Bundesluftwaffe Uniforms

[Gordon Craig]

A closeup of the ribbon bar.

[Gordon Craig]

The next obvious change in the Bundesluftwaffe uniform took place in 1973 when the cuffband with th stylized wing was discontinued. The helicopter pilots of the land forces continued to wear this cuffband although theirs was grey and not blue like that of the Luftwaffe. The stylized wings were moved to the right side of the unifomr just above the breat pocket. I don't have an enlisted man's tunic with my to show this "wing" so I would appreciate it if someone else could post a picture showing this uniform.
My next series of photos shows the uniform of Generalmajorartz Dr. Ebeling. Holder of the Knights Cross. General Ebeling was a bomber pilot during WWII and and attaneded medical school following the war. He was in private paractice before joining the Bundesluftwaffe.

Regards,

Gordon

[Gordon Craig]

A close up of the wings worn above the right breast pocket. The cloth wings are those of a senior flight surgeon in the Bundesluftwaffe. General Ebeling was the senior flight surgeon in the Luftwaffe when he retired. The metal wings below the cloth ones are for a senior flight surgeon in the U.S.A.F.

[Gordon Craig]

A close up of the shoulderboards. This shows the metal rank insignia used at this time versus the woven metall type used on General Schenk's uniform.
Despite the use of metal rank insignia the shoulderboards and the collar tabs are still of gold metallic thread.

[Gordon Craig]

A close up of the ribbon bar.

[Gordon Craig]

The pants that came with this tunic.

[Gordon Craig]

General Ebeling's cap.

[Gordon Craig]

A picture of the shoulder of the shirt that came with this uniform showing the method of attaching shoulderboards to the shirt.

[SprogCollector]

Gordon,
Regarding your early double-breasted LW tunic, I found the attached photo in one of my books. It shows Gerhard Barkhorn wearing the officer version of this early jacket. Note the lack of collar tabs. This photo is captioned to indicate it was taken in the UK in 1956 while Barkhorn was undergoing refresher training at RAF Valley in Wales.

The second photo shows Barkhorn in the company of Ray Tolliver (USAF) and fellow LW pilots Herbert Wehnelt and Walter Krupinski. Again note the lack of collar tabs and complete absense of any ribbons or badging on the LW uniforms. The lack of any type of pilot badge is noteworthy since it would appear that the new BL pilot badging had yet to be created and/or the intent was to not appear too military.

Are there any photos of Affenjacken showing officers with collar tabs prior to 1957/58? Considering the above photos, in comparison to the officer jacket seen in post #7(dated 1958), it would likely be that collar tabs weren't on the earliest Bundeswehr/Bundesluftwaffe uniforms.

[Klaus1989]

Gordon,
...The lack of any type of pilot badge is noteworthy since it would appear that the new BL pilot badging had yet to be created and/or the intent was to not appear too military.

Are there any photos of Affenjacken showing officers with collar tabs prior to 1957/58? Considering the above photos, in comparison to the officer jacket seen in post #7(dated 1958), it would likely be that collar tabs weren't on the earliest Bundeswehr/Bundesluftwaffe uniforms.

Quite correct! LW collar tabs were not introduced until Feb. 1957, so they were not in wear prior to that date. Pilot wing cufftitle introduced around same time I think.

regards
Klaus

[Gordon Craig]

Sprogcollector,

As Klaus says, collar tabs were not worn on the uniforms introduced in 1955. According to Gordon Williamson and Thomas McGuil in their book "German Military Cuffbands 1784 -Present" the stylized wing cuffband was worn from 1955 until 1973. Your pictures of the early uniforms without collar tabs and with the cuffband are excellent examples of this uniform in wear before the colar tabs were introduced.

Regards,

Gordon

[SprogCollector]

So, I guess my next question is the cuff titles. Do they/did they denote aircrew status? I was under the assumption that they were a generic feature on luftwaffe uniforms -- i.e. everyone wore them. Same thing when the titles were done away with and everyone wore the wing over the right breast pocket.

[speedytop]

Hi SprogCollector,

"... everyone wore them [the cuff titles]..", that is correct.

Regards
Uwe

[Gordon Craig]

We've displayed tuncs so far but nothing else. Here is a great coat for a Generalmajor. It's date of manufacture is 1974 which gives us a good place to start talking about dates of changes. Sometimes, collectors get a little to tied up with trying to establish an excat date when a uniform/rank/accessroy etc was changed. For uniforms it can never been an exact date. We can quote a date when an order was signed but the actual production, distribution and issuing of a new uniform takes years. Accessories such as the change of cuffband and the move of the "wing" to the right breast would happen quicker but still take time for the entire Bundesluftwaffe to convert to the new regulations. Since the cuffbands with the stylized wing were supposed to have been discontinued in 1973 it is interesting to see this great coat with them still in place and made the following year.

Regards,

Gordon

[Gordon Craig]

The manufacturers stamp on the inner breast pocket.