Luftwaffe Postcard with 3 Luftwaffe Knight's Cross Winners

[Avitas]

Hello there,

Here is my best postcard made by Kodak shortly after the war I believe (or maybe during the war, but I don't think so) of three Knight's Cross winners of the Luftwaffe, Generaloberst Udet, Oberst Galland, and Oberst Molders. You can see all three RK's in wear and a nice view of Molders' Spanienkreuz mit Schwerten, Pilots badge, EK1 and one I can't ID below the Pilots badge. Just thought I would post it as it is a nice shot of awards being worn by fairly famous Luftwaffe personnel. I will show the back of the postcard for ID purposes as well.

Cheers,

Pat

[Eduardo]

A very interesting postcard. Congratulations. I gues Kodak made them for colectors. Had not seen anything like it before.

Eduardo

[Laurence Strong]

Hi Pat

Why do you think it's post war?

[Avitas]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the responses gents. As for the postcard being post-war, I had just assumed that they wouldn't make postcards of the enemy during wartime for propaganda purposes. So I took out my blacklight tonight and checked it (for the first time, hadn't bothered to before), along with another Kodak postcard of a LW radio operator. The one with the Knight's cross winners does not glow at all, while the Radio Operator one does glow quite brightly. This would lead me to assume that the RK winner one is either right after the war or during it and the other one is just a couple years later, after the widespread introduction of phosphourous to paper and detergents and cloth. Just my guess, hopefully someone can help out some more.

Cheers,

Pat

[Avitas]

Here is the Radio Operator's card I was talking about, which glows under the blacklight, unlike the Luftwaffe postcard. Also made by Kodak, does anybody know more about these Kodak postcards? It would appear the LW one is wartime and this Radio Op one postwar (or possibly late-war?). Also, any more comments on the Knights cross winners postcard are welcome.

Cheers,

Pat

[J Temple-West]

Pat,

Send Robert Noss (photos/cards expert) a PM. I'm sure he'll be only too happy to give you an opinion on these cards.

[Paul R]

This is an interesting thread. I have never seen this type of post card before. I look forward to seeing what Mr Noss has to say.

[Avitas]

I sent the PM, so hopefully Robert knows something, or anyone else who drops in! These are the only two Kodak brand postcards I have, maybe someone else has one? I guess we just play the waiting game now.

Cheers,

Pat

[Robert Noss]

Hello Pat,

they are indeed interesting and unique. I haven't seen those before in many years of collecting.

I am quite sure they are postwar, and I am also sure that they were not made in germany.

The first one with Udet, Galland and M?lders is a well known picture, published many times in books and newspapers, during the war and after. I think it existed as a Hoffmann-postcard during the war, I can remember that I have seen it once.

The quality of the original photo is a bit clearer, I would presume Your Kodak-card is a photo from the original postcard, it also has the writing on the bottom.

For the other card, I also have seen the photo somewhere before, maybe also on a period postcard, one of the many series that were published during the war.

My thoughts are, that Your postcards were made after the war by some people who produced a small number of re-prints of original postcards. Maybe a book publisher.

I have some re-prints of Waffen-SS studio portraits that were produced in Holland in the 80ties from a local publisher and here in germany are quite a few publishers who also sell re-prints of rare postcards, sometimes a bit "hidden" under the table, if You know what I mean.

However, interesting postcards, thanks for showing them

Kind regards

Robert