Luftwaffe "G L" troops revisited

[NickG]

Last image!
Nobody had seen the "G L" triangular sleeve patch in wear until the image (in post 5) surfaced on e-bay.

In Angolia's book covering "GL" (and paras) the badge was explained as most likely intended for use on work coveralls...
The period image proves that this is a ligit combination on a tunic...So not necessarily overly badged!

Standard blue LW side cap were often worn but no M43 cap images have surfaced in wear by these troops thusfar...)
Hope you guys enjoyed this thread as much as I have bringing this tunic back to life!

[NickG]

comparison again

[NickG]

Here's a better detail shot of the picture that inspired my restoration of a "G L" trooper.

[Renaud]

Your fliegerbluse is great !

I would love to find a french GL dyed uniform as seen in your pictures... What is amazing is that the very first shown has an eagle ! That would be great, but highly rare I think.

[NickG]

Your fliegerbluse is great !

I would love to find a french GL dyed uniform as seen in your pictures... What is amazing is that the very first shown has an eagle ! That would be great, but highly rare I think.

Thanks for the comments! Those would be very hard to find...
Here's another period image ( note G L cyphers!) which appeared on WAF before...so I'm repeating it for reference!

[Renaud]

From the pictures I see the french uniforms were rarely worn with an eagle

[Bob Hritz]

Nick,

I have never been able to find the metallic letters G and L. I would be very happy to have the uniform, restored or not.

Bob Hritz

[NickG]

Nick,

I have never been able to find the metallic letters G and L. I would be very happy to have the uniform, restored or not.

Bob Hritz

A hoard of these unobtainable "G L" cyphers surfaced unissued in Norway several years ago and the owner had no idea what these were...
He explained that the Norwegian military was actually using these...adopting these for the own use... (in the 50's or 60's ???)
Maybe a Norwegian WAF member can shed some light on this?
He mentioned a Norwegian word which coincidently also had the G and L letters in it ... so this insignia was useful to them for their military.
I had 4 sets... one set went to a fellow WAF member who likes exotic LW stuff (guess who) and 1 set went to my brother,
and the remaining 2 sets pinned on this blouse...
If I get tired of it all let you know! Its for sure a "one of a kind"!

In civilian dress these guys wore this armband

[NickG]

Bringing this "General Luftzeugmeister" study thread back to the top!
The tagged image another WAF member sold on ebay a while back...and was posted here before...
Any more "G L" related material to show?

Maybe a moderator can move this to the Luftwaffe section?

[NickG]

Parisian traffic cop shown with German occupation directional signage.
Note "G L" sign!
Villacoublay is a French military Airbase just outside of Paris which the Luftwaffe took over and
"G L" men were based there.

[WEISNER]

Excellent thread Nick and top job of restoring the tunic and putting together with the pants!

You are right in that this is a rare branch and any insignia, badges or tunics are tough to come by! If I had found a black Fliegerbluse I would have passed for sure, but now I would see it for what it is and grab it.

I look forward to seeing future updates nick!

Kevin

[djpool]

Very cool! Is the fliegerbluse dyed black or was it manufactured using black base cloth. I remember seeing at least one black fliegerbluse in Germany that was dyed black. Of course no one wanted it. It appears that it was popular to dye items black in postwar Germany. I've also seen one M44 tunic that was dyed black and 2 FJ Smocks.

Jim

[NickG]

Very cool! Is the fliegerbluse dyed black or was it manufactured using black base cloth. I remember seeing at least one black fliegerbluse in Germany that was dyed black. Of course no one wanted it. It appears that it was popular to dye items black in postwar Germany. I've also seen one M44 tunic that was dyed black and 2 FJ Smocks.

Jim

Black Fl.Bluse were always dyed, never made like that and could be one of 3 scenarios:
1) war time "GL" use and dyed black
2) war time "NSKK-Reg.Luftwaffe" use dyed black for Dutch and Flemish NSKK voluneerts (later switching to LW blue),
3) post war use dyed black, a non military color...(due to clothing shortages)

(1) and (2) probably happened to allow for a more uniform look (all black) as many troops in the "GL" also wore black dyed French army uniforms
and foreign volunteers in NSKK-Reg.LW were also issued Black dyed Belgum Army uniforms (driving schools in Diest and Vilvoorde, Belgium)
both branches later (mid-war) switching to non-dyed regular LW uniforms when there was sufficient supply to go around!

[PaulR]

I found this old thread and want to refresh with a new addition from last year.

[PaulR]

Tunic.