Luftwaffe Air & Ground Crew 1939

First published in Great Britain in 2002 by Osprey Publishing,

Midland House, West Way, Botley, Oxford OX2 0PH, UK

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All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be addressed to the Publishers.

Transferred to digital print on demand 2010

First published 2002

4th impression 2008

Printed and bound by PrintOnDemand-Worldwide.com, Peterborough, UK

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Print ISBN: 978 1 84176 404 7

PDF e-book ISBN: 978 1 78200 747 0

ePub e-book ISBN: 978 1 78200 685 5

Editorial by Martin Windrow

Design by Alan Hamp

Index by Alan Rutter

Origination by Magnet Harlequin, Uxbridge, UK

Typeset in Helvetica Neue and ITC New Baskerville

Dedication

Dedicated to the memory of my uncle, Malcolm John Hall Myers (1943-2000), with whom I enjoyed many educational, witty and often surreal conversations. A few more would have been even better.

Also to the memory of all the men and women of the Luftwaffe who lost their lives in service of their country.

Acknowledgements

I wish to express my sincerest thanks to my favourite author and great friend, Martin J. Brayley, for his constant support, advice and encouragement throughout this project – despite being busy with even more titles of his own. To Mark Taylor, for his many hours of outstanding work in identifying aircraft types, researching and locating units for the colour plates, and altogether being the best friend a chap could ever have. To Hayley Morris for devoting so much of her time, translation skills, technical support and patience during countless re-writes and proof-readings. Special thanks are owed to Martin Windrow, for having faith in me in the first place.

I have received much co-operation from fellow collectors who graciously allowed me to ‘cross-examine’ items from their collections; chief among these is Mark Wenger of Raleigh, N.Carolina, whose exhaustive work to record details and chronology of Luftwaffe flight suits has greatly assisted my own research. For their generous assistance with photographs and information I must also thank MJB, Aldo Carrer, Mark Dial, Deborah & Russel Doherty, Manfred Griehl, Tom Gulliver, Kenneth Keilholz, Steve Kiddle, Jeanette Leib, Lionel Leventhal of Greenhill Books, Hans Obert, Werner Palinckx, Wolfgang Schilling, Franz Selinger, LAC Keith Stedman, Lee Timmins, Paul West, and Dr Willisch of the Luftwaffenmuseum, Berlin; and Phil Burchell, for the emergency loan of his computer. Photographs not otherwise credited are from the author’s collection.

The Publishers are grateful to Cassell & Co and Malcolm McGregor for permission to reproduce the latter’s artwork in the charts on pages 13, 17 & 44, which originally appeared in Brian L. Davis, Uniforms and Insignia of the Luftwaffe (2 vols.), 1991 & 1995.

Author’s Note

It has been my intention to address a few long-standing and oft-repeated myths in the field of Luftwaffe ‘uniformology’. Principal among these is the development of the 1934 flight suit and its so-called ‘escape vent’. It is generally accepted that its purpose was to ease the rapid removal of the suit in an (unspecified) emergency. As the vent runs from the waist and terminates below the collar, escape through this modest opening is simply impossible. An alternative theory suggests it permitted relatively painless access to a casualty’s wound – but in practice such access is limited to the left side of the torso, whereas the main zip effectively cuts the suit in half. It must be remembered that a parachute and life vest would first have to be removed from the casualty, followed by a forceful tug to actuate the system – all of which would hardly be conducive to ‘painless access’.

Designations used for the two-piece flight suits are at present unconfirmed, but follow the established system. These are included for ease of reference.

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