Imperial Navy Commission "Patent"

[Rick Research]

Continuing our survey of types, here is the first page of a Fähnrich zur See Commission--

[Rick Research]

Kaiser Wilhelm normally signed every naval "Patent" for officers, since the navy was his favorite service, but Coeler was only a Midshipman, so no Imperial Autograph-- yet.

[Rick Research]

Here's his portrait, © Karl Friedrich Hildebrand, "Die Generale der deutschen Luftwaffe 1935-1945," Band 1, Biblio Verlag: Osnabrück, 1990. Biblio's biographical series on generals and admirals are extraordinary reference sources: I cannot recommend them highly enough!

[Rick Research]

Joachim Coeler (1891-1955) served in the German navy from 1912 to 1933, then transferred to the Luftwaffe 1933.

He served as a pilot in Sea Flying units in WW1 (acquiring, most peculiarly, Turkish and Bulgarian awards, apparently bestowed by visiting nabobs). Without any naval aviation during the Weimar Republic, he returned to normal sea and staff duties, but was Chief of Naval Aviation (Inspekteur der Seeflieger) at the outbreak of WW2.

He was Chief of Naval Air Forces (Marineluftstreitkräfte) West 1939-40, and then became Commander of the 9th Flying Division, bombers based in northern France which took a key rôle in the Battle of Britain. He received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 12 July 1940 as a Generalmajor one week from promotion to Generalleutnant. On 1 January 1942 he was promoted to General der Flieger.

He was CO of IXth Flying Corps 1940-42, CO of XIVth Flying Corps 1943-44-- this position was renamed "General der Transportflieger," in which he continued until 1945.

I recall a number of his documents, including at least one General's commission, being sold by George Peterson in Virginia in the late 1970s. The commission above, however, appeared anonymously (as usual!!! ) in the Backstreet Of Collecting's catalog in the 1980s. This is where the importance of having reference sources is crucial--

asking the long-suffering Al of "Descriptions" to find the commission seniority--above the seal on page two, I simply consulted my Naval sources and-- ta dum!-- had my name, even from a seller without the slightest clue how to read German!

[stogieman]

Great story!

Excellent story and good point for all on the references. I still try to spend a good chunk of change on references whenever and wherever I can find them. Knowledge is power!

[Walter Sp]

Hey Rick,

just found this old thread about Joachim Coeler and this award document. Many years ago I bought some of his awards documents in Munich (Hermann Historica) and asked myself where the rest of his documents were, because there must be more. So far I've some promotion patents (Korvettenkapitän and a xerox of another), long service cross for 25 years military service, Clasp to EK 2 1914 and commerative badge for naval Pilots and observers and some letters. Some years later Detlev Niemann sold his knights cross and the large promotion patent as Generalmajor of the Luftwaffe. So do you have only this one you posted allready or some more ?

greetings walle