Luftwaffe Luftwaffe RLM, Pioneer, and members attached to the Luftschutz

[Paul R]

Luftwaffe's Black Branches:

Waffenfarbe-Black

There were several uses of the black waffenfarbe within the luftwaffe. These men wore the standard Luftwaffe uniform patterns, with their specific insignia.

Reich's Air Ministry

The Reich's Air Ministry of the Luftwaffe was established on 01March1935. The RLM was the nerve center and hub for the Luftwaffe, as the Headquarters. On 30Jun1939, the RLM staff wore the waffenfarbe of their basic branch instead of black.

Construction Units

Construction units were assigned the black waffenfarbe on 22Dec1939. These men were responsible for the construction of Luftwaffe facilities and fortifications.

Members attached to the Luftschutz

10March1942, all LW members assigned to Luftschutz units wore a black waffenfarbe with LS cyphers on the shoulder straps. These men acted as a liason between the Luftwaffe and the Luftschutz. These men were also responsible for training of the LS.

[Paul R]

Collar Tabs:

These men used the mirrored collar tabs, as used through out the Luftwaffe. The collar insignia for these men were black in color.

The Officer's tabs with the blue secondary outer piping designate Reserve Officers.

Here are some tabs from my collection.

[Paul R]

Shoulder Boards:

This branch used the standard Luftwaffe ranking structure and boards, with a black underlay. In the case of a reserve officer, an additional layer of blue was added to the bottom of the board, beneath the black.

This slip on board belonged to a Major.

[Guest Rick Research]

Former bomber unit commander in the RLM in 1935 who never made General, so ? died or career dead-ended (? with HIS record?)

[Guest Rick Research]

Nice ride.

From The Evil Ricky Collection

[Guest Rick Research]

Have shown this before for his Eeyore expression compared to her S-E grin. This is former Bavarian flyer Georg Haberl, circa 1934-35 (no Hindenburg Cross yet) as Oberstleutnant in the RLM. Born in 1882, he served in Bavarian Infantry Regiment 23, switched to Bavarian Inf Rgt 21 just before the war, but was on flying duties from the first day of the war on.

He too vanishes without ever making General.

From the Boonzaier Collection.

[Snoopy]

Hi Paul

My Lw obergefreiter bautruppen tunic.

Snoopy

[Snoopy]

Hello

In my collection, I have a couple of original rubber stamps. On a piece of paper they look like this.

Snoopy

[Snoopy]

This one is allso from a Lw bau unit. In the upper right hand corner, One can see the name "Gossen". Gossen was a german airfield, on the west coast of Norway. It's somewhat difficult to read. I guess that I did not use enough ink.

[Paul R]

This is some great stuff!! Can you place a photo of the stamper itself?

[Snoopy]

This is some great stuff!! Can you place a photo of the stamper itself?

Hi Paul

I have only the rubber portion of the first stamp. The tiny stamp next to it, has the inscription "Auftrag erteilt am".

[Snoopy]

This is the "Gossen" stamp.

[Snoopy]

This is my Lw leather pouch for a wire cutter. I guess, it could be considered as pioneer equipment.

Edited May 14, 2007 by Snoopy

[Snoopy]

This is the markings on the interior of the lid. The red "Betriebsamt Luftwaffe" inkstamp, can be seen in this picture.

Edited May 14, 2007 by Snoopy

[Snoopy]

Hello

I think that the discussion threads are great. I wish that I had more knowledge about the subjects, so I could contribute more. Instead, I am going to ask, what might be a silly question. Pioneer and bautruppen, is that two words for the same thing?

All the best

Snoopy

[Paul R]

You know... I think that you are right... I am not completely sure though! Are bautruppen and pioneers the same?

Great stuff, guys!!

Thank you!

Any data or militaria related to Luftwaffe Black waffenfarbed formations will be greatly appreciated. This could include: period photos, insignia, uniforms, documents.

[Naxos]

"Pioneer and bautruppen, is that two words for the same thing? "

No, not really. In short: Pioniere (like Fallschirm-Pioniere) were combat troops used for attack of fortifications and clearing of mine fields. Baupioniere were Engineers that build and repaired structures like bridges. Both wore the black Waffenfarbe.

Regards, Hardy

[Paul R]

"Pioneer and bautruppen, is that two words for the same thing? "

No, not really. In short: Pioniere (like Fallschirm-Pioniere) were combat troops used for attack of fortifications and clearing of mine fields. Baupioniere were Engineers that build and repaired structures like bridges. Both wore the black Waffenfarbe.

Regards, Hardy

Hi Hardy,

I thought that these men were trained to do both. Again, I dont know for sure... just speculation on my part.

Regards

paul

[Naxos]

Hi Paul,

German Engineer Units: This arm includes the regular combat engineers, as well as fortress engineers, construction engineers and regional engineers. On the other hand, engineer arm does not include railway engineers. It should be noted that the personnel of engineer platoons in organic divisional units belong to the arm of the unit which they are serving and not to the engineer arm, although they are trained to perform minor engineer functions.

Engineer units often form small detachments within their unit for special missions (such as flamethrower detachments and mine detection detachments.

A Pionier-Bataillon is organic in every German Division, varying in strength and composition according to the type of Division.

The Fallschirm-Pionier-Bataillon is organized similarly to the engineer battalion in a type 1944 Infantry Division.

Bridge columns were, until 1943, an organic component of the engineer battalions in all types of Divisions. At the time of the major reorganization of the German divisions the bridge columns were withdrawn to corps from all but the armored divisions. The different types of bridge columns are designated by various capital letters, i.e. ?B?, ?J?, ?K?, and ?T?, each of which represents the type of bride-building equipment used. Of these the bridge column ?B? has sufficient material to build longer bridges then does column ?K?.

However bridges build by ?B? are of wood, while those build by column ?K? are of steel.

As the reorganization of the German Divisions of 1943/44 have greatly reduced the strength of most types of organic engineers battalions, the General Headquarters engineer units have gained considerably in their importance. Engineer bridging battalions consisting of four bridging companies and an engineer park company, with a total strength of about 900 men, may be allotted from the General Hq. Various types of bridging columns are usually allotted to corps. Various types of engineer battalions, sometimes controlled by regimental staff, may be employed in the support of the division engineers according to tactical requirements.

The construction engineers belonged formerly to a separate arm of inferior status, known as Bautruppen . They were reclassified as engineers in the fall of 1943, and included in the designation of their regiments and various types of battalions their new arm as Pioniere.

From: War department Technical Manual TM-E 30_451, 15 March 1945

Regards, Hardy

[Naxos]

Here is a Luftschutz certificate of training to a female.

[musketiii]

Hola Paul..You are really doing us all a great service with these branch theme posts.Please "pin" them. Old and new members may find the information useful and contribute images. I appreciate you..John Wilson (Proud US Army dentist..I am so bored in retirement,here in Mexico, that I joined a Mexican practice with another American..he is U S Naval Academy, then Captain dental corps. I will be in the startes for CE soon and have ordered Army DC insignia for the staff to wear.Even Navy wants one!!)

[Paul R]

Hola Paul..You are really doing us all a great service with these branch theme posts.Please "pin" them. Old and new members may find the information useful and contribute images. I appreciate you..John Wilson (Proud US Army dentist..I am so bored in retirement,here in Mexico, that I joined a Mexican practice with another American..he is U S Naval Academy, then Captain dental corps. I will be in the startes for CE soon and have ordered Army DC insignia for the staff to wear.Even Navy wants one!!)

Thanks for the very rare document. I will be doing an article on the Luftschutz very soon!!

Thank you for the kind words! I do have these articles pinned, in a sense, here:

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=18207

It is a directory(like a table of contents) of all of these articles.

[Bob Lyons]

I have a pair of black piped shoulder straps with 'LS' cyphers, for personnel from the School

for Air Traffic Control . (Reichsschule fur Luftaufsicht).

This is the LS cypher....

[Bob Lyons]

Shoulder strap

[Bob Lyons]

The reverse of one of the straps....