Luftwaffe Lowest Ranking LW Pilot

[Paul R]

This must be the lowest ranking qualified LW pilot I have ever seen!!

[Guest Rick Research]

I've heard of Gefreiters being pilots but never seen one wearing what I thought was the dagger only Feldwebels and up could wear! (?)

No name and date on back?

[Paul R]

I've heard of Gefreiters being pilots but never seen one wearing what I thought was the dagger only Feldwebels and up could wear! (?)

No name and date on back?

There is nothing on the back at all... :- (

Perhaps the dagger privilege came with being a flyer?

[Daniel Krause]

Is he maybe an Officer candidate?

Best regards

Daniel

[Paul R]

Hi Daniel,

I do not see any insignia that would place him as an officer candidate. It is possible that I am missing something though. :cheers:

[Scott]

Do you have a name with your photo? I have a pilot certificate to a Gefreiten Karl Klein dated 17 Sep 36...

[Paul R]

Do you have a name with your photo? I have a pilot certificate to a Gefreiten Karl Klein dated 17 Sep 36...

Unfortunately, there is nothing on the reverse of the photo. I thought that pilots were officers, during the early days?

[Robin Lumsden]

As I recall, the first pattern Luftwaffe dagger could be worn by all aircrew, irrespective of rank.

Hence 'Fliegerdolch', as opposed to the later 'Offizierdolch'.

[Paul R]

As I recall, the first pattern Luftwaffe dagger could be worn by all aircrew, irrespective of rank.

Hence 'Fliegerdolch', as opposed to the later 'Offizierdolch'.

Thanks Robin, for confirming my suspicion. :cheers:

[Stijn David]

Hello,

Low ranks are not so unusual for flying personel, certainly not when they just qualifyed towards pilot, glider pilot, etc .... .

When you have the book about the glider pilot badge then you can see that quite a few soldiers where only "Flieger" when they received there Glider pilot badge. In most cases shortly afterwards they where promoted towards Gefreiter but pictures are known, etc ..

Cordial greetings,

[Frogprince]

Robin I think summed it up nicely. I?m not a Luftwaffe specialist, but as I understand it, as time progressed there were changes. And with the introduction of the Officer?s Dagger they changed again, but more substantially.

Prior to the introduction of the Officer's Dagger if the individual had a flying badge he could wear the flyer?s dagger. But only Officer?s, and Unteroffizier mit Portepe, could wear the knot.

And I believe that in the 1939/1940 supplement to Uniformen der Deutschen Wehrmact. It states that as of March 1940 the flyer?s dagger was to be worn only by NCO?s (without the knot), and men (including F?hnrich) with flying status. FP

[tyanacek]

Hello to all,

Here are the documents and medals belonging to a personal friend of mine. He lives only a few miles from my home. He will be 85 years old later this year and he is still in good health. He received his Pilot's Badge on 20 July 1944 as a Gefreiter. He ended up being an Obergefreiter and was awarded the EK2 on the last day of the war.

Best regards,

Tom

Edited March 21, 2009 by tyanacek

[tyanacek]

Here are a few photos of him plus his Flugzeugf?hrerschein and Flugbuch:

[Paul R]

Here are a few photos of him plus his Flugzeugf?hrerschein and Flugbuch:

That is a great set! Did he get any kills? I see you have his flight log. Any interesting items in there?

[tyanacek]

That is a great set! Did he get any kills? I see you have his flight log. Any interesting items in there?

Hello Paul,

No, the guy never achieved any kills in the air, perhaps just a few Czech Communists on the ground. Here is a short write up about his experiences during the war.

Best regards,

Tom

Richard Reimer was supposed to enter university in order to become an engineer. He was very intelligent and his schooling was supposed to be paid for by the government. (Even today as he approaches the age of 85, he is still really sharp.) However, in 1943 he was inducted into the Luftwaffe because "the F?hrer is the F?hrer and what the F?hrer wants the F?hrer gets." He was supposed to be in the Flak troops and was actually issued his Fliegerbluse with red collar tabs. He remembers being lined up with his comrades, all of whom were wearing red collar tabs. Across from them stood a lineup of guys wearing golden-yellow collar tabs. He said that they were ordered to exchange Fliegerblusen with the flight troops. (He swears that this actually happened.) He started working for his Hauptmann as a company clerk, since he was intelligent and great with shuffling papers. When an opportunity arose for flight training, he put his name on the top of the list along with one of his friends and convinced the Hauptmann to approve the transfer. He said he was trained first on gliders, which was a way in which they weeded out the guys that could fly from the ones that could not. After completion of glider training, he was on a bus en route to motorized flight school. He came down with pneumonia. By the time he recovered, he was four or five weeks behind in training. The other guys completed basic flight school, then were trained on FW-190s. After completing fighter school, they were promoted to Unteroffizier and sent off to fight the war. He met up with a few of them months later, but most of those guys he rode with on that bus had already been killed in aerial combat. To this day he says that having pneumonia saved his life. He completed basic flight school and received his Pilot Badge on 20 July 1944. He never did get to go to fighter school and never flew the FW-190 because by then everything had really "turned to crap." He ended up being part of a security force at a factory where BF-109s were being assembled. He also mentioned about jets being on the other side. I think he said this place was called Gbell. In early 1945, he and the other grounded pilots (factory guards) were supposed to be assigned to Stukas and sent to Hungary. This would have been a suicide mission without a doubt. He remembers his Commanding Officer calling them all together and telling them that the war will be over in a few months and that they would remain where they were and just wait for the war to end. Before the war would end, though, this grounded pilot received the EK2 on 8 May 1945 (the last day of the war). He received the EK2 for saving a group of German Officers that were surrounded by Czech Communists in Prague. He and his comrades broke through the encirclement and aided the Officers in breaking out. Several Officers had been killed, but most of them were rescued. At the end of the war he surrendered three times to the Americans and three times the Americans turned him and his buddies over to the Soviets. Three times he escaped from the Soviets by simply walking off at night (after the Russians were drunk). He said that at the end of the war there was mass confusion and nobody knew what was going on. The first time he surrendered to the Americans, neither he nor his buddies were searched. He said that the Americans allowed them to drive around in their own German truck and the truck was never even searched. (It was loaded with rifles, sub-machine guns, grenades, lots of ammo, and even a Panzerschreck RPzB.) After walking off from the Soviets for the third time, he was able to evade recapture. Eventually he made his way home, mostly on foot. He was able to keep his Pilot Badge hidden during the times he was in captivity and he still retains his original badge today.

Edited March 22, 2009 by tyanacek

[tyanacek]

Here is the actual Pilot Badge that was awarded to Richard Reimer on 20 July 1944. It is a typical late-war zinc badge, produced by Friedrich Linden of L?denscheid. To this day, he complains that "the wreath use to be silver but now it looks ugly."

[tyanacek]

The Pilot Badge reverse:

[tyanacek]

He scratched his name onto the back of the wreath: "REIMER"

[tyanacek]

Repair job to the one rivet. The wreath was counter-bored and the rivet re-peened.