Young Luftwaffe soldiers

[Stijn David]

Hello,


When purchasing pictures it often strikes me in the young age that some soldiers have, look at this Luftwaffe soldier , how old would he be ? => 17 ? ( and this picture was taken in 1942 !!!!! , not at the end of the war ) , also interesting ( at least for me ) is the A certificate gliding cloth badge he is wearing .

I have noticed that one does not find so easely the lower grades of the civilian gliding badges on uniforms ( most encountered is the C - certificate = 3 gulls ) n the B and the C are lesser easy found .

Friendly greetings and enjoy ,

[bhholst]

Hello Stijn.
I believe the LW ran a very agressive recrutement program. The local air installation where I lived, had glider training and accomodated young very young Deutsches Jungvolk Pimpfe (10-14) to spend several days on the base . The stay included this writer , not the glider stuff. But the attraction of possibly flying, supported by a number of well made movies on this theme, the young age (therefore easily to be influenced) worked in favor of leading many to this service. All these activities of course had one objective : gaining future recruits. Then thwere was the "Tag der Wehrmacht" , always well attended with demonstrations , exhibitions, meals from the Gulaschkanone etc. Enlistment levels must have been very high.
Later events demonstrated the large personnel count of the LW which apparently allowed the formation of many LW Feld Divisionen.
Bernhard H. Holst

[Stijn David]

Young soldiers, etc ...

Hello Bernhard,


Thanks for the very informative insight you have given , i know alot of youngsters in pre war Germany where attracted towards the Glider flying ( medio 1938 this grouping had about 74.000 members amongst the young people ) and they where alowed from the age of 14 to join the Fliger HJ , im sure quite alot of them did as of the attraction that went out from this flying .

This also formed for a excellent recruting pool for the future Luftwaffe as these young fellows already possesed a highly flying level in most cases .The glider pilot veterans i have spoken to , al had pre war Glider experience ( with eitehr the HJ or as a part of the NSFK ) , thanks again for the insight you have gieven into these young soldiers life, i just wonder howmany never made it trough the war .

Cordial greetings,

[Rick Research]

The kid looks about 14 to me...

maybe I'm just getting old...

At this last Lowell militaria show, Jeff McCulloh got a bunch of snapshots of an R.A.D. Flak crew, under Luftwaffe and R.A.D. NCOs, and I would swear that the Labor Corps uniformed privates were all Hitler Youth age too. (I have been nagging Jeff to get those photos posted here....hint hint)

[McCulloh]

ok ok

Rick:
Alas, I know not how to post photos. However, prhaps I can scan them and send them to you and ou could post them?
Cheers,
jemc