BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) - Bowling Green resident John Barnett returned a piece of history to a Virginia man who didn’t even know it was missing.
Barnett’s family had been in possession of a century-old, double-barrel, 12-gauge shotgun made by Joh. Springer’s Erben of Austria - a family heirloom acquired during World War II. On Dec. 9, Barnett gave the gun to Mark Bombelles of Norfolk, Virginia, whose family originally owned the gun.
Barnett said his father, Newton Alpheus Barnett, came into possession of the gun while serving as a G.I. in Germany, rounding up Nazi sympathizers at the end of WWII. He remembers hunting rabbit and duck with the gun in his early teens. Twenty years ago, he cleaned it up and preserved it.
John Barnett decided to sell the gun two years ago, so he started researching its history and contacted the manufacturer. He started reading Austrian gun forums and came across writer Felix Neuberger, who put him in contact with Bombelles.
“We start emailing for about three years,” Barnett said. “He’s the one that actually found (Bombelles) … so then we talked back and forth about what should I do with it and I told him I knew my dad would not mind it going this way, probably better than selling it. He would prefer it to go back this way. So that’s what we did.”
Barnett called Bombelles in October and told him that while it might sound strange, Barnett believed he owned part of Bombelles’ family history.
Bombelles was doubtful, and in fact almost didn’t pick up the phone because he didn’t recognize the number and assumed it was a solicitor. But he continued to listen to Barnett’s story.
“I was dumbfounded,” Bombelles said. “I had to call him back a couple of times saying, ’So, what do you want to do with the gun?’ “
The shotgun was originally commissioned in 1912 by Bombelles’ great-grandfather, Count Marko Bombelles, who was good friends with Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the godfather to Bombelles’ grandfather, Count Josef Bombelles. Josef Bombelles took possession of the gun in 1914 after Marko Bombelles died in 1912.
The Bombelles owned the Castle Opeka in modern-day Croatia, famous for its arboretum, and once the Nazis entered what was then Yugoslavia, Bombelles’ grandfather was put into a concentration camp, where he was killed in 1942.
Bombelles said he’s not sure how the gun made it to Germany. His father, Joseph Bombelles, insisted that the German officers were disciplined and did not loot the castle when they turned it into their headquarters during the war. His father was 15 years old at the time and still lived at the castle, and the Germans treated him well.
Bombelles flew into Nashville and drove to Bowling Green to retrieve the gun form Barnett. He then planned to drive the gun back to Virginia.
Barnett said his friends were surprised when he told him that he was giving the gun away instead of selling it. He said the gun is worth more in Austria than in the United States, at about $50,000.
“That is the way I considered it, basically it’s returning it to them,” Barnett said. “I’ve told friends about it and they would (ask), ’You’re not selling it?’ And I said, ’No, I’m giving it to him.’ Think about all the stuff during World War II, all the stuff that happened.”
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Information from: Daily News, https://www.bgdailynews.com
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