LUFTWAFFE SS Adolf Hitler DIVISION !!

[fran1942]

Here is a great photo. One I have never seen the likes of before.
What exactly is this. A lufwaffe tunic on a man serving with the 1st A.H Division ?

http://www.bphprint.co.nz/view_6.JPG

[Peter R.]

I could be wrong here, but didn't the Leibstandarte (i.e. the unit wearing the 'Adolf Hitler' cufftitle) get Luftwaffe ground troops allocated to them as the war dragged on and their numbers were decimated by years of fighting and recruitment sources dried up?

In that case, this guy may have had an admin role or been guarding an airstrip somewhere, and now found himself serving with the Leibstandarte right in the thick of the fighting - without any time to have been properly trained for it. Oops.

[Terry K.]

Hi,

I believe the pic is early in the war, most likely one of the support people for the air plane assigned to the LAH. Storch unit if I am correct.
Yours,

[Edward]

Hi,

I believe the pic is early in the war, most likely one of the support people for the air plane assigned to the LAH. Storch unit if I am correct.
Yours,

Hello Fran1942,

That same photo was shown on this forum last year by a collector in Germany. I believe it was also recently sold on eBay for Eur 155 along with two smaller snapshots. The seller did show the reverse of the studio photo which was early 1941.

Regards

[Gene]

If you have Uniforms and Insignia of the Luftwaffe Vol. 2 by Brian L. Davis, look on page 102. There's a pic of a Luftwaffe Hauptmann wearing a Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler cuff title, along with a Spanienkreuz and EK1 but no qualification badges.

[M.G. Novello]

May be this man belonged to the flak unit of the Hitler's Personal Train?

[J Melvin]

I believe that this photo is an early one as well. But, Peter R.'s story has been recounted to a friend of mine by an old field division vet in New Orleans. According to this vet, he couldn't remember his field division designation, but his training regiment was Fl.Ausb.Rgt.52. This regiment was used to form 18.Feld Division. His location in 1944 (near Dunkirk) confirms that this was most likely the division that he was a member of.

According to this field division vet, in 1944 Goring made a present of 4000 Luftwaffe troops to Himmler as a birthday present. They were transferred to the WSS. He said that they retained their Luftwaffe issued uniform, but applied WSS insignia to it.

He and a friend later deserted and abandoned the uniforms. They were captured by the British and sent to a POW camp in Great Britain where they finished out the war. Interesting story to me as our reenactment unit portrays 18.Feld Division (Lw). Who would have ever thought our first contact with a vet would have been from that division.