredible provenance behind it. Thanks for sharing. These are some of my favourite pieces.
 
Thanks guys, one of my favorite rifles I own, extremely rare to be able to put a rifle at a place and date. My best guess to as how found the rifle is likely a German dropped it and surrendered (This division was rated as a 4th rate unit with a lot of desertions.) He then came by a couple days later and found the rifle lying on the ground. Truly we will never know. I do have an exact date range for when he picked the rifle up based on his units movements. Only time possibly could have grabbed it was November 13th-15th
 
Finding these rifles with WWI bring back provenance is very neat, most rifles of this era have no provenance for how they got back here compared to WWII bring backs. Congrats on a very historical piece and thanks for sharing the story on this one.
 
I missed this on the first go round. Very nice example and interesting story. Thank you for bringing it back to our attention. Congratulations.
 
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