Luftwaffe Richard Schimpf and Oberst Eicke

[Dave Wadman]

Gentlemen,

In 1937 when Richard Schimpf was promoted to Oberstleutnant a transferred to the Legion Condor his position as head of the Air Photo dept of the RLM was taken by an Oberst. Eicke. Now try as I might I have been unable to find any information on Eicke and therefore would be most appreciative if anyone here would be able to help.

Many thanks

Dave

[J Temple-West]

Hi Dave,

According to the sources I can find on Richard Schimpf, his position with the ?Aerial photography and survey services? at the Reich Air ministry lasted from 1st March 1936 until 25th March 1940 when he then transferred to the staff of the Luftwaffe General assigned to Army Group ?A? in preparation for the invasion of France and the Lowlands.

What information do you have on his involvement with the ?L C??

[Dave Wadman]

Hello John,

The info that I have on Schimpf comes from an assortment of copies of documents that I have on the early stages in the establishment of the Luftwaffe plus some copies of General Staff files.

Briefly, these provide the following:

Transferred into the Luftwaffe as the Staffelkapitan of a reconnaissance Staffel in February of 1935.

Promoted to Major (date not given) and made head of a department in Air Photo until 1937 when he was promoted again (to Oberstleutnant) and transferred to the LC where he served (position not given) until being appointed to the Luftwaffe General Staff in September 1938 where he served on the staff of the Luftwaffe general attached to Army Group A. He then did a short stint at the RLM before serving as CoS of Lfl.4 from November 1940 to February of 1941.

Now, if only I could find the same info on Eicke!

Kind regards

Dave

[Guest Rick Research]

John's information is correct and Schimpf never had anything to do with Legion Condor.

Schimpf's entire career from life to death is laid out in the Hildebrand Luftwaffe Generals biographies published by Biblio Verlag back in the '90s.

Since your information on Schimpf's service is incorrect, that may explain why there is no information on an Oberst Eicke, who could not have replaced him at that time.

There is no good published source, period or subsequent, on the vast multitude of Luftwaffe officers below general.

[Dave Wadman]

Hello Rick,

You are of course right and also right about the dearth of factual information on Lw officers below the rank of General.

Anyway, rather than make a complete fool of myself I dug the relevant files out and of course, the Spanish link doesn?t apply to him at all. I can honestly say that I have no idea how that got in there or how I came to tie the two (and Eicke) together!

I did check my copies of the documents that I have here and they do show Schimpf as a Staka of the AufklGr.M?nster from April 35 - February 36 during which time he was also listed as Commandant of the M?nster L?ddenheide airfield and then from March 36 to March 40 with Air Photo! Then he was the Ia for the Lw General attached to Army Group A.

I guess that?s happens when you go from memory rather than actually looking at the documentation.

But to return to Eicke - interestingly, there is a Hptmn Eicke listed as being (or having been) with Air Photo in my copies of some pre-war Pflugbeil documents. Unfortunately they give no further information. Likewise Schimpf is listed but there is nothing linking him with Eicke. Unfortunately, the copies that I have are far from complete so any further info regarding Eicke may be listed elsewhere?

Kind regards

Dave