Luftwaffe personnel carrying Infantrie swallowtail

[Eric Queen]

What to you guys think? The only thing I can think of is II./FJR 1 wearing Luftwaffe parade uniforms. This is really odd though, because in all other cases I have seen, they are always wearing jump helmets/smocks.

Could there be any other explanation?

What kind of badges are they wearing?

EQ

[Willi Z.]

Hard to say Eric. Can you blow up the details of the tunic? The badges look large for FJ badges, but then, the badge on the guy on the right has that Heer FJ look. Could they be from the Regiment General Göring?

Other opinions?

Willi

[Mike H]

Swallowtail

This is undoubtedly II./FJR 1 on parade. There is nice coverage of this unit's colors in Brian Leigh Davis' book, "Flags of the Third Reich", page 50. Davis states:

"The motorised infantry standard first presented to the unit in November 1938 when it formed part of the Army was retained after its absorption into the Luftwaffe as a Tradition Colour."

There is a nice drawing of the swallowtail for this unit on page 36.

Mike Heuer

[Eric Queen]

Thanks Willi and Mike for the comments. I tried to blow up the portion of the uniform showing the badges, but it becomes just too distorted. I know its certainly not the clearest photo in the world, but to me, they just do not look like para badges. Could be wrong though.

Does anyone know, was there any other unit allowed to carry the Infanterie Standard, other than II./FJR1. This photo came from an army para album, so I am assuming this is II./FJR1, but wanted to see if there were any other possibilities. I have never seen II./FJR1 on parade with Lw.walking out uniforms before.

Thanks again,

EQ

[Mike H]

Other units ...

Eric,

I checked the books and no other unit is listed as having a Tradition Colour like this. You're right, they don't look like para badges but it will probably never be possible to really tell.

Great photo! See you at MAX ... am leaving shortly.

Mike