Soldbuch and collar tabs color ???

[falls1944]

Hi,

I have this FJ soldbuch with Normandy connection from a Stabsintendant (administrative officer) of the "stab/ fallsch-flak-abtl 3 (mot) . What is your opinion about the color of the collar tabs, please ?

Thanks, David.

[Gary B]

Dear David,

Very nice/interesting and rare piece.

Luftwaffe administrative tabs, such as those pictured in your soldbuch, were dark green. There were some admin tabs in black for building construction, crimpson for courtsmarital officals and burgundy for judicial.

The picture you post is for a Hauptmann equivalent. The underlay on his shoulder boards would be dark green while the innerlay color would determine his specific specialty (his rank title probably indicates his specialty but I am not well versed in that area - contact Paul R on the WAF for more info)

Admin officers were divided into differnt groups based on their educational background and skill set. There were 4 differnt groups;low, medium, elevated and high. Low was mainly for grade school grads and was an EM/NCO rank with no piping. Medium which would consist of alternating green or blue and silver piping was for Hight school grads. Silver piping (elevated career field), which appear to to be what is pictured in your soldbuch was for college grads and high career field had gold piping and indicated advanced schooling/University level.

Hope this helps. I will link Paul to this site as he would like to see it, I am sure.

Gary B

[PaulR]

That is such an awesome book! I do love the LW Admin stuff!

Gary is absolutely correct. The tabs would be dark green, as shown in the image below. Also the tabs seem to have the outer piping of silver, as there is no contrast between the tab and collar piping.

The fact that he is a Stabszahlmeister(Captain ranked paymaster) would mean that he was in the "General Administrative Services" and would have had a bright red nebenfarbe over the dark green branch color. (I know that the shoulderboard is not the correct rank but the red nebenfarbe is illustrated)

For me, this is a most desirable book! I had rather have it than Hermann Goering's collar tab!

Here is an indepth article/thread I started on the Admin Officials:

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=18055

[PaulR]

Dear David,

Luftwaffe administrative tabs, such as those pictured in your soldbuch, were dark green. There were some admin tabs in black for building construction, crimpson for courtsmarital officals and burgundy for judicial.

Thanks Gary for linking this to me!! It made my day!

You forgot to list the Cornflower blue Admin tabs!

Can you please post the other pages of this book?

[Gary B]

Paul, ya had to rub it in that I dont have the cornflower blue Admin tabs huh?!!

David, yes, I too, would like to see more of your soldbuch if you can take scans.

Gary B

[falls1944]

Hi,

Thank you very much Gary and Paul . I will post some photos of the SB.
Paul, are you seller of your tabs and boards to complete my SB

Thanks, David.

[falls1944]

Hi,

Here some photos :

[PaulR]

I will not sell my tabs, but I do know of a couple of places that have that ranking for sale. I will send you a PM when I get to work!!

What an impressive array of medals he has!!

KVK2
Czech Annexation medal
Romanian Struggle against Communism Medal
Romanian Crown Medal with swords!!

He was assigned to Luftgau XI as well!! I have a set of Penal tabs and Boards attributed to this unit!

WOW!

I love this book!

[Luft 76]

Uncommon and interesting SB with nice hand writing on page 8 ! Congratulations, David.

[Gary B]

Dear David,

Very nice...and thanks for posting.

PM me and I will try to find a set of tabs/boards for you.

Gary

[PaulR]

I have some very exciting news for you(it was for me!). I noticed that his original ranking of Stabszahlmeister was crossed out and the new title of "Stabsintendant" was added.

This means one thing!!! That this Official was transferred into the regular Luftwaffe per a 09May1944 order accepting physically fit officials into the regular Luftwaffe as TSD(Special Service) Officers!!! It is a complicated story, but basically, officers and officials were goverened by different regulations. Officials were considered more like uniformed civil servants and were not considered to be military per se. Due to man power shortages in the officer ranks(of the entire Wehrmacht), officials with certain specailities were offered the opportunity to become regular Luftwaffe Officers, if they were physically fit. There were two branches of the TSD. There was an Administrative Branch and there was a Judicial Branch. The TSD concept was used within all branches of the Wehrmacht.

As a result, some of the insignia on their uniforms changed. When he ceased to be an official, the green tabs and multi-layered shoulder boards went away. They were replaced with standard Luftwaffe collar tabs and boards that had the light blue waffenfarbe. The shoulder boards had the gold toned cadeus cipher. I do not have the appropriate ranks, so I will ask Gary to post his.

Here is an excerpt from Roger Bender's "Air Organizations of the Thrid Reich, The Luftwaffe" copyrighted in 1972. (goes to show that the oldest books have some of the better information).

Here is a work I did on the topic(I would love to add your soldbuch!). It is cool to see that they did not change his photo when his uniform insignia were changed out. Also, he had not been promoted at all from his entire time in service.

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=16844


I guess that you have two sets of insignia you could buy for this book! LOL!

[PaulR]

Here is what the waffenfarbe looks like...

They are for:

Zahlmeister(Leutnant)
Oberfeldindentant(Oberstleutnant)

Your book is awesome!! If you ever need to give it a new home, just let me know!