Original German WWII Eastern Front Hand Carved Wolchow Stock Walking Stick dated 1941-1942 Original Items

Original Item: One-of-a-kind. This is an authentic hand carved souvenir walking stick or Wolchow Stock, named after the Wolchow / Volkhov area of the eastern front. This was made by a German Army soldier serving on the Eastern Front during the long periods of inaction. The stick measures 36 inches tall with a “handle” on the top measuring 4 1/2 inches long. It features a German Heer Reichsadler Eagle on top of a Swas (Swas) along with a German Tatzenkreuz (“Paw cross” or cross pattée), the symbol used in the Iron Cross and many other German awards and designs. The rest of the stick has lots of designs and other ornamentation.

There are four city names carved into the stick: MURMANSK, SALLA, KAI ELIEN, and WOLCHOW, which are the names for eastern front areas, many using the German version of the name. The first would be Murmansk, the Soviet Union’s major harbor connecting it to the Western Allies, which was attacked by German forces coming through Finland in 1941. It was not taken but was heavily damaged. Salla was the location of a major confrontation during the “Winter War” of 1939, and during WWII the German XXXVI Mountain Corps engaged Soviet troops there 1940-1942. The third city we believe is a misspelling of “Karelien”, the German word for Karelia, a contested region on the border between Finland and the USSR.

The last location listed is the namesake of these walking sticks, the Russian Volkhov Front area. The second references the Battle of Lyuban, one of the battles on the Volkhov front. The very bottom of the stick is marked 1941-42, the time period during which the stick was made.

The stock is in very good condition, with a lovely aged patina to the carved out areas. There is some wear on the bottom tip as well as on the handle, which we assume are wear from service. There is also a bit of cracking along the grain lines, which occurs over the years due to changes in moisture.

This is a fantastic personalized piece of historical remembrance from one of the most brutal theaters of war in world history. Ready to display!

The Eastern Front of World War II was a theater of conflict between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.), Poland and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Southeast Europe (Balkans) from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945. It has been known as the Great Patriotic War (Russian: Великая Отечественная война, Velikaya Otechestvennaya Voyna) in the former Soviet Union and modern Russia, while in Germany it was called the Eastern Front (German: die Ostfront), or the German-Soviet War by outside parties.

The battles on the Eastern Front of the Second World War constituted the largest military confrontation in history. They were characterized by unprecedented ferocity, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life due to combat, starvation, exposure, disease, and massacres. The Eastern Front, as the site of nearly all extermination camps, death marches, ghettos, and the majority of pogroms, was central to the Shoah. Of the estimated 70–85 million deaths attributed to World War II around 30 million occurred on the Eastern Front. The Eastern Front was decisive in determining the outcome in the European theater of operations in World War II, eventually serving as the main reason for the defeat of NSDAP Germany and the Axis nations.

The two principal belligerent powers were Germany and the Soviet Union, along with their respective allies. Though never engaged in military action in the Eastern Front, the United States and the United Kingdom both provided substantial material aid in the form of the Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union. The joint German–Finnish operations across the northernmost Finnish–Soviet border and in the Murmansk region are considered part of the Eastern Front. In addition, the Soviet–Finnish Continuation War may also be considered the northern flank of the Eastern Front.