Request for information

[Leroy]

Does anyone have a copy they can post of the LDO (or Luftwaffe) notice that LW badges could only be purchased through the Verkaufsabtelung der Luftwaffe?
Thanks!

[Leroy]

No one?

[Gene]

Wish I could help Leroy, sorry---

[Leroy]

Thanks, anyway, Gene. I know that someone out there must have a copy!

I'm trying to figure out why the Luftwaffe, alone among the services, denied to its own personnel the right to buy badges privately. I'm also trying to figure out why the LVA charged LW personnel full retail price for badges (see the receipt on page 27 of "The Flak Badge" by Marc and the industry wholesale/retail price list shown on page 94 of Sascha's "The Luftwaffe Ground Combat Badge").

Below is the 1945-published LDO notice which certainly seems to say that LW badges, formerly available ONLY from the LVA, would now have to be acquired from LDO-licensed retailers (at least by NCO's and enlisted personnel---officers and officials could still order from the LVA). Where is the original notice which started all this?

[Marc Garlasco]

Here is the original thread:

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...kaufsabteilung

[Marc Garlasco]

Got this from Frank tonight:

No, I do not have the original of that regulation. Why did the Luftwaffe do that? I can only imagine answers. The Luftwaffe was kind of elitist and they were a separate arm of the Wehrmacht, had their own ministrys, etc. I just guess they wanted to keep that status up on all levels and not get thrown into one pot with the Heer. It may also have less elitist reasons, meaning more traditional reasons. Maybe it grew out of something that was instituted around the Kaiserzeit when the first planes were used for warfare. It was a pretty new and unique thing and probably handled separately from all "common" Heer stuff.

[Leroy]

This may be total heresy, and someone may shoot me for saying this, but I am seriously wondering if there was, in fact, a total ban on the private sale/purchase of Luftwaffe badges. I just have this sneaking feeling that there is a lot more to this than meets the eye and that we are just missing something.....

[Marc Garlasco]

Let's start from the beginning - which for us is 1945. Reverse engineer the order. And if there was an order saying that we formerly did X now we do Y, well, there must have been an X.

[Leroy]

Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps in effect for a short period and then abandoned, perhaps really only applicable to certain things. Maybe the LDO notice of January 1945 is poorly worded (not thinking of us trying to figure it out 60 years later!). Lots of possibilities.......Hard to figure why the LVA price matches the retail price published in Nov. 1944. You would think, with this obviously being a pretty big deal, and with copies of Uniformenmarkt around, we could actually see something about this SOMEWHERE before January, 1945.

I do believe there was something which went on, but not to the extent of what we have interpreted it to be. Where did Frank get his information initially, or was he "working backwards" solely from the 1945 notice (no criticism intended)? One of the things that bothers me was that this was an important arm of service supposedly completely withdrawing from the ability of its members to purchase items on the private market (as their compatriots in the Heer, KM and Waffen-SS could do). As a side note, where did all the embroidered badges (which come in a huge range of styles and techniques) come from? They are LW badges, too.......Very hard for me to believe they all came through the LVA.

[Leroy]

Just one other quick thought: Does anyone here have any photos of the interior of the LVA "store" in Berlin or of any private medal and badge retail shop actually taken in the mid-40's?

[Marc Garlasco]

You should ask the crosses guys - they always seem to have that kind of thing. Good idea!