Bundesluftwaffe Uniforms

[Gordon Craig]

At one time there was some sort of lable on the outside of the interior left breast pocket. Possibly a name?

Regards,

Gordon

[Gordon Craig]

Time to add some flight uniforms to this thread. First off a flight suite from the JG71 "Richthofen". These flights suits, complete with badges, have become more available lately and can be purchased for reasonable (depends on the buyer I suppose?) prices. I recently won the auction for this piece and the pictures I'll post are from the auction. Once the suit arrives I'll post a full view of it with a better description.

Regards,

Gordon

[Gordon Craig]

Picture number 2.

[Gordon Craig]

The other piece of flight gear commonly seen in wear was the grey leather jacket. These jackets usually come on the surplus market with all of the badges removed and thus demand a premium in price when found with the badges still on it. The jscket I will show pictures of was also from the "Richthofen" squadron and unfortunaley I was outbid for this piece. Unlike WWII Luftwaffe leather jackets, which were private purchase pieces, Bundesluftwaffe leather jackets were uniform issue pieces. The lining of the leather jackets is a bright fluorescent orange and the pilot of a downed aircraft, that was still mobile, would put the jacket on inside out so he/she was more visible from the air.

[Gordon Craig]

A close up of the patches on this jacket. The patch below the name tag is for the Tactical Leadership Program held at Florennes, Belgium. The patch on the right arm is for Satffel 1.JG71.
JG71 was the first operational jet fighter squadron in West Germany. It was formed in June of 1959 and equipped with 50 Canadair Sabre Mk.6s. They were based at the former RAF airbase at Ahlhorn and moved to their present location of Wittmund in 1961. On April 21 of 1963, the 43rd anniversary of the death of Manfred von Richthofen, JG71 was given the honarary title of "RICHTHOFEN". May of 1963 saw the squadron start to re-equip with the F-104. Commonly refered to as "The Widow Marker". In 1974 they started to re-equip with the F-4F PhantomIIs. In 2010 they will be re-equipped with the Europfighter and be completely re-equipped with this aircraft by 2012.

Regards,

Gordon

[Gordon Craig]

Another piece of leather flight gear. This time a winter set of leather coveralls. It has the usuall plethora of zippered pockets. It has a grey pile lining throughout the interior. Unlike the summer flight suits and the leather jackets, this flight suit has never had any badges of any kind attached to it. This is unusal as they normally have at least the rank displayed on the flight suits. The makers label indicates it was made in July of 1960. This suit does not appear in any of my reference material and is somewhat of a mistery to me. This is the only leather flight suit I have ever seen. There is some slight wear on the top of the left shoulder which is probably due to the parachute harness.

Regards,

Gordon

[Gordon Craig]

The label in the suit.

[Gordon Craig]

Time to back up a little here. On my way to the Coin and Stamp Show today (held every Tuesday afternoon) I stopped at a militaria store and they had a box of Bundesluftwaffe leather fligh jackets. All of them, except one, had EM ranks and all of the patches were removed. The one I bought was for an officer and while it had no paycjes left on it it did have the velcro backing for the badges that had been on it so now I can show pictures of an actual jacket. Although the rank and the flag only shows on one sleeve it is sewn on both sleeves.Then the hunt begins for the patches to fit the velro shapes!

First-a front view of the jacket.

[Gordon Craig]

A close up of the flag and rank tab on the left arm.

[Gordon Craig]

The back of the jacket.

[Gordon Craig]

The jacket worn inside out showing the bright orange lining to aid in visibility of downed aircrew.

[Gordon Craig]

A close up of one of the zipper tabs. Those of you who have collected WWII Lufwaffe gear will recognize the "riri" markings. Still making zipers for the German air force!

Regards,

Gordon

[SprogCollector]

I was looking around a local surplus store and noted that there is a substantial color change between LW uniforms prior to the 1980s and those produced more recently. This was most notable when I compared a 1975 tunic with a 1990s LW Wachtbattalion tunic. The latter was very dark blue compared to the earlier uniforms. I have a 1990 LW officer schiffchen that is also very dark blue compared to my 1960s/70s hats.

Apologies if we've already discussed this color change. I wasn't able to find it for reference.

[Gordon Craig]

Gents,
It has been a while since I have been able to add anything new to this thread. Todays Militaria Show in Budapest brings that to an end. Here is an early tunic similar to the same design posted earlier. This one however has silver metallic trim on the collar instead of the bronze coloured metallic trim on the previous tunic. Pictures in my reference books indicate that makes this an officer tuncci instead of an enlisted man's.
Unlike the earlier tunic, this one has not seen any upgrades as regulations changed. Another interesting point is that Uwe metioned earlier that the metallic trim was added to the shoulder baords in 1959. Uwe-were you referring to the litzen or the metalic trim around the collar and the shoulder boards with this date? The fact that the bronze metallic trim was a later mdification is clear on the earlier tunic. The stitching is very good but it is very obvious that the metallic trim was added after the tunic was made. However, in this silver trimmed tunic, it is obvious that the trim was sewn into the tunic collar and shoulder boards when it was made. Since the tunic is dated 1956/7 this would seem to indicate that the metallic trim was made part of the regulations at some time before 1959 unless Uwe was only refering to the litzen and not the metallic trim. We will have to wait for his answer and see. My reference books don't even mention the finer points of the tunics. The tunic appear to have never been issued.

Regards,

Gordon

[Gordon Craig]

A close up of the shoulder board and collar.