"William’s Story If you ever watch the History Channel you might have seen the TV show “Pawn Stars.” The owner has a line he repeats often “you never know what’s going to come through that door.” My gunshop is the same way. It might be the town drunk wanting $5 or a widow holding her husband’s Colt 45. That makes it an interesting job. William came in the first time a couple of years ago. I was busy looking at a pistol for an older lady. Her husband had passed away a couple of months earlier. She had pulled a pistol from her purse and said “I think it’s unloaded.” She explained that she had shot it out the car window on the way till it quit going off. She didn’t know how to take the bullets out. She asked if it was a valuable gun and I tried to explain that wasn’t. She just said “cheap bastard” and shoved it back in her purse as she left. William smiled and said “I’m glad he didn’t leave her a good gun.” I agreed. William left his shotgun for repair and was gone. I could tell he was not a native from his strong accent. When he returned I found out he was retired from a large company and moved here to retire. He said he had more guns that needed work and that he would be back. Over the next few months he came by several times. I repaired and refinished his shotguns and tried to get to know him better. He didn’t seem to want to talk about his past but I found out he was Austrian and came to this country in 1946. His wife came with him sometimes and she was a chatterbox. If there was story I knew she would tell it or explode. I was right! William had brought her and she was looking at my trophies for shooting. She blurts out how William was a great shot in the war. William was looking at me when I asked which side? He replied “I didn’t have any choice, it was enlist or die.” He seemed a little more at ease when I told him my grandparents were German. As they left I overheard him tell his wife “you talk too much.” On his next visit I found out he had been a POW. He was captured in France in late December of 1944. He had been in engineering school till the Nazi war machine made him enlist. His father was Polish and his mother was German. He seemed a little more at ease talking with me and promised to bring over some stuff I might want to see. Maybe two weeks later he comes in with a gun case and waits till we are alone. Inside was a German G43 rifle. He said it was like the one he had in 1944 when he surrendered. He was out of food and cut off behind advancing American troops. He watched two of his fellow soldiers walk out to surrender and get machine gunned. He stayed in a hole overnight and finally fell asleep from exhaustion. He awoke to the barrel of an M1 rifle and a solider saying “freeze!” He said he looked at him and replied “I’m already frozen, I surrender!” He was taken back and turned in to the interrogator. Since he spoke English they questioned him extensively but could tell he was just a private. More customers came in and he said we would talk later. I knew there had to be more. The G43 was a rare semi auto and was given to crack soldiers. Most were issued a bolt action Mauser. Was he a sniper? Was he SS or some type of Special Forces? I didn’t want to seem like I was an interrogator but I did want to know. Next visit I gleaned that he wasn’t issued the G43. He had taken it from a dead private that liked to look over the top of his foxhole. He knew it was more firepower than his Mauser. He also brought out a pistol to show me. It was a Polish Radom. These were rare pistols and this particular one was made by Poland before the Nazi occupation. His father had kept it hidden in the basement in a secret location because it was a death sentence to have a gun in defiance of Nazi law. I could tell it was precious to him. He said there was a story about this pistol. He had broken his ankle as a POW unloading ships in Normandy. The American doctor said it could not be set and they took him to Scotland and operated on it. He was then deemed unfit for labor and given a desk job till the war ended. When he got home his family was dead or gone and the home was mostly burned. Only a small portion of the basement was intact and he found his father’s pistol. He packed the pistol with his books from school and made a wagon to pull everything he owned to the next town. There he applied to come to the United States and was accepted because he was trained as an engineer. After working odd jobs for food at a US base for two weeks he was sent to the port for transport to the US. He hated to do it but he knew he had to ditch the pistol or face terrible consequences. He decided he would just drop it along the road. Only problem was they took his box on another truck. When he arrived at the ship his box was already loaded. He knew he had to find a way to get that pistol out or he was doomed. It took two weeks to make it to the US and he was sick every day. Partly from the motion and partly from the knowledge that if he was discovered with that pistol he was would probably be shot as a spy. He decided that in the confusion of unloading he would just not claim the box and say he had nothing. Then they landed and were lined up for the interview. He was happy to find out the dreaded box was nowhere to be seen. When they called his name they escorted him to a small room with two officers. His heart was in his throat when he entered the room because his box was on the table. He knew he was mere seconds from disaster when the officer took out his knife and cut the box. The officer removed the pistol and made sure it was unloaded. He placed it on the table and then looked through each book in the box. He explained that they didn’t want to import any Nazi propaganda into the US. When he finished searching he replaced the books and put the pistol back in the box and then sealed it with tape. William said he asked nervously if the pistol was okay and the officer said “You are in the United States of America now. We have the right to bear arms.” He gave him his box and said “Merry Christmas!” William told me to never take for granted that we live in a country like no other. He said the best thing he ever did was to fall asleep that night and wake up a prisoner of the best people on earth. William asked me to not tell his story till he was gone. He was dying with cancer at the time but didn’t tell me. He didn’t want any attention. I hope we never forget the price that has been paid over and over for us to enjoy freedom. May we always live up to William’s opinion of us and Merry Christmas to all!"
That was interesting. I have an HK91, so I don't need a G43. Trying to load 2 stripper clips into the thing while under fire &/or freezing cold not good---but I'd take one any day over a 5 shot bolt action rifle.
