D-Day Flag Declares Victory as Top Lot of Milestone’s $900K Premier Military Auction

48-star American Flag flown on US Navy ‘first wave’ landing craft during Invasion of Normandy, retrieved as souvenir by sailor onboard ship, flies high at $73,800

WILLOUGHBY, Ohio, July 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — June 29th was an exciting day for war historians who attended or bid remotely in Milestone Auctions’ Premier Military Auction. Collectors boldly stepped up to claim their unique prizes from a 700-lot selection representing conflicts from the Civil War through Vietnam era. The auction closed the books at $900,000 and, as predicted, the top seller was a US Navy D-Day archive whose centerpiece was a 48-star Ensign #10 American Battle Flag.

The iconic red, white and blue textile was flying on LCI-538 as the “first wave” of naval craft landed at Omaha Beach during the June 6, 1944 Invasion of Normandy. A near-sacred symbol of the coordinated effort in which the Allied Armies’ land, air and sea forces united to achieve the largest military invasion in history, the flag was retrieved as a souvenir by Motor Machinist’s Mate First Class Frank R Maratea, who was aboard LCI-538 as it made landfall on that fateful day. The archive also included a WWII US Navy Commission streamer flag, Maratea’s own Honorable Discharge and military papers; original photographs taken on Omaha Beach and on the deck of LCI-538, and ephemera from the D-Day Landings 50th Anniversary Reunion. A unique grouping with impeccable documentation, it sold for $73,800 against a pre-sale estimate of $40,000–$60,000.

Another highly important D-Day memento was a map critical to the Omaha Beach West assault phase of “Operation Neptune,” the code name for the Battle of Normandy. Showing the area in and around the community of Vierville-sur-Mer, the map also included landing and associated airborne plans for the D-Day invasion. It was marked “TOP SECRET BIGOT” – BIGOT being an acronym for “British Invasion of German Occupied Territory.” Carefully preserved for 80 years, the mint-condition map easily found its way to $23,370 against an estimate of $4,000–$5,000.

A circa-1941/’42 Nazi German Luftwaffe “honor” goblet was die-struck, hammered and of silverplate over nickel/silver construction. Its obverse bore the image of two eagles engaged in aerial combat, while its reverse showed the 1939 Iron Cross. The German inscription included the recipient’s name, rank and date of the award plus a German phrase that translates to “For Exceptional Achievement in the Air War.” It sold for $6,765.

The auction included many significant items from the now-closed American Armored Foundation Inc Tank and Ordnance Memorial Museum of Danville, Virginia. With a mission to display and preserve as many tank and cavalry artifacts as possible, the 333,000-square-foot museum’s core holding was the private collection donated by high-tech entrepreneur and military history expert William Gasser. Among the museum’s artillery holdings was a 1940s 20mm Orlikon MK II “cutaway” cannon of a type that was used as a teaching device by both sides during WWII. The auction example displayed ship/anchor proofs throughout and was marked GM for its manufacturer, General Motors. It sold within estimate for $11,070.

An unusual-looking WWII Nazi German totenkopf (skull and crossbones) helmet painted with the skull shield of the Finnish 4th Division, Kev Os 4 (Light Unit No. 4) rose to the top of the helmet category. Soviets nicknamed the unit “Belaya Smjert,” or “White Death,” in reference to the accomplished ski troops who painted the macabre skull motif on their helmets to intimidate the enemy. The helmet surpassed its $1,000–$5,000 estimate to achieve $6,900.

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Media Contact:
Miles King, Milestone Auctions
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SOURCE Milestone Auctions