Luftwaffe Luftwaffe Hermann Goering Division

[Paul R]

Hermann Goering Division

This formation of Elite Luftwaffe land combat troops has a very rich and detailed history. While I will cut to the basics, I would highly recommend the purchase and reading of "Herman Goering: From Regiment to Fallschirmpanzerkorps", by George Petersen and Roger Bender. If you have any interest in this unit, it is a purchase you will never regret.

23Feb1933:

The birth of the formation which would soon bear the name of Hermann Goering began as a small Police formation on 23February1933, referred to as Polizeiabteilung z.b.V. It was a relatively small force of only 14 Officers and about 400 men. They were initially tasked with busting up the remaining communist cells within Berlin.

17Jul1933:

Polizeiabteilung z.b.V was renamed, "Landespolizeigruppe Wecke z.b.V". It was the first police force of it's kind in Germany. Near mid September 1933, Goering bestowed the unit with it's own standarte.

22Dec1933:

Landespolizeigruppe Wecke z.b.V was again renamed. The new unit name was "Landespolizeigruppe General Goering".

01Apr1935:

To mark the occasion of a conscription requirement made by Hitler, the unit was again renamed. The new identification was "Regiment General Goering".

01Oct1935:

The Regiment General Goering was transferred into the Luftwaffe to become the new Fallschirmjager Corps.

Jun1941:

The Regiment was upgraded to a Motorized unit, with the it's designation being changed to "Regiment General Goering(mot).

15Jul1942:

The Regiment was upgraded and renamed to "Brigade Hermann Goering".

Oct1942

The Brigade was again upgraded and retitled "Division Hermann Goering".

21May1943:

The Division was restructured as a Panzer unit and renamed "Panzer-Division Hermann Georing"

Feb1944:

Again, the Division is restructured to include a fallschirmjager arm. The new unit designation was "Fallschirm-Pnazer Division Hermann Goering".

01Oct1944:

The Division was upgraded to a Korps and the unit was renamed, "Fallschirm-Panzer Korps Hermann Goering"

The men of this unit were considered to be the cream of the crop. This was a truly all volunteer force. Members, upon selection, signed a 12 year contract. They received the best training, supplies, and privileges. Being such an elite unit, there were strict entry requirements:

a. A candidate must be between the ages of 18-25

b. No shorter than 5 feet 5 inches in height

c. Be a legal German Citizen

d. Be of provable Aryan ancestry

e. No criminal convictions

f. Be Physically fit for active duty and deployment(No spectacles were allowed)

g. Eligible for military service

h. Unmarried

i. Swear to always support and defend the National Socialist Regime

The standards changed in 1942 in that the minimum age was lowered to 17.

This unit saw action on every front and fought with great distinction.

[Paul R]

Uniform:

More in depth details on specific insignia will be addressed later.

23February1933:

As stated above, the unit was a police formation from 23February1933 until 23September1935. These men wore the standard blue Prussian Police uniform until the green trimmed (Schutzpolizei) uniforms were authorized in Mid July 1933. The cuff title LPG General Goering was fixed to the lower left sleeve.

September1935:

Upon the unit's transfer to the Luftwaffe in September 1935, the police uniforms were kept in service but with the addition of the Luftwaffe eagle being placed over the right breast pocket of the tunic and on the visor cap.

23March1936:

The Regiment was required to change to the Luftwaffe uniform. The official Waffenfarbe was ordered to be white and the cuff title was changed to a blue cloth with "General Goering" embroidered onto it. The EM collar tabs did have a secondary piping, that I will address later. This would be the basic uniform throughout the war, with many changes to the insignia only, which will be addressed individually.

Due to the multi specialty nature of this unit, there were many garments which were approved for use. These range from Panzer Wraps, HBT light weight uniforms, camo garments, and many others.

[Paul R]

Collar Tabs:

The regulations on the collar tabs changed quite a bit during the unit's lifetime.

Basic unit waffenfarbe: White

Enlisted tabs:

From 23March 1936 until January of 1943, the following tab pipings were in use. (All have the white basic waffenfarbe with):

Red Piping- Flak units

Green piping- Other units(discontinued after 04Jan1943)

01October1937

Yellow Piping- Fallschimjager Battalion

January 1943, the following EM tab pipings were in use until 02April of 1943:

White piping, with narrow dividing line between the piping and tab body- Grenadier and Guard Regiments

Pink Piping- Panzer, Recon, and Tank Destroyer Battalion

Red Piping- Artillery and Flak units

Black piping- Pioneer

Golden Brown- Signals Battalion

Light Blue- Supply units

Also in January 1943, Panzerjagers were to use the green faced tab with pink piping.

April 1943, the use of the color piped collar tabs was discontinued. Plain unpiped white tabs were to be worn by all members of the Hermann Goering Division. The waffenfarbe was to be shown on the piping on the shoulder straps.

January of 1944, the use of the white collar tabs was abolished from use on the field uniform. The ranking gulls were punched directly through the collar lapel. Shoulder straps still used the waffenfarbe piping as before.

Note: All medical and Administrative personnel used the standard tabs alloted for their career field.

Officer tabs:

From the beginning officers used the white faced tabs with silver piping.

Medical Staff, General Staff, and Administrative personnel used their basic branch color.

Panzer tabs:

Prior to becoming a Division in 1942, the panzer wrappers used the black tabs with white outer piping and the TK. Upon the HG becoming a division, the white LW style tabs were used with a TK being fixed through the tab. In Jan43, regulations dictated that these tabs would have to have the required pink piping, with white piped shoulder boards. Within a few months, the pink piping was to be removed again regulations required the white tab with TK with the waffenfarbe to be work on the shoulder straps(pink). As time passed, it is a common site to see the TK simply being pressed through the lapel of the collar, without using a tab at all.

Displayed here are:

Hauptmann HG with wrapper

Single Reg Hermann Goering Arty overcoat tab for an Uffz

Regulation defying HG tab for what is speculated to be for a medic of an armored medevac unit(which did exist).

The next single tab is that of a Panzerjaeger.

[Paul R]

Shoulder Boards:

Until 23March1936, the standard Police shoulder boards and ranking system was used.

23March1936

From 23March1936 until 02Apr1943, the Hermann Goering units used the traditional Luftwaffe style boards for all rankings. The waffenfarbe regardless of specialty was white.

02Apr1943- Wars end

With the abolishment of the piped collar tabs, waffenfarbe would be indicated on the shoulder straps and boards of both officers and enlisted members:

Rose pink- Division Staff, Panzer Regiment, PanzerJaeger Regiment

White- Grenadier Regiment

Rifle Green- Jaeger Regiment

Golden Yellow- Panzer Recon

Bright Red- Flak, Artillery

Golden Brown- Signals

Black- Pioneer

Light Blue- Supply, Field Police

03Jun1943

Orange- Field Police

[Paul R]

Cuff Titles:

22Dec1933- Dark green cuff title for "LPG General Goering" was mandated to commemorate the designation of "Landespolizeigruppe General Goering". The cuff title was worn above the left cuff. There were three types:

a. Officer- wire embroidery of "LPG General Goering" with a silver border above and below edges of the cuff title.

b. NCO- Same as officer, except the embroidery is from white thread

c. EM- Same as NCO without the boarder strips.

23Mar1936- Dark Blue cuff title with "General Goering" was mandated with the unit's integration into the Luftwaffe.

The cuff title was worn 1 cm above the right cuff of the service tunic and 16cm above the cuffless uniforms

a. Officer- wire embroidery of "General Goering" with a silver border above and below edges of the cuff title.

b. NCO- Same as officer, except the embroidery is from matte gray thread

c. EM- Same as NCO without the boarder strips.

22May1942- Dark Blue cuff title with "Hermann Goering" was mandated upon the unit reaching a Division size and designation. The cuff title was worn 1 cm above the right cuff of the service tunic and 16cm above the cuffless uniforms

a. Officer- wire embroidery of "Hermann Goering" with a silver border above and below edges of the cuff title.

b. NCO- Same as officer, except the embroidery is from matte gray thread.

c. EM- Same as NCO without the boarder strips.

Initially, the lettering was done in Gothic script. This practice was quickly discontinued in favor of the blocked type lettering.

There were some unexpected cuff titles that were allowed to be worn by some members of the HG.

a. Grossdeutchland- Some members of the Furhrer Begleit Battalion were authorized to wear the black cuff title with white Sutterlin Script.

b. Fuhrerhauptquartier- Flak soldiers assigned to the Fuhrerhauptquartier and the Fuhrer's train were authorized to wear this black title with white script.

The above mentioned "appointed" position titles, when worn, were positioned above the left cuff.

Members assigned to the motorized escort of the Fuhrerhauptquartier wore the cuff title "General Goering" and from 1942 onwards, "Hermann Goering".

There were other cuff titles awarded for campaign service:

Afrika- Hermann Goering authorized that all members of the Luftwaffe stationed in Africa were to wear the dark blue cuff title with the block letters, "AFRIKA". The title was authorized for wear on the tunic until the entire unit was rotated out of the African theater.

a. Officers- Embroidery done with wire thread

b. Enlisted- Embroidery done with matte gray thread.

Kreta- Awarded to all members who contributed with the conquering of Crete. All branches of service were allowed this award.

a. All members- White title with yellow thread with "KRETA" embroidered.

AFRIKA(Palm tree)- Authorized by Hitler as permanent award for all members who either had six months of service in theater, were wounded, or received an award of the Iron Cross or higher. This cuff title was light brown in color with white embroidery "AFRIKA" flanked by palm trees. There was also a trim on the upper and lower edges.

[Paul R]

This image is kindly donated by Leigh Kitchen! Thank you very much!

Shown here are:

Shoulder board for an Oberstleutnant.

Overcoat Flak Uffz of Regiment General Goering(overcoat tabs were abolished before HG became a division)- seems that you have the other half of my tab! ;-)

A nice Leutnant HG tab

[Bob Lyons]

And a bit more HG stuff, I posted this visor cap before, but can add it here for

the sake of the thread...

[Bob Lyons]

another shot...

[Bob Lyons]

and some insignia, an Other Ranks cuff title....

[Bob Lyons]

Flak collar tab for Unterfeldwebel

[Bob Lyons]

And shoulder strap to correspond with the above collar tab.

Bob

[Bob Lyons]

Another pic, a group of shoulder straps, there is a nice Other Ranks HG here as well, I don't have

an individual photo of the pair of them at this time, so will add the group of straps with the HG pair

included.

Bob

[Bob Lyons]

Here is a HG cuff title for NCO's, with the 'Russia braid' above and below the title, quite a rare cuff title,

this one had been added to a tropical tunic post war, a shame as I would love to get my claws onto an

untouched HG with cuff title, but I think that would be about impossible on todays market, but here is a

nice example of an original wartime NCO's cuff title at least!

Bob

[Paul R]

Thanks again Bob!! That stinks that it is on a put together uniform. Is it yours?

Any data or militaria related to Luftwaffe Hermann Goering formations will be greatly appreciated.

This could include: period photos, insignia, uniforms, documents.

[Bob Lyons]

Hi Paul

I thought it was going to be mine, but when I discovered that it was a stripped tunic with the nice

bits added postwar it went back to the seller. (in the UK).

Bob

[Bob Lyons]

Here is another Erel Luftwaffe HG NCO's visor cap, this one belongs to a good friend of mine

who also lives here in Melbourne.....

[Bob Lyons]

Interior....

[Bob Lyons]

The unit stampings....

[Bob Lyons]

And the early Lubstein label

Bob

[Paul R]

Top shelf pieces, Bob!

[Bob Lyons]

A bit more, a blue faded to tan tropical Uffz tunic with HG straps...

[Bob Lyons]

And lying flat, shows some of the fading....

[Bob Lyons]

and one of the shoulder straps, piped in white...

Bob

[ERIC]

Hi Guys,

Not exactly "cloth" here, but it is something interesting and fits with your theme Paul. I have his group, complete with docs.

ERIC

[ERIC]

Rev