Schlachtflieger spange with 300 pendant

[Simon O.]

Just arrived and very pleased i am too as you don't often find bargains amongst the better known dealers

Not only is the Schlachtflieger spange urkunde a seldom seen beast in its own right, a gold with 300 pendant must be pretty rare indeed. In addition it turns out the pilot was a DKiG and Ehrenpokal holder. Lastly, the real reason i grabbed this was because of its connection to Norway and Finland. Nachtslachtgruppe 8 operated in Finland until Sept.44 when it pulled out to North Norway where it stayed until Jan.45 before being sent to the Frankfurt an der Oder area to help try and stem the Soviet advance.

The sig is that of johann Trnka, also a DKiG holder.

[Larry deZeng]

Hi Simon,

When Trnka signed it on 29 April, NSGr. 8 was at Parchim, having moved there two days before from Neuruppin. You can find an entire article on the Gruppe from its departure from Elvenes and Bodø to Wunstorf/Germany on 16 January to the end of the war in: Luftwaffen-Revue magazine, Heft (issue) 2/2001, p.39-43.

Cheers,

--Larry

[Simon O.]

Thanks Larry, i'll see if i can find a copy. As it happens, Elvenes is just a couple of hours drive away for me.

Is there anything to be had anywhere on the gruppe's time in Finland\Norway?

[Larry deZeng]

Just bits and pieces here and there:

Sources:
Dierich-VdL; Tessin-Tes; Kannapin-FpÜ; M.Holm-website ww2.dk; K.Maesel correspondence with H.L.deZeng, 1991, which consisted mainly of monthly Luftflotte 5 OB charts taken from BA-MA Freiburg RL 40/Kart; PRO London: AIR 40/1981; PRO London: DEFE 3 ULTRA signals BT2713, BT5784; BA-MA Freiburg: RL 2 III Meldungen über Flugzeugunfälle…..(Loss Reports – LRs); BA-MA Freiburg: Flugzeug-Bereitstellungen (Aircraft Availability Status Reports – FzB) in: M.Holm-website (ww2.dk); BA-MA Freiburg: Signatur RL 2 III/59 via N.Beale letter to H.L.deZeng dated 14 Jul 1991; Flugzeug magazine issue 5/1990, p.7; Luftwaffen-Revue magazine, Heft (issue) 2/2001, p.39-43; NARA WashDC: RG 242/T-312 roll 1063, frames 305, 888; T-312 roll 1070, frames 289, 591; NARA WashDC: RG 242/T-321 roll 50 (Lfl. 6 document la Nr. 280/45) and roll 50, frames 876-80; AFHRA Maxwell: decimal 512.625S (British Air Ministry) OKL document.

I know of no other articles other than the one I cited.

Here is a blurb I cobbled together concerning its formation that might be of interest:

Formed over a 6-month period, beginning in January 1944 with 1./NSGr. 8 (new), then 2./NSGr. 8 on 8 May 44 at Salmijärvi/N Finland (some sources give Kemijärvi/N Finland, but Salmijärvi is believed to be correct) (ex-1./SG 5 with additional crews and other assets from 4./SG 5), followed by the Gruppenstab (new) and 3. Staffel (new) on 6 Jul 44 at Pori/N Finland. Where exactly 1. Staffel came into being in January 1944 is still unclear, but it appears to have been assembled in Germany or perhaps in one of the Baltic States and then moved to Finland by air. Initially equipped with Ar 66s.

If you have any specific questions, let me know and I'll check my notes.

[JeremyJ]

doc

Nice document Simon,

As you noted numbered spange documents are rare regardless of flying branch and Schlachtflieger even more so.

Thanks for sharing and nice find.

Cheers

Jeremy

[Andy F-P]

That is a nice find Simon! Thanks for showing.
Regards,
Andy

[Gene]

Incredibly rare document

[Simon O.]

There's an interesting side note to buying this doc. The seller mentioned using Niemann's price guide to help him price the item and it has a doc like this valued at 180 Euro (280 USD) which seems way under valued, similar docs for the other types of clasp are in the same ball park in that book. Forman's 1996 book on docs puts this between 750-900 USD and those prices tend to be well below today's. Hartung's price guide from 99 puts these at around the 1400 Euro mark.

So what gives? Why does Detlev value the spange docs so low?