Stijn David

Hello,

And here we have a very same vieuw, this time from the side

Cordial greetings,

Hello,

And here is a vieuw (rather dangerous looking with the machine guns) of a DFS 230 when freshly landed. Note that it is not a action picture but a training one. However it is very nice

Cordial greetings,

Hello,

@ John : could you tel us for howmuch that cloth badge was offered? And offcoarse where?, as i am interested to see where these do turn up.

About that shown badge, i do not like it from the shown pictures, the eagle is atypical for Junckers production (it is rather a BSW eagle), the reverse also do show some things i do not like and i think that it is a 57 model eagle used on a swas. wreath. This is not the first one i do see like this but it is a rather dangerous one it seems.

Better pictures from both the wreath (obverse) and eagle can bring clarity in this. But as said it is not one i would take into my collection.

@ Paul : take your time, a good one will pass by. Feel free to ask me iff you ever see one as i would be delighted to give advice.

I am working on a book on this badge (would be published at teh end of 2006), then the 100 % accepted originals will be known and you will have a reference.

Cordial greetings,

Gliders,

Thank you both for the reply, IMHO you do not have to know anything => being interested is just more then enough, that way a person can learn

The Sturzflug was used in different effective missions, with some glider pilots who have survived and otehrs who simply crashed into a building etc ... I have had the honour to taat mission was lk to several German glider pilots and they do confirm that such trainingw as already quite a adrenalin rush. The actual combat mission and diving towards the point of no return was a extreme feeling.

I have knowledge of several training flights that did not end good, but due to the wartime needs of trained personel there was not thinking of stopping the training flights.

Cordial greetings,

ps: not a "Sturz" but a interesting picture non the less/ the inside of a DFS 230 glider. The pilot had to do it with this when diving into action

Hello,

And here we do see another DFS 230 after a succesfull "Sturzflug mit Bremsfallschirm", almost landing

Cordial greetings + enjoy

Hello,

The Glider planes might be known towards a few persons, however how the pilots who flew these "Leukoplast Bomber" where trained is quite often less known.

After the Crete campaign there where made practices in dive flights and using a parachute to hold the plane in line. These practices where more and more common and it was the goal to make a so called point landing .

This had advantages and one of the major ones was: landing in a very small area and being as quick as possible through the critical zone of Anti Aircraft, etc ... FOr the pilots who had to do it it was very exiting but also very dangerous. The pilot had to make a good count how high he still was before pulling the plane up again,e tc ... (or serious acidents could happen)

Pictures of DFS 230's (glider plane) when diving with are quite hard to find, but we are proud to be able to present such a risky training session.

Enjoy

Cordial greetings,

Hello,

Indeed, a scary repro. It would be quite easy to be aged and as you point out => the feathering, etc ... will be the main difference to look after.

I just hope that nobody will find such a cloth one in his collection.

Cordial greetings,

Hello,

And here is the fake counterpart => the colourdifferences are mainly due to the scan. Have fun in studying this one

Cordial greetings,

Hello,

The German glider pilots badge is a rare bird in a collection nowadays, the cloth version is to be considered even more rare and is not a easy one to find.

Due to this rarity it was only a mtter of time before fakes would appear, in this thread it is the purpose to show a real badge and its fake counterpart.

The fake badge as shown here has known its birth in the mid 80's in germany. It was produced in order of a very large German LW collector and a original badge was used as reference piece. To make things even a bit more difficult original cloth and original threads where used to reproduce this badge.

So a blacklight wont bring you any help any more, the difference is al in the details (such as the feathering) and knowing what you are after is the main thing one can do.

The badge shown in this post is a original cloth glider pilots badge, this one was worn by a glider veteran and was obtained directly from this person.

Cordial greetings,

Hello Rick,

Thank you for the welcome, sadly there where no imperial glider pilots => otehrwise i am pretty sure that you would have such pieces

Anyway i will try to do my best to share with you guys, so lets honour our hobby and share a few of those pieces.

Cordial greetings,

ps: and here is a close up from his awards, note that besides his Lw. glider pilots badge he is also wearing the very rare Silver C badge (in cloth version )

Hello,

A few off you migh be aware of my passion for the german (military) glider pilots and i would like to share one of the portraits out of the collection. It is a widely unknown area so it seems and it might be good to share amongst each other. So feel free to post also a few portraits with the rare badge in wear.

Cordial greetings

Hello,

Is there a possibility to research wich planes (background info on the pilot/unit/etc ...) where downed on a certain day in WW II ?

I am looking after a Downed spitfire pilot from Tunesia on the date of 22 th april 1943.

Cordial greetings + thanks in advance.

Hello,

A Crete Glider pilot's iron cross 1 e class (sorry for the small picture - am only allowed to post small ones for the time being )

Cordial greetings,

Hi john,

It was a pleasure to see this one go into very good hands

I have no problem at all when you call me up for the glider stuff => i am just addicted and thrilled iff i hear the word

Cordial greetings,

Hi John,

Excellent badge

Cordial greetings,