US WWII USN Mk1 Utiltiy Knife, Sailor Named & Decorated, USS Saratoga & USS Iowa
This item is listed for historical interest only. It was listed on our site previously but has been sold and is no longer available for purchase.
Sold for: $375.00

Original era manufacture. Standard WWII US Navy issue Mk1 utility knife by Camillus. The guard and pommel have been replaced by stylized examples made of aircraft aluminum, with the stacked leather grip replaced bysections of black bakelite.The blade is full length, and it retains its original configuration. On the obverse of the blade are clearly engraved names of the islands visited by Bm1/c Hector Daffara during WWII; Marshalls, Truck, Saipan, Guam, Tinian, Malli, Palau, Yap, Waleai, Hollandia, Ponape, Rota, Ulithi, Philippines, Ryuku, and Formosa.At the base of the blade are carefully carved renditions of a crashing Japanese plane with 7 tic marks beneath, and below a rendition ofa sinking Japanese ship witha single tic.On the opposite side of the blade is the sailor's name done in the same hand; Hector Daffara BM1/c.The leather scabbard of sewn and riveted construction was with the knife at the time of our purchase. It displays the name of another man,marked on both sides;one Roy L. Bohnert with service number. Perhaps another story there.Hector Daffara was born in 1911, joined the US Navy in 1940 and retired in 1960; he died 25 May 1996. During his WWII career, Daffara served aboard the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga from February 1941 to February 1943, joining the crew of the USS Iowa in April 1943, and remaining on "The Big Stick" (a nickname acquired during the Korean War) until the end of WWII.During the time of Daffara's service on the Saratoga, she attempted to relieve the defenders of Wake Island, was torpedoed, repaired, supported the troops at Guadalcanal,participated in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, where her aircraft sunk the Japanese carrier Ryujo, and she was again torpedoed. BM1/c Daffara appears on the muster roll for BB-61 USS Iowa in April of 1943, and continued as a member of the ship's complement until November 1946. During that time the Iowa carried President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and other notables to the Tehran Conference in the Fall of 1943; was transferred to the Pacific Theater in early 1944; she assisted in the sinking of the Japanese light cruiser Katori off of Truk, bombarded numerous islands in many campaigns throughout the Pacific theater, and survived the ordeal of Typhoon Cobra in December 1944. She bombarded Japan until the surrender in August of 1945.What an amazing history for one Sailor, excellent material for further research.