Collection
Remains of a Mauser Pocket Pistol
Left behind at Red Bluff
Small, rusted, and worn by time, this pistol was once standard issue for German naval officers. On 25 November 1941, a lifeboat of Kormoran survivors came ashore at Red Bluff near Carnarvon. Likely knowing capture was imminent, the officers appear to have discarded their weapons before surrendering.
More than 65 years later, Geraldton surfer Tom Goddard discovered the corroded remains of this Mauser pocket pistol beneath the waves at Red Bluff. It now serves as a powerful relic of that moment in history, when war came quietly to the Western Australian shore.
Why might the officers have chosen to abandon this pistol? What stories can a single object tell us about surrender, survival, and the end of a battle?
MAKE IT YOUR OWN