Zippos WWII

The Zippo Manufacturing Company, of Bradford, Pennsylvania, makes Zippo cigarette lighters. In peacetime they are nickel-plated and shiny. In wartime they are black, with a rough finish. The  famous  WWII  Black  Crackle  Zippo  lighter - windproof, waterproof & trouble proof.

Red crackle – told to be produced for tank units – with the liberty coin on the front.

Green overpainted black crackle Zippo.

Leather-wrapped Zippo with personal initials.

Leather-wrapped Zippo with cigarette case, which was probably overlaid by hand in Africa.

Various Zippos custom decorated in Korea, using traditional artwork called «Nageon Chilgi», with black lacquer and mother-of-pearl inlays as decoration including personal initials/name. «Najeon» means mother-of-pearl and «Chilgi» refers to lacquerware. The Abalone shell is first carved, then applied to the case. Layers of lacquer are then applied. The artist would then hand polish the entire surface revealing the Abalone shell underneath.

«In memory of Ernie Pyle 1945» is engraved on the front of the Zippo. Pyle was the best-known American war correspondent. He was killed by gun fire on April 15th of 1945 in Okinawa. Only some hundred pieces were manufactured and given to the crew of the USS Cabot.

«In memory of Ernie Pyle 1945» is engraved on the front of the Zippo.

Black crackle with the U.S. army shield emblem on the front.

Black crackle with the U.S. army insignia on the front.

The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known as West Point, is a four-year federal service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort that sits on strategic high ground overlooking the Hudson River. It is the oldest of the five American service academies and educates cadets for commissioning into the United States Army.

The transportation corps is a combat service support branch of the U.S. army. It is also one of three U.S. army logistics branches, the others being the quartermaster corps and the ordnance corps. The transportation corps is responsible for the movement of personnel and material by truck, rail, air, and sea. Its motto is «Spearhead of Logistics».

One of the greatest feats of the Transportation Corps, via the Military Railway Service, was the rebuilding of France's shattered railroad network after D-Day and the transportation of 1,500 locomotives and 20,000 railway cars.

The United States take over the North Atlantic air route-the shortest path between America and the European front. As way stations on this route both Greenland and Newfoundland acquired a new importance, as one of the terminal points.

Black crackle with ordnance insignia, ammunition parts and coins of Greenland and Newfoundland.

Army engineers built airfields, roads, bridges, ports, military camps, hospitals, and dozens of other facilities, including the Pentagon completed in 1942. Among the most acclaimed of the combat engineers' achievements were the Alcan Highway, the Ledo and Burma Roads and the clearing of mines and underwater obstacles. The corps of engineers supervised the Manhattan Project, the construction of the atomic bomb.

Black crackle with U.S. army corps of engineers insignia, royal air force insignia and two British coins.

ALCAN Highway also known as the Alaska Highway was constructed during WWII to connect the contiguous United States to Alaska across Canada. It begins at the junction with several Canadian highways in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, and runs to Delta Junction, Alaska, via Whitehorse, Yukon. When it was completed in 1942, it was about 2,700 kilometers long.

Black crackle with different engravings. Y. T. Kelly served 1943 as a safety engineer in the corps.

United states naval construction battalions, better known as the navy Seabees, form the U.S. naval construction force. The Seabee nickname is a heterograph of the first letters «C B» from the words Construction Battalion.

The Seabees had a second Logo. It was of a shirtless constructionman holding a sledge hammer with a rifle strapped across his back standing upon the words «Construimus Batuimus USN» («We build, We fight» USN).