visting German veteran's

[Stijn David]

Hello,


Last week i had the honour to go and visit one of the german veterans i might call a friend, we where corresponding now for about 2 years either with letters or via phonecall's and finally we agreed to meet each other.

This person was a trained Glider pilot during WWII and he is one of the luckly few who survived quite some extreme missions, untill last week i was only aware that he had some pictures left from those times as he said that his hometown was severly bombed during the end off WWII and so most of his possesions where lost.

During my visit we talked for quite a few hours about his whole wartime carreer and afterwards, etc .... and he found it quite amuzing that non German's had interest in those ( sad ) times and he gave me the following as a present as a remembrance .............

Cordial greetings,

[Stijn David]

glider pilots

Hello,


The rarity in this little grouping lays into the following :

* the missions the man did fly
* the large eagle variant Glider pilots badge

Now let me go a little deeper into his missions ( according his original Flight log ) , etc ....

He became a trained Glider pilot during the beginning of 1941 and was trained on both the famous DFS 230 and the larger Go 242 . At the end off 1941 he was transferred towards Russia to see action as a transporting Glider.

His first mission was already a very heavy one and started on 05.03.1942 from Riga towards Cholm => due to a technical failure he was caused to make a crash landing in Lithuania and never reached his goal, this crash resulted in a 90 % damaged plane ( Go 242 ) + he was litghly injured during this crash.

after a few weeks he was fit again and he was the sole and only Glider pilot who flew a mission towards the pocket of Demjansk on 18.03.1942 , he was flewn out again with a JU 52 on the next day.

About 5 days later he did fly again a mission towards the pocket of Cholm on 23.03.1942, this time he managed to reach the pocket in good order and he brought a PAK inside the pocket, after the landing he was part of the encircled troops and was quite severe wounded in the breast area => after the opening of the Cholmpocket he was transported out and stayed for about 7 months in several hospitals.

Hi's further missions where towards the Kubanbridgehead wich earned him the Frontflugspange in bronze, etc ....

And now a close up picture from the front of his (altough heavely tarnished) Large eagle variant Glider pilots badge, I will only show this picture in order not to help the fakers to reproduce again a perfect fake of this very rare badge. ( thanks for your understanding and enjoy ) . as you can see the badge is in a quite worn conditions and did solely surevive because he did send this badge back towards his parents when in hospital after Cholm and they kept it all this time untill they deceased and he rediscovered the badge when cleaning out the house.

this little story shows that the good stuff is still out there with the veteran's and with a little luck on your side you have a great addition towards the collection

Cordial greetings,

[Stijn David]

glider pilot

Hello,


Not pictured in the first shot are his pictures who came also with this grouping, there are about 200 original wartime pictures with motives varying from training untill very nice and rear Cholmshots, Go 242 shots, etc ... etc ....

The awards this person earned are the following :

* Glider pilots badge
* Iron cross 2 nd. class ( for landing at Cholm )
* eastern front medal
* Cholmshield
* Wound badge - black grade
* FFSP bronze grade ( transporter )
* LW ground assault badge
* Iron cross 1 e class

Hopefully you enjoy the read

[Angel Farré]

You are really a lucky man, what a wonderfull little group and more than his collecting value, his historical value. Are his award notated in his flight book? Do you have any good photo showing all his awards?

Angel

[Wood]

ENVY
He should have had a wound badge, what grade?

great badge

Wood

[Stijn David]

Glider pilot

Hello,


@ Angel => nope the awards are not entered in the Flightlog but he still has his original award documents and he wanted to keep them anotehr while, they will come towards the collection but that has time , this is about the best portrait picture in the grouping ( unfortunatly nothing in full award dress => but you will not hear me complain )

@ Wood => his wound badges was only the Black wound badge, even with his rather severe wound but such things happen quite alot.

FYI => this person did have 34 Frontflights in his Flight book and I can assure you that suchting is quite extreme for a Glider pilot, I forgot to mention that he is also one of the 7 glider pilots who was active to resupply the encircled 1 Pz. Armee during 1944.

Cordial greetings,

[Angel Farré]

I suppose you are now the most happy glider collector in the world, nice for you, I'm happy to.

Angel

[Ralph A]

Interesting!

Thanks for sharing.

Also interesting is that he wore spectacles and still piloted gliders!

[Klaus O.]

Wow impressive! That's really interesting... to put a story to a badge and to have spoken to the actual holder's of this very rare badge... We really should take the last chance to speak with the few survivors of WWII. It's unique chance to speak to the very witnesses of history. To me your experience it's almost as rare as winning a lottery... Very nice story!

Ciao,

Claudio

[Stijn David]

Glider pilots

Hello,


Thanks for the nice words my friends, i feel very lucky and it is always nice to have known the actual wearer of a certain badge .

regarding the spectacles => i have anotehr grouping from a Glider pilot who also wore glasses, the simple reason for this was that they where already skilled glider enthusiast with very valuable glider experience.

Here is another story from this man : when flying a supplymission towards the Kubanbridgehead he told me he was quite nervous and therefore he lighted one cigarette after another when flying his Go 242, after the mission he realized how dangerous this actually was as his load where 12 Barrles off Fuel !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! , so the danger of being cathced by a Russian fighter was enourmous but these guys never tought of the risk of exploding when smoking .................


Cordial greetings,

[Panzer]

Hi there,
such a nice collecion and extreemly nice to have from the hands of the owner. I find that these old soldiers really appreciate when they find someone who is truely interested in what they did and will look after the legacy they leave behind. That is why I would always rather see these items in the hands of a passionate collecor rather than in the basement vault of a museum.....better loved, appreciated, maintained and researched!

There are more like him out there.....well done on this wonderful find.
Cheers, Wade K.

[Stijn David]

large glider pilots badge

Hello,


And here is a thread where you can clearely see such rarity in wear

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...r+pilots+badge


Cordial greetings,

[Ian Tannahill]

Giday Stijn,

Congratulations! If anyone deserves to own such a collection of glider related militaria, it is you.

Thanks for sending me a PM. I have enjoyed reading the material that you posted here.

I have a few questions that I would like to ask you, but these can wait.

All the best,

Ian

[Stijn David]

glider pilots

Hello,


thanks for the nice words Ian, feel free to post your questions right here iff they are related towards this gouping => otehrwise feel free to send me a PM


Cordial greetings,

[Bryan Poon]

Hi Stijn

Great grouping.

Can we have the chance to see the back of you glider pilot badge?

Cheers
BP