J Temple-West

very unusual...without some pictures, difficult to give you an opinion.

R.S.&S. (Richard Simm & Sohne)

Ah bah crie, mon vyi...nice find..eh! such a pity that finds, like these, being official states insignia... have to be returned to the states archives...never mind, you had it for a while. All you have to do is hand it in at the Greffe. I jest...

Berg & Nolte did not produce flight clasps. There are a lot of fakes about with the B&NL maker mark.

I am not saying that this is the case when it comes to this particular badge, but I have come across other ex POW personal effects that contain fake badges. It would seem that it was common practice for those who had had their badges/insignia taken off them, on capture, to seek replacements post war. As Matthew says, a picture would help but I suspect that Ratzmann most likely fell foul to the many fakers that were about at the time.

Denazified zinc example by Adolf Scholze - Grunwald below is an early example in nickel silver

Thank you, Andrej And I am sorry for the time it took to respond to your post but we are going through a bit of a family crisis at the moment and I have been unable to spend as much time on the forum as I would like too. May I take a moment to give you, and your family, + all our members much love from the administration and staff here at the GMIC.

The information is correct...There seems to be a series of this badge, all using the same die but with slightly different reverse hardware, and are generally referred to as 'flat back, Vienna design' ...maker unknown. The only maker mark found on these Vienna design badges is "EWE"...again, maker unknown.

Simply put, and unlike the US who probably has the largest open source archives in the world, Germany lost the vast majority of its records at the end of the war due to allied bombings, ransacking of ministries by invading troops and the theft of documents which were sold on the open market by German citizens. What was left, and was managed to be reclaimed is held in the Bundesarchiv and can be accessed for a fee. And of course, and as you say, there is the element that Germany has closed the door on that chapter of their history and feel no need to openly publish any documents associated with the period.

Both look original to me...I particularly like the 25....but let us see what others think.

I think that we can discount Lt. S Molinari. Anton Molinari, however, sounds like it could be your man. He would have been of Italian decent, as was another famous Molinari..Karl-Theodor, so not unusual. The date on the jacket is 1937 so he was in the Luftwaffe at an early stage at the rank of Lt...checked to see if he appears in the Legion Condor lists...he does not. So further research into Anton, and the squadrons he was in, is the best bet. The thing about the WW2 German military is that they formed, and reformed, groups/units for specific objectives which makes research a little difficult at times, but having some of Molinari's units is a good place to start as documentation usually gives what a particular unit was formed from, when and the names of the officers. Btw...any chance of posting a pic of the jacket as it may hold clues to awards...by way of loops/holes etc.

Looks like Lt. molinar - April 37 but I suspect that it's more likely to be Molinari. There is an S.Molinari in the lists, but no further info.

The list, although not a 100% complete, show the following aircrew members that fit. Blüm we know was a pilot... Blum needs more looking into to find out his aircrew status. Now it's just a matter of doing the research into squadron lost lists etc.