Foolestroope,

I have my father's piano accordion that I think he got before WW2 but it may have been shortly after as my mum remembers his playing it very well. It has only 8 bass buttons for the bass note and the chord (F, C, G, and D) but they are set out like a piano bass rather than melodeon in that the pairs of buttons are the fundemental notes on the outside (nearest the edge of the box) with the chords closer to the bellows. I don't know the maker but unlike piano accordions (and like the melodeon) the buttons are not staggered. I wonder if it was a melodeon bass cabinet but set up to play like a pa?

I've seen quite a number of clips of WW2 showing both German and Soviet soldiers playing various types of squeezebox (in fact weren't the small Hohners - Lilliputs and Preciousas - marketed at German soldiers?) but I doubt they were with them in the front line.