Bundeswehr Jump Badge documents

[Prosper Keating]

Some of you might find these amusing. When I did their jump course, near the old Wehrmacht PT School at Wünstorf, an old Fallschirm-Infanterie Bataillon stomping ground, they still had the U-Boat-style klaxons when the green light came on and they still lobbed their heavy weapons and equipment out at each end of a stick, on different-coloured parachutes. Just like Crete! Some people never learn!



Full Award Document.



Temporary Licence, almost the modern equivalent of the Fallschirmschein. But no photo.



Top: after the Fallschirmspringerabzeichen presentation ceremony. All sorts of interesting veterans attended, including RKT & Dr Neumann and Siegfried Milius, former CO of SS-Fallschirmjäger Bataillon 600. The veteran toasting us is Erich Kuby, who served with Ramcke in North Africa and went into the cage at Brest. He was a star reporter and writer with Der Spiegel magazine in the 1950s and 1960s.

Bottom: Glück Ab! Waiting for Action Stations (or the German equivalent)…and that klaxon.

Prosper K

[cicero]

here is mine prosper
i did the parachute course in germany two times
one in Bruchsal 1991 and the second in Regensburg 1995
my document from Bruchsal is signed by the same guy like your document,also the bescheinigung
what a small world isn't
take care,glenn

Bruchsal document
Bruchsal bescheinigung
Regensburg document

[Prosper Keating]

Berhardt and Mittermaier! Same officers! You're right…what a small world! I have some photos I took in the air, on the way down. You can see the lake beside the DZ. I also have a photo of a comrade who landed on a barbed wire fence - unlike the British, who are safety-conscious to the point of paranoia when it comes to DZs, the Germans jump anywhere - and got dragged along it in high winds. I came down on that jump on my reserve. My main canopy had a line-over and I had bad twists. Hit the ground like a sack of potatoes thrown off a truck and was then dragged for 150m face down in the dust because I had both canopies open and only one pair of hands! I like the Regensburg urkunde. Two wings courses? They should have given you the silver badge. In fact, according to the rules, your own armyt's jumps count as well so you could probably have worn the Fallschirmspringerabzeichen in gold. So could I. 687 military descents. I'm at least 6" shorter than I should be. What part of Belgium are you in? Antwerp? I go there sometimes.

Whoa Mohammed!

Prosper

[cicero]

great story Prosper

hi Prosper
687 army jumps?wow,i have about 150 jumps
did you jump in germany out a plaine or a chopper?
i jumped in bruchstal out a plaine (i think a c-160) and in regensburg out a CH-47
see this picture,i'm the fourth guy from the left (with my hands above the reserve)

chopper
take care,glenn from antwerp
maybe if you visit belgium again, i could be your tourguide in antwerp

[Willi Z.]

Thought I would dig out my document and license. I noticed that mine is an earlier version.





Glück ab,

Willi Zahn

[Luftm40]

For you paras...Wrong country, but I couldn't resist! From some training I did recently with my friends from the SAS. The US Army can wear foreign wings on their class A uniforms, but the Navy is much more stodgy about such things. They might look nice in a frame though!

[Prosper Keating]

Glenn,

I jumped Transalls with the Germans. Aircraft I've jumped include C130s, DC3 Dakota, Starlifter, Chinook, Westland Scout (seriously!) and the usual range of Banana Airlines Beechcraft and Cessnas for civvy jumps. Oh…and balloons. Now THAT is something else, leaping from a balloon at 800 or 1000 feet. All that time to think about it as they winch you up and then that stomach-spinning plunge from the cage before your canopy opens. 200 feet or more, straight down. That separated the men from the boys. I remember some experienced foreign paras would refuse to jump from time to time. When our blokes refused or proved a bit 'slow' in the door, the APJI (Assistant Parachute Jump Instructor…usually an Army NCO from your own unit, trained as a dispatcher, as opposed to the RAF PJIs) could be relied up to ensure that you wouldn't be charged with refusing to jump and thrown out of Airborne Forces…by throwing or kicking you out of the balloon cage. Many a para, even some quite hardened men, had reason to buy the APJI a few beers after training sessions involving the dreaded balloon!

Andy,

I remember those certificates! We never worked out if they were official or not. I think they were intended to be at one point. They were issued to a few guys but the vast majority of British paras never got one!! In fact, some of the guys were lucky even to be given the wings. One of my mates had to buy his from the PRI when he got back to Aldershot. Typical British Army. Did you jump with 21 SAS? I knew that unit well from my post-regular days when I served with 10 PARA (V), one of the TA Para Battalions, while a 'mature student' at University College London. Their Squadron HQ was at London's Duke of York's HQ, across the yard from 4 Coy, 10 PARA. In fact, it still is. 21 SAS traces its origins back to the Chelsea or 'Artists' Rifles of WW1. 10 PARA no longer exists. The British government disbanded the battalion a couple of years ago but kept 9 or 10 military bands on the TA ORBAT. Logical. We need bands…

Willy, as you can see, the pix didn't come out. Try again?

Prosper K

[Willi Z.]

Will try again....my FTP site has been acting up. Hopefully it will work this time. My jumps were done out of a Bundeswehr HH53. Jumped with a bunch of French paras. One jump was the worst landing I ever made........came down feet, ass, back of helmet....then my chute would not collapse and was dragged a good 100 meters over some farmers field till a French para jumped on my canopy...LOL.





Glück ab,

Willi Zahn

[Prosper Keating]

Wow! What a wild citation! It looks like something from Hawaii! That crazy typeface! Cool! I suppose it was when the Germans were still a bit shy about being seen to take things military too seriously. Your licence was signed by Mittermaier too.

Heels, base of spine, back of head. Oh yes…the classic landing. Even when you were coming in forwards, turning off for a forward left or right roll, you always seemed to end up landing like that. Except when you were coming into trees or something. Then try as you might, you couldn't turn your back to it!

One of my German landings was like your drag. I have a snapshot someone took of me on my hands and knees with half of Germany in my eyes, nose, ears, throat, and a lo-o-o-o-o-o-ng drag mark behind me. Did you jump on the DZ near Wünstorf with that bloody great lake to the port side? With the tent city on the old WW2 fighter base in the pine forest? It was peat farmers' land so the soil was very dry and powdery. Not nice being dragged 100-plus metres on your face in that stuff!

On our first jump, we shat ourselves coming down because we thought the DZ was full of dry stone walls! We had our canopies in our teeth, we were pulling down so hard to try and steer away. As I piled into what I thought would end in broken legs and ribs, it turned out to be powder-light peat bricks piled in lines to dry. Stood up feeling very pleased with myself…and then someone landed on me. Or rather, they ran me over as they came sideslipping down in 30 knot gusts. Interesting bruises… Nice footprint on my shoulder blade.

PK

[Willi Z.]

Hey Prosper,

My jumps were made at the airfield at Nagold. We spent two days there. I clearly remember the farmer's field which were recently plowed and the warm sun had turned the soil into into concrete......felt like I was being dragged over 50 speed bumps.......:-). I remember making that jump with one of the worst hangovers I have ever had.....the FJ officers would not let me low crawl to my cot till I tried all the local brews the night before......I remember when the tail of the 53 opened up the effects of the hangover became rather obvious to me....the world looked alot bigger to me than it did the day before........and hence my great attempt at a right rear PLF. Had whiplash for the next week......LOL. The good old years.........

WZ

[cicero]

we use the balloon too
we copied our parachute training from england (things that started in ww2)
even our jump wings looks exactly the same like yours prosper
glenn


by the way,if we refuse a parachute jump (from a balloon or whatever) we loose our red beret and have to transfer to a regular unit
in my opinion this is the way it should be
there is only room for dare devils in a para-commando unit

[Mike C]

Hello All,

Will have to scan my certificate. It is from the Luftlande - Lufttransportschule at Altenstadt, OBB and signed off by Schreg (Oberst und Lehrgruppenkommandeur) in January 1982. Five jumps from HH-53 and Huey Deltas - with the wind, hard ground and no way to cut away the canopy. Nagold used to be home of 252 Fallschirmjaeger Battalion - which had a partnershaft with the Canadians in Baden-Solingen.

Anyway - jumped with a bunch of Brits and was all set up to balloon jump in England a few weeks later when the Falklands were invaded - and away went all my contacts.

Mike

[Dave Danner]

My jumps were out of Hueys. I have some pics somewhere; I'll have to find them and scan them in.

Here are my docs:
<img src="http://home.att.net/~dave.danner/militaria/bescheinigung_1.jpg">

<img src="http://home.att.net/~dave.danner/militaria/urkunde_1.jpg">

Dave
"Glück ab!"

[Prosper Keating]

posted for jacques calero

Here are Jacques Calero's German Wings documents…

[Prosper Keating]

Andy,

Did you jump with A Sqn 21 SAS? Is that where you got the medallion? What did you jump from? And where? And did you like our WW2-style Mk4 Irvin 'chutes? Or were you jumping something a bit more modern? I've spent time with the US Army and the US Marines. They wore foreign wings on their green kit. I suppose the US Navy might be a bit reluctant to see wings like this sewn to the a blue uniform but you wear green kit sometimes, don't you? We were only allowed to wear foreign wings on our jump smocks.

Prosper