Zerstoerer!

[drlemans]

Dear Patrick,
first: my english is not very good - so misunderstandings can happen !
The zinc and goldfinish of your 1800 clasp looks ,on your pic here ,like the finish of my former fake clasp. My personal "expert" confirms the originality of your clasp.
Nevertheless we both believe that 1800 long range nightfighter clasps never were worn bei a nightfighter ,perhaps they were shown in those special award shops and jewelrys - so they existed ,but never on the breast of an soldier !

[90th Light]

Dear Patrick,
first: my english is not very good - so misunderstandings can happen !
The zinc and goldfinish of your 1800 clasp looks ,on your pic here ,like the finish of my former fake clasp. My personal "expert" confirms the originality of your clasp.
Nevertheless we both believe that 1800 long range nightfighter clasps never were worn bei a nightfighter ,perhaps they were shown in those special award shops and jewelrys - so they existed ,but never on the breast of an soldier !

My 1800 night fighter clasp was sitting on the shelf of the LW stores room at the German airforce base at "Luckenwalde" in 1945 not far from Stalag III-A.

Allied POW's raided it looking for food and whatever else was useful. A New Zealand POW filled a pillow case to the top with German LW awards off the shelf and then said to his mates help yourself to a sourvenir.

There were POW from this stalag who brought home 20 and 30 badges each. This type of night fighter clasp was amongst them with all sorts of high hangers such as "1300", "1500" & "1800"

Thus the Germans had definitely anticipated the need to award such nightfighter clasps in 1945 was not far away,

Chris

[drlemans]

Historical background and facts of Nightfighters - German Luftwaffe:
Nightfighting started in April 1940 without special equipment - the first air victory at night was 21.4.40 ( or 8./9.7.40 - T.Boiten). NJG 1 was founded 22.7.40 and NJG 2 (the long range nightfighting "Geschwader") at 1.9.40. Long range nightfighting was stopped by Hitlers order in October 1941 and came back from 3.-17.3.45 with Operation "Gisela" ( 80 documented missions (T.Boiten) and 22 German air victories).
The successfullest long range Nightfighter was Oblt. Beier with 50 long range combat missions (c.m.) and 14 long range air victories (a.v.) (total estimated 250 c.m. and 38 a.v.).
Back to the Nightfighter clasps: for a gold clasp were 110 c.m. needed ,for a star pendant 250 c.m..
The ace of the Nightfighter aces was Hptm.Schnaufer with 121 a.v. in 164 c.m.. His first combat mission was at 30.11.1941 - so he needed 3,5 years to get 164 c.m.
Another example: Maj.Werner Hoffmann (at the end of the war Gruppenkommandeur I./ NJG 5 ,he was a top 30 nightfighter ace) started his carreer as "Zerstörer" at the western front 9.9.1939 ,became Nightfighter 1.9.1941 and got 192 combat missions with 52 air victories (1 day and 51 night) in 5,5 years ! Both were short range Nightfighters Aces and survived the war ,both with Gold clasps without pendant !
I could find the highest documented score with 300 in St.Previtera`s flight clasp book at page 214.
On original pre 5/45 Pictures i could find only a few Nightfighters with pendant (all with star pendant) - for example a picture of the burial of Oberst Lent (he had a star pendant too and died 5.10.1944 ) in the book "Die Deutsche Nachtjad" of W.Held+H.Nauroth page 227. On this picture - beside the coffin are VIP`s of the Nighfighters: Jabs (with star pendant) , Schönert (no pendant) ,Hadeball (no pendant) ,Radusch (star pendant) and Streining (star pendant).
A note from St.Previtera page 189. "On November 4, 1943, Luftwaffe regulations again addressed issues regarding who received which clasp. Prior to this date, it depended upon which unit and type of flying the airman was doing when he achieved his quota. For example, if he had tallied 45 missions as a bomber pilot and held the bronze bomber clasp, and then transferred to fighters, after fifteen more missions (for a total of sixty) he would have received the silver Fighter clasp. But in the new regulation of November, 1943, it was the greater number of operational flights within a given category that dedicated which clasp the recipient would earn. Using the previous example, the pilot had flown forty-five missions as a bomber pilot, for more than his fifteen in a fighter, and therefore even after transferring th fighters, his silver clasp would remain a bomber version, as that was how he had obtained the majority of his operational missions".
MY CONCLUSION: The Probabilty of nightfighter clasps with pendants higher than three- or four-hundred is very little or nearly impossible to be worn by a nightfighter airmen in WW2, especially a long range nightfighter clasp with higher pendant must be impossible to be worn in WW2 !
So if someone of the forum owns or knows an original Picture with Nightfighters wearing those clasp with pendants higher than 300 , or original clasp documents with higher scores - please show us !

[90th Light]

Good discussion in this thread about this maker and the Stalag IIIA find;

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=761140

Chris

[drlemans]

The highest number of combat missions in short range nightfighters i know had Major Herget with 700 (Total with his "Zerstörer" combat missions).
Since my last post to long range nighfighters in this thread i am now nearly sure that the highest number of combat missions of long range nightfighters in ww2 was less than 100 !