Flyer's Badges of the Luftwaffe

AIRCREW BADGE(FLIEGERSCHAFTSABZEICHEN)

This badge was initiated on January 19, 1935 and initially worn by members ofthe Deutscher Luftsport-Verband who held a flying license. When the new Luftwaffe adopted it in early 1935, it was worn on the left breast pocket by pilots and observers. The horizontal oval wreath was in silver with a black eagle holding a silver swastika.

PILOTS' BADGE I (FLUGZEUGFUHRERABZEICHEN

On March 26, 1936, this newly designed badge was introduced and replaced the Aircrew Badge. The oval wreath was in silver with the raised portions of the design being polished. The eagle and swastika were either in a tarnished silver or a black finish. An embroidered version of this badge existed with the wreath in silver wire, the eagle in a dark-grey thread and the swastika in a matt-aluminum embroidery (officers').

The Pilot's Badge was worn in the middle of the left breast pocket of the tunic or in the approximate area of the Flying Blouse and Evening Full-Dress jacket. If the individual had been awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class, the badge was worn below it.

LUFTWAFFE PILOTS' BADGE (CIVILIAN) (ZIVILE'S FLUGZEUGFUHRERABiEICHEN DER LUFTWAFFE)

Civilian pilots in the Luftwaffe were also permitted a pilot's badge . . . . it was a pair of enameled blue wings with a slanted swastika in the middle. The wings were approximately 8cm wide and 1. 6cm high. The detail of the wings and feathers, the outline of the insignia and the swastika were in gold. It was also available in an embroidered form.

OBSERVERS' BADGE (BEOBACHTERABZEICHEN)

The Observer's Badge, also introduced on March 26, 1936, was for observers, assistant observers, navigators and bombardiers. The oval wreath was in silver with the raised portions of the design being polished. The eagle, in an observing position, was either in a tarnished silver or black finish. An embroidered version of this badge existed with the wreath in silver wire, the eagle in a dark-grey thread and the swastika in a matt-aluminum wire, on a blue-grey base (officers').

COMBINED PILOT/OBSERVER BADGE (GEMEINSAMES FLUGZEUGFUHRER- UND BEOBACHTERABZEICHEN)

This badge was initiated on March 26, 1936, and was for those who held the pilot's and observer's certificates for a minimum of one year. The design of the badge is identical to that of the pilot's but with a gilt wreath, with the raised portions being polished, and a silver eagle and swastika. The embroidered version had the wreath in gold thread, the eagle in aluminum wire and the swastika in silver wire (officers').

AIR-GUNNER'S BADGE WIRELESS/OPERATOR (FLIEGERSCHUTZEN-(BORDFUNKER) ABZEICHEN)

This badge for Air-Gunner/Wireless-Operators was also instituted on March 26, 1936. The wreath was in silver with the raised portions of the design plus the swastika being polished. The eagle, holding the lightning flashes (symbolic of wireless), was in tarnished silver or black. The embroidered version had the wreath in aluminum wire and the eagle and lightning flashes in a grey thread (officers).

AIR GUNNER'S AND FLIGHT ENGINEER'S BADGE (FLIEGERSCHUTZEN- (BORDSCHlhzEN- UND BORDMECHANIKER) ABZEICHEN)

The Air Gunner's and Flight Engineer's Badge was instituted on June 22, 1942 and was identical in design to the Air-Gunner/Wireless-Operator' s Badge with the exception of the lightning flashes being omitted. It was worn by all air gunners (except combination wirelessoperator/air gunners) and flight engineers and flight meteorologists.

On April 25, 1944, a variation of the Air Gunners and Flight Engineer's Badge was introduced for unqualified air gunners without certificate. It was identical in design but with a black wreath and silver eagle (no lightning flashes). It was awarded for a minimum of ten combat flights. This number could be reduced if the unqualified air gunner was wounded during one of the flights.

FLYER'S COMMEMORATIVE BADGE '(FLIEGERERINNERUNGS ABZEICHEN) This badge was awarded to all flying personel (including parachute troops) who had been relieved of all air crew duties, World War I pilots with at least four years service, plus other personnel with at least fifteen years service time. This commemorative badge was also extended to those crippled by an air-associated accident and to the next-of-kin in case of a flying accident resulting in death. The oakleave wreath was in silver with a polished swastika and the eagle sitting on a boulder was in tarnished silver.

An embroidered version of the commemorative badge was also available, but only for officers. The wreath and swastika was in aluminum wire and the eagle and boulder was in a grey thread.The metal version of this badge could be worn with civilian dress. A stickpin form was also permitted on the left collar. Disabled veterans were also allowed to wear a miniature air crew badge with their civilian dress.

PARACHUTIST BADGE (FALLSCHRIMSCHVTZEN ABZEICHEN)

The Parachutist Badge was initiated on November 5, 1936, for qualified parachutist in the Luftwaffe. The wreath was black with a gold diving eagle and swastika (the highlights of the eagle and swastika were polished). The embroidered version has the wreath in white thread for NCOs and men and in aluminum wire for officers. The eagle and swastika was in gold colored thread for NCOs and men and in gold wire for officers.

GLIDER PILOTS' BADGE (LW-SEGELFLUGZEUGFUHRERABZEICHEN)

The Glider Pilot's Badge was instituted on December 16, 1940, and awarded to those having obtained the military glider pilot's certificate. The wreath and swastika were in silver and the eagle was black or in tarnished silver. It could be worn only on a Wehrmacht or NSFK uniform. The embroidered version has the wreath in aluminum wire, the swastika in bright (silver) wire, and the eagle in grey for officers.

Roger James Bender: "Air Organizations of the Third Reich-The Luftwaffe", 1972.

R. James Bender Publishing

Illustration by R. Kahl

A Word to the Wise...

Some times an offer just seems to good to be true. When the piece is ultra rare or the price is such a bargain, that's when you have to be extra careful. Don't let your emotions carry you away. Do your homework, ask the opinion of experienced collectors who don't have a vested interest in the sale. And above all, use your instincts. Your first impression is usually the best.

German Militaria Collectibles

Goring's SS Driver Permit

Recently discovered in a veteran's safety deposit box was an SS Vehicle Permit issued by the office of Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler to Hermann Goring, head of the Luftwaffe and Reichsmarshall of the greater German Reich.

The permit is dated "Berlin, den 5. Juni 1942" and was issued for the authorization of the distinguishing blue light on the official military staff automobile of Reichsmarshall Hermann Goring with the vehicle identification number of "I A 206368."

The blue distinguishing light was used only in urgent necessity. The permit was to be in Goring's possession at all times and was to be produced by him upon demand of any SS-Police official. The reverse of the permit is stamped and signed by an officer of the SS- Police.

The reverse of the permit also has a four-and-a-half-line handwritten request by Goring, ending it with his -full signature and handwritten title-Reichsmarshall. Goring writes (translated from German):

I am returning this permit to the highest office of Himmler with the request that I be issued a new permit that will allow the use of the blue distinguishing light on my personal automobile as well as my military official staff car. Hermann Goring Reichsmarshall

Goring was born in 1893. He served in World War I as a fighter pilot scoring 22 victories in which he received the highest honor of the Pour Le Merite. He joined the Nazi Party in 1922 and was wounded in the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. By 1933 Goring was second in command after Adolf Hitler and was in charge of the Gestapo, but turned it over on April 20, 1934 to Himmler, thus making Himmler chief of the Gestapo. In 1935 Hitler appointed Goring as the Commander of the Luftwaffe (Air-Force). In April 1945 Hitler, thinking Goring betrayed him, put him under house arrest. He was captured and put on trial at the Nuremberg Trials and found guilty of war crimes, being sentenced to death by hanging. On the morning of Oct. 15, 1946, the day he was to be executed, Goring swallowed, a cyanide capsule and committed suicide.

The vehicle permit belonging to Goring was taken from Himmler's Berlin office along with 13 photos from Himmler's personal photo album which have never been published before. There are many with handwritten notations by Himmler on the reverse of the photos.

These items were taken from Himmler.'s office by an officer on his staff. At the end of the war the SS-officer gave the photos to his daughter. Marly years later she married an American and moved to the United States. Her husband had no use for the photos or permit and gave them to a friend of his who collected guns. They laid for many years in his safety deposit box until he contacted me. I purchased the photos, permit and a Christmas card sent by Hitler in December 1944, in the original envelope, all of which originated and came from Himmler's office in Berlin. This is one of the most historical finds in many years of two of the most powerful people of the Third Reich - Hermann Goring and Heinrich Himmler.

Don Boyle is a noted authority and author of "SS -Totenkopf H. Himmler Honor Ring 1933-1945" and is a life member to the prestigious MAX Show.

Don Boyle, "Himmler's Personal Photos, Goring's Driver's Permit Discovered", Military Trader, 1998

Sleeve Eagles of the German Railway

The Deutsche Reichsbahn (German National Railway) was one of the major uniformed civilian or "civil service" branches of the German government. It was a branch of the Reichsverkehrsministerium (National Transportffraffic Ministry), headed by the Reichsverkehrsminister (National Minister of Transport). At the time the Third Reich under Adolf Hitler came into power in January 1933, this position was held by Paul Freiherr von Eltz-Riibenach, who had been Minister of Transport since June 1932.1 At this time the German National Railway (then called the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft, or German National Railway Company) was headed by Dr.-lng. Julius Dorpmuller, who had been appointed Generaldirektor der Deutsche ReichsbahnGesellschaft on 4 June 1926.

Dr. Julius Dorpmuller was appointed Minister of Transport by Hitler on 2 February 1937, replacing Freiherr von Eltz-Rubenach - who had been "retired" after declining to accept the NSDAP Golden Party Badge awarded to him by the Fuhrer on 30 January. Dorpmuller remained in this position until the fall of Germany in 1945. As of 10 February 1937, the title of the Deutsche Reichshahn-Gesellschaft was officially shortened to Deutsche Reichsbahn.

As was the case with virtually all German military, political, and government organizations, the uniforms and insignia of the German Railway underwent repeated changes during the brief lifetime of the Third Reich. Basic uniforms, collar tabs and shoulder boards were prescribed in 1937, and significant changes were made in early 1941 (including an entirely new series of collar tabs, and some new shoulder board designs). Somewhat later in 1941, more radical changes were made to the shoulder boards. To make matters even more confusing, a mixture of the various official patterns of Railway uniforms and insignia were worn until the war's end in 1945 and "regulations" appeared to have been virtually ignored on a widespread basis. Railway rank insignia (collar tabs and shoulder boards) will be examined in a future article. This installment will look at the distinctive sleeve eagles worn by many - but by no means all - uniformed German Railway personnel during the war years.

On 1 September 1941, new Railway sleeve eagles were introduced for wear on the upper left arm of the dark blue service uniform.? These eagles were to replace a series of special cuff titles which had only been introduced a few months earlier and were therefore very short-lived even by Third Reich standards. Those cuff titles will be touched upon briefly later herein. The new sleeve eagles were intended to show the wearer's regional/area assignment within the organizational structure of the Deutsche Reichsbahn. Their design took the form of a shield-shaped patch of black cloth (flat across the top and rounded at the bottom) bearing a golden-yellow eagle and swastika, with the eagle facing to its right and having outstretched wings. Below the eagle was the name designation of the wearer's assignment in golden-yellow Roman letters (Antiquaschrift), with the wording following the curve of the lower patch edge. In the great majority of cases, the insignia was machine-woven in artificial silk thread in the so-called "Be Vo" style. A few original examples (mostly in foreign areas) were machine-embroidered in yellow cotton thread on a wool base, but this pattern is seldom encountered.

The most often-encountered examples of these 1941-pattern Railway sleeve eagles are those which denoted the Reichsbahndirektion (National Railway Directorate) - abbreviated "RBD" - to which the wearer was assigned. These Directorates were the regional zones/territories into which Germany proper was divided for the administration of the German National Railway system. As of about 1940, there were some thirty-one such Directorates (RBDs) within Greater Germany. Each of them was further assigned a number (1 through 31) in addition to the name of the city in which the headquarters of the individual Directorate was located. This same number - in the form of silver or gold metal numerals - was used on the shoulder boards of Bahnpolizei/Bahnschutzpolizei (Railway Police) personnel who provided security for the railway system in each Directorate. Continued...

Clyde R. Davis, "Sleeve Eagles of the German Railway", Military Advisor, Bender Publishing, 2005

Bender-Publishing.com

Collector Land Revisited

I haven't been involved in the militaria scene since 1975, but lately I've been getting the itch. Last month I came to Houston to attend a wedding and while there I managed to contact Bob Treend whom I hadn't seen for 12 years.After catching up with what has been going on and talking about collecting, I departed with two years worth of DG back issues, which Bob gave me. After reading 18 issues, I am a little surprised at the changes that have taken place, and feel like Rip Van Winkle.

Scanning these copies of DG is my first exposure to the collecting scene in 15 years. So, admittedly, this is a limited view. However, exposure to an outside perspective is sometimes useful to others.

First and most obvious, are the prices. I had expected a little inflation but wasn't prepared for the harsh realities of 1990. The intensity of the current scene is reminiscent of the Civil War collecting market in the late 60's and early 70's. I quote Tom Wittman in the April 90' DG: It is "dead serious business... almost like any real legitimate [sic] business." With all due respect, when a plain SA dagger sells for between $225 and $300 and a pair of SS officer's collar tabs list for $375, you have left the realm of "hobby" and entered the world of business. True, there are many expensive hobbies, but when you buy a motor for your bass boat or a new lens for your camera, you know exactly what you're getting. In militaria collecting it isn't always so.

Generally speaking, people engage in a hobby to relax. I can't speak for anyone else, but competing with 10,000 other people for the privilege of forking over 3 or 4 digit sums for a piece of scarce and desirable militaria is anything but relaxing. The competition has indeed become fierce. The publication of increasingly specialized reference books has made it easier to document and identify more and more pieces. Almost anytime you can document a piece of militaria by referring to an illustration or a photo in a book, its value increases. An increase in an item's popularity, as well as a broadened interest in a particular area (SA for example), often accompanies this inflaition. With this increase in value, popularity and interest, it suddenly becomes lucrative to reproduce an item or items. I'm not suggesting a straight line cause and effect relationship here, but would like to point out something that always puzzled me and other collectors I knew in the 60's and 70's.

Why is it that we never saw or heard of many of these items until after the reference was published?

Obviously reference books are an absolute necessity, but besides providing collectors with valuable information, they also provide fakers with working drawings for their handiwork. The pristinely executed line drawing in the Mollo SS series are a good example. The sudden appearance of many off-the-wall insignia as illustrated in the Kahl series shortly after its publication could actually be nothing more that coincidence. Still, in a hobby (excuse me "business") where you often must trust your instincts, it seems strange.

Tom Chaney: "Collector Land Revisited", Der Gauleiter, 1990

Structure and Organization of the Hitler Youth

HITLER JUGEND or HITLER YOUTH (HJ)

"The National Socialist State will have to take care that it obtains. through an appropriate education of youth the generation which is ready for the final and greatest decisions on this globe. The people, moreover, that first start on this road will be victorious. "

- ADOLF HITLER

An outstanding characteristic of youth during the first half of the 20th century was its tendency towards organization. While Italian Fascism showed the way to monopolize the movement of youth for the purposes of party and state, the tendency of youth towards self-organization persisted in the liberal countries. It reached its greatest strength in England by the first years of the Second World War. In that country forty percent of boys and girls between fourteen and twenty belonged to some youth organization at the outbreak of the war, as against seventy-five percent at the end of 1942.

By the time the Nazis came into power a vast variety of youth organizations were active in the Reich, some nonpolitical in character, others being mere subdivisions and appendages of political parties on the right or the left. The Arbeiter Jugend. the youth group of the Social Democratic Party. was the strongest single organization of this kind.

The founding date of the Hitler Youth is usually given as 1925, though there was a Youth League of the NSDAP from 1922 which at one time called itself a League of German Labor Youth (Bund deutscher Arbeiterjugend). A slightly more aristocratic NS youth organization was the NS League of Pupils (NS SchtJlerbund). founded in 1926 and put under the authority of the SA.

In October. 1931, the Reich Fuhrer of the NS League of Students, Baldur von Schirach, was appointed Reich Youth Leader of the Nazi party by Hitler. At that time, sixty-nine percent of the members of Nazi youth organizations were juvenile laborers and apprentices, ten percent were in commerce and trade. twelve percent were high school students and a large number of the members came from the unemployed. Membership, which included only those who paid their initiation and membership fees. was 20,000 though there were more who belonged but could not pay, for 100,000 marched by the Fuhrer at a Reich Youth Congress for the Nazi party in Potsdam in October 1932.

Most of the German youth groups before 1933 were associates of one over-all group. the Reich Committee of German Youth Associations. It was the existence of this that enabled the Nazis to take over youth, which was done by a coup on the part of Hitler Youth Leader Schirach in April, 1933 with the help of groups of the SA. After that, the usualprocess of Gleichschaltung brought the few remaining associations under Schirach's direction and on the road to uniformity of organization. Schirach emerged as Reich Youth Leader of the Nazi party and Youth Leader of the German Empire.

This unification process, which the religious youth organizations resisted longest, was not fully carried out until the year 1936. when a Reich Youth Law of December 1 recognized the "claim of the Hitler Youth to totality." This law also brought to an end an earlier tendency, lasting approximately from May, 1934 to the end of 1936, to make out of the HJ a "State youth", placed under the Reich Ministry for Science, Education and Popular Enlightenment, under civil servants and professional educators, rather than as a "party youth", placed under a party bureaucracy. The party directorate thought it advisable to have the party guide and possess youth. Control seemed more safely arranged and deserving party members were provided with jobs when the party ran the youth organization. It gathered the fees which, with a membership fee for the youngest group (Pimpfe) of 35 pfennige a month. brought an annual income from this source alone of at least 35 million RM.

This basic law of 1936, considering that "on youth depends the future of German folkdom (Volkstum)" and that "consequently the totality of German youth must be prepared for its future duties", provided that (1) all German youth within the territory of the Reich be united (zusammengefasst) within the HJ; (2) All German youth be educated physically, mentally, morally in the spirit of National Socialism and for the service to the people and for folk community (Volksgemeinschaft); and that (3) The task of leading the whole German HJ be conferred upon the Reich Youth Leader of the Nazi party, this act making him Youth Leader of the German Empire. His office had the rank and position of a supreme Reich office with the seat in Berlin and was placed directly under the Fuhrer himself. It was independent as any ministry, if not more so.

A youth Service Decree (Jugenddienstverordnung) of April, 1939 made membership in the HJ obligatory for all German youth from ten to eighteen. In keeping, however, with its tendency of preserving a party elite within such all-inclusive institutions in the Third Reich, the party provided for a special nucleus within the HJ, the Stamm-HJ.Membership in it was voluntary like party membership and highly selective. and thus a new party organ to ensure continued control was introduced. The General HJ (Allgemeine HJ) was the "omnium gatherum" which took in even those with a non-Aryan grandmother, whereas the Stamm-HJ fulfilled "the same racial conditions which the Nazi party insists upon for its members" and had to show that parents of members were politically reliable.

On the strength of this law, agreements with the Reich Ministry of Education set aside one whole day, Saturday. (which had always been a school day in Germany) to be given to the HJ for purposes of "education through the Reich Youth Leadership." Sunday was to be reserved for the family and the home (agreement of June 7, 1934). Schools were set up in order to produce a uniform-mined leader personnel, a higher professional group of the (JugendftJhrer) and a lower nonprofessional one of the Unterfuhrer. The latter were prepared in three week courses of the numerous Leader Schools (Fuhrerschulen), of the HJ. of which there were sixty-five in 1937. The professionals were educated in the Academy for Youth Leadership (Akademie fur Jugendfuhrung), located at Braunschweig, to which every Hitler youth could be called, provided he proved his German blood, good health and eugenic promise, a fully completed apprenticeship in some handicraft or other profession or graduation from a nine-class highschool. After a preliminary selective course, the authorities of the HJ decided whether or not the candidate was to be admitted to this new profession. In the first case, he had to serve his regular time on the Labor Service and in the armed forces after which time the following services were expected of the Fuhrer aspirant (Fuhreranwarter): four months activity in the office of a HJ Gebietsfuhrung, an eight weeks course in the Reich Leader School (Fuhrerschule) at Potsdam, and one year's course in the Academy, three weeks of service with the industries of the homeland and a five to six months educational stay in foreign countries. If that was passed, the Youth Leader began his service which as a minimum would last twelve years, the usual term of the professional noncoms of the armed forces.

The number of professional paid HJ leaders was given as high as 30,000 to whom should be added hundreds of thousands of minor Fuhrers. In fact, in April, 1938 the HJ was led by a total of 562,000 male and female leaders: of these 59 were Gebiets and Obergebietsfuhrer, 1,365 Hauptbann-, Oberbann- and Bannfuhrer, 9,000 Stammfuhrer or Ringfuhrerinnen, with 550,571 leaders of the still lower units, All leaders from Bannand Jungbannfuhrer upward had by the end of 1938 met their military duties or had served for at least eight weeks with the armed forces.

"Youth must be led by youth" was the declared principle of HJ leadership. Here are the age averages for 1938: Obergebietsfuhrer, thirty years and six months; Gebietsfuhrer, thirty-one years and four months; Abteilungsleiter of the Gebiete, twenty-five years and four months; Bannfuhrer, twenty-five years and one month and Jungbannfuhrer, twenty-five years and eight months. It was planned to retire the professional youth leader after twelve years of his service, which would mean at an age of about thirty-six, and then take him over with a corresponding rank and poSition into the SS. Of the total HJ membership (at the end of 1937),16.4 percent were pupils of grade and high schools, 25.5 percent were working in commerce and trade, 8.7 percent in the technical professions, 3.4 percent were agricultural workers, 20,9 percent were called youthful laborers, 5.9 percent were university and college students (with theology students excluded as HJ leaders), and 5.4 percent were school teachers, while 11.3 percent belonged to various other trades and professions and 21.5 percent had no profession.

The HJ comprised German youth in the following groups: German Youth Folk (Deutsches Jungvolk DJ) for the male youth from eight or later ten, to fourteen years, the Pimpfe; the HitlerYouth, HJ, in the narrower sense of the term, for the male youth from fourteen to eighteen; the corresponding groups for girls were the Young Girls (Jungmadel, JM) and the Association of German Girls (Bund deutscher Madel, BOM) which was also the term for all girl's organizations within the HJ.

Ray Cowdery: "Nazi Para-military Organizations", Northstar Commemoratives, 1985

Note: Look closely at the poster shown above. Does the HJ kid in the background look like someone familiar? Bob