Description
Physical description
Hilt form: one-piece spirally ribbed grip in orange-brown plastic bound with silver wire. Large approximately spherical grey metal pommel, embellished front and back with a swastika enclosed by wreath of oak leaves and acorns. Short metal ferrule, similarly embossed with oak leaves, separates grip from crossguard. Ornate crosspiece with broad and gently swept forward quillons. Right crossguard is adorned the Wehrmacht eagle, wings outstretched, perched upon a swastika. Rear edge of crossguard, facing grip, is incised with oak leaves and acorns.
Blade form: slender double-edged tapered blade of flattened diamond section with broad flat medial ridge. Blade finish: nickel-plated.
The remnants of an aluminum knot is tied around the grip.
Scabbard is flat-bodied tapered tube, rimmed mouthpiece secured by two small screw bolts. Body has two narrow mounts with loose rings, mounts being embossed with oak leaves. Both front and back of body are stipple-finished, a panel of oak leaves and acorns incised immediately above chape ferrule.
Hanger consisting of an undecorated metal clip with two side by side rectangular apertures at the bottom. Through each aperture is a silver and orange strap with a rectangular buckle decorated with oak leaves. The straps terminate in metal sprung clips that have a hammered finish. The stitching has failed on one of the straps and so the hanger is in two pieces.
History note
German sidearm acquired by Captain Brian Julian Warry-Stonehouse MBE (29 Aug 1918-2 Dec 1998) Special Operations Executive (SOE).
Brian Stonehouse was born at Torquay, Devon, but largely brought up at Wimereaux, near Boulogne. When the family moved back to Britain in the early 1920s they went to live in Stowmarket, Suffolk. Stonehouse, a talented artist, attended Ipswich School of Art after which he joined Vogue magazine. Stonehouse had joined the Territorial Army before the war but, in July 1939, he was conscripted into the Royal Artillery. In the spring of 1940, he was working as an interpreter for French troops evacuated from Norway to Scotland. In 1941, Stonehouse was commissioned and, by the autumn, had been recruited by 'F' Section, Special Operations Executive (SOE) and trained as a wireless operator. He parachuted into France on 1 July 1942 landing near Tours. On 24 October, German Radio Detection vans located him at the Chateau Hurlevent, south of Lyons and he was arrested. Following interrogation he was held in solitary confinement and then transferred to Fresnes Prison, Paris. Despite being threatened with execution as a spy, after further interrogation by the Gestapo, Stonehouse was sent by rail to Germany with a party of other SOE prisoners. He went first to Saarbrucken in October 1943 and then to Mauthausen in Austria. In the early summer of 1944, he was sent to Natzweiler, in Alsace, where he was one of the few witnesses to the last moments of four women agents of SOE, some of whom he had trained with, who were summarily executed by the Nazis. Following the Allied advance into France, he was transferred to Dachau, where the Americans liberated him on 29 April 1945. He returned to London on 7 May 1945. Stonehouse was awarded and MBE (Military Division) in 1945. In April 1946, promoted captain, he joined the Allied Control Commission at Frankfurt where he assisted with the prosecution of war criminals. At the end of 1946, Stonehouse was demobilised, and went to the USA where he established himself as very successful fashion artist working for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and the cosmetics company Elizabeth Arden. He returned to Britain in 1979, and from then, until his death concentrated on portrait painting. Stonehouse died in London in 1998 aged 80. For more information on his wartime career with SOE see the official history, ' SOE in France' by M R D Foot (HMSO).
The Dept of Exhibits & Firearms holds a number of items relating to Captain Stonehouse's wartime career. (Ref: INS 4666; UNI 11240-11244; WEA 2122).
Etched on blade
Horster trademark