Kampfgeschwader 2 soldbuch

[Ian Jewison]

Pardon my ignorance but I have two questions but I'm sure those here know the answer:

A) I thought all flight crew soldbuchs had a red "F" stamped on page 1. Was this not always the case?

B) If he went MIA, does this mean flight crew did not carry their soldbuchs on themselves during sorties, unlike army soldiers that carried theirs into battle?

A) Never seen that ...or at least do not recall seeing that, however Fliegendes Personal was written on page 1, I believe from 1944 to signify aircrew including paratroops.

B) The Soldbuch was never carried on an aircraft or ship.....in the case of the Luftwaffe a Fliegendes Personal Ausweis (Tarnausweis) was carried, containing minimal means of identification and a photo.

[Ian Jewison]

Interesting is that, he is only an Obergefreiter in the Soldbbch.

There is a footnote in the loss report stating it should read Fw. and not Ofw. for his rank..... KG 2 book has him down as Ofw. also whereas the Vermisstenbildliste has him as an Uffz.!

/Ian

[Blued]

A) Never seen that ...or at least do not recall seeing that, however Fliegendes Personal was written on page 1, I believe from 1944 to signify aircrew including paratroops.

B) The Soldbuch was never carried on an aircraft or ship.....in the case of the Luftwaffe a Fliegendes Personal Ausweis (Tarnausweis) was carried, containing minimal means of identification and a photo.

Thanks a lot Ian

So for (A), since the soldbuch that started this thread was early and he went MIA before 1944, the Fliegendes Personal enscription would not be inputted? Therefor the enscription should not be looked for always

[JUNGCO]

Ian,yes they must have promoted Mai posthumously. His promotion to Obergefreiter was on 1.7.42, just a little over a month before his death.

[bsmith56]

Ian. Thanks for more info on my man. I was able to identify the Feldpost Number on page 1, but I could not find a list of Staffelkapitans from any of the 'Gruppes'. Nice to have that identified.

Jeff. I saw that book on M321 as well, but did not go after it. It looked very nice though, you don't see much with Dieppe connections! I wonder if my man was active in the Dieppe raid? From my research it seems a lot of KG 2 was scrambled in defense that day.

Ian. This KG 2 book you have has a wealth of information in it! Much appreciated once again.

[Ian Jewison]

Thanks a lot Ian

So for (A), since the soldbuch that started this thread was early and he went MIA before 1944, the Fliegendes Personal enscription would not be inputted? Therefor the enscription should not be looked for always

Found it....the order came from OKL on 6.7.44. It required that their specialty/trade would be written in red and placed between their name and their Erkennungsmarke.

So before that time it was not written in Soldbuch....the was said for ground crew as well....I will try and start another thread with examples later.

/Ian

[Ian Jewison]

I wonder if my man was active in the Dieppe raid? From my research it seems a lot of KG 2 was scrambled in defense that day.

Theres a good chance he did.....9 Staffel took off at 10.37 on 19.8.1942. 3 aircraft were lost from that Staffel, 2 from Gruppen Stab and 26 from the Geschwader as a whole!

/Ian

[Blued]

Found it....the order came from OKL on 6.7.44. It required that their specialty/trade would be written in red and placed between their name and their Erkennungsmarke.

So before that time it was not written in Soldbuch....the was said for ground crew as well....I will try and start another thread with examples later.

/Ian

Great info.

That would be cool to see examples. Thanks!