Luftwaffe A puzzle - for you

[Robert Noss]

This time a small puzzle for You all.

Who is the man standing at the left:

Some of You probably know it, cause I have posted it at another Forum about 2 years ago.

But anyway, let's see what comes out.

Robert

[Robert Noss]

Nothing ??

Well.

Here is the solution:

Ritterkreuz Special

Regards

Robert

[Simon Orchard]

Some great shots of Meindl there Robert.

He must have carried out his FJ training prior to August 1940 as he jumped into Narvik on the 8th june 1940.

Edited January 27, 2006 by Simon Orchard

[Robert Noss]

Simon,

I was in contact with his daughter a few years ago.

There is a little story about these photographs.

I was walking around on a local fleamarket and found an old box with hundreds of old photographs.

On first inspection I could not find any military photos, but the number of photos was too big to check them all in a short time, so I asked for the price of the whole box. I paid 20 Euro for the whole lot and I could check them at home in patience with a cup of coffee.

There were interesting old photographs frome one family from a time frame of about 1900 to 1955 - but NO military at all.

There was ONE fieldpost letter however, only one. That is the fieldpost letter You see on my website.

Funny but I didn't recognize the name immediately. I read what this man had written and stumbled across the words - "Ich habe nun das 2.Fallschirmkorps" - "I now have the 2nd Fallschirmkorps".

Then I recognized the signature and was very happy. A hand-written letter of this famous and highly decorated person was worth all the efforts.

But now I started to research more. How does this letter come between these photographs and what was the relationship between Meindl and this family.

There were two original water paintings amongst the photos. Landscapes done in water-colors.

Now I recognized the signature on the paintings was that of Meindl too. He had done them in 1947 shortly after he was released from captivity.

From a member of the WAF-Forum I got the information that Meindl's daughter is still alive and got her email address.

So I wrote her an email, told her the story.

She answered very soon and she told me that it was the family of her mother's sister (her aunt) and she asked if she could have the water paintings of her father.

I said that she can have the paintings and I would be happy to return these to the family.

I also told her that I would be happy if she would have a signed photo of her father but if not, it is also okay for me.

Then I got a big letter from her with about 30 original photos from her father. These are those now on my website.

That was the story.

Ursula Meindl also send me a script, a biography of her life.

According to this, Eugen Meindl did not have any jump training before Narvik.

Meindl was a very sportive man and did Ski-jumping before the war.

In Narvik, Dietl did call for Meindl to help him in the battle against the british.

Meindl did immediately follow Dietl's call. There were three Junkers Ju 52 flying to Narvik that day, with some Fallschirmj?ger on board. They would not land but the soldiers had to jump. Meindl jumped in his regular mountain troopers uniform with his regular steel helmet and a leather coat on.

G?ring heard of that story and was so impressed that he "rewarded" Meindl with the jump-badge. The story even goes that G?ring gave a jump-badge out of his personal "box" to Meindl when he returned to Berlin.

After the Narvik adventure Meindl was offered to command a Fallschirmj?ger regiment and then, of course, he had to make a more intensive jump training.

That was the story.

Kind regards

Robert

[J Temple-West]

What an amazing story, Robert.

From a box of old photo?s at a market to what we see on your, most excellent, website.

This is what makes this hobby of ours so interesting and all the work that goes into the research, worthwhile.

Excellent!

[Simon Orchard]

Great story Robert, i didn't know Meindl just 'strapped on a chute and went' i had assumed he'd been on one of the same crash courses as the men from GJR 137 and GJR 136. Still, anyone mad enough to do ski jumping i can well imagine being mad enough to jump out of a plane with no training.

Very good of you to return the paintings to the family, in fact i'd say that it's a good thing you found the box and not someone else.

With all the negative stuff we see around this hobby, the scammers, thieves, fraudsters and the greedy it's people like you Robert that restore my faith in people.