Luftwaffe Nautiker

[stgeorge64]

I can find virtually nothing out there concerning the Luftwaffe Nautiker personnel.

I think the Luftwaffe Nautiker were established late 1938 to early 1939 time period (The actual order has not been found)

As of February-1939, the members of the Luftwaffe Nautiker were ordered to wear the Luftwaffe uniform with unique insignia.

29-November-1941 Luftwaffe Nautiker were disbanded, and most of the Officers were transferred into the Luftwaffe as line officers in the Flight Branch.

There were the following three paygrades:

Fl. OberNautiker- Oberleutant
Fl. HauptNautiker- Hauptmann
Fl. StabsNautiker- Major

Apart from the above and some details of the unique insignia the Nautiker wore, I am struggling to asertain any more information.

My main question is what exactly did these Luftwaffe Nautiker do? Mission planning?, specialist navigation advice?, prepare mission mapping? or something completely different?

Also, were they taken from the civilian airline industry for Luftwaffe service?

Any help whatsoever will be very well received.

Regards Richard.

[Simon O.]

I understand they are Lufthansa ranks

[Gary B]

The Nautiker tabs were identical to the Luftwaffe Engineer Corps tabs with 2, 3, & 4 bladed props except that the waffenfarbe was dark green instead of pink.

I will post images whenI get home.

Gary B

[Gary B]

Collar Tabs

Attached Hauptmann and Oberleutnant equivalent

Gary B

[stgeorge64]

Simon & Gary

Thank you for your respective replies, the collar patches must be extremely rare to find!

I am hoping to find some further details out there however, I can find extremely little at this moment in time. The overall organisation and role of these personnel would be a good start.

Regards Richard.