I enjoy history, particularly military, however I have a question for the assembled group.

My mother's biological father was killed on the Eastern Front in 1943.  She was only four at the time, and doesn't have much memory of him.  Oma (my grandmother) told mom that her father was patriotic and entered the military when Germany started fighting (not sure when).  He was originally in the German Navy.  My mom has a photo of him in a Sailor's uniform standing at the back of a small craft - German Naval flag is flying behind him.  She has the photo put up, I'll have to look for it.

After his term in the Navy was up he joined the Luftwaffe to be a Paratrooper.  Beyond this all my mom knows is that he was killed on the Eastern Front in 1943.  She also has put away the official death notification card her family received, as well as a hand-written letter he sent to her shortly before his death.

Question is on his uniform.  Any ID on his rank, as well as any other identifiable features?  There appears to be two small pins on his left breast pocket.  A small eagle and swastika and below it what appears to be a Hitler Youth pin.  Some sort of lanyard from his chest to his left collar - unit ID or marksmanship?

Thanks

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Luftwaffe marksmanship lanyard

Luftwaffe Long Service award (ribbon bar)

HJ membership badge (Hitler Youth)

Good book on German paratroopers:  Red Shines the Sun by Eric Queen

Thank you!

The rank - I think with the collar piping it might be a junior Sergeant?

He was an Unteroffizier, the equivalent to a corporal.  If we could be able to tell the color of his collar tabs we would know what branch of the Luftwaffe he was in.  He may well have been a fallschirmjager and not been awarded the paratroopers badge due to not having gone to jump school and sent straight to one of the Fallschirmjager regiments.  After Crete in 1941 and Germany's declining fortunes, many personnel were transfered from rear echelon jobs straight to the front with little training.  One example I know of was an engine man from the Kriegemarine being sent to the Waffen SS after his ship was sunk right in time to participate in the Battle of the Bulge.

DefensorFortis - Thanks for the info!

I'll have to see if I can dig out the other photo my mom has of him.  I saw it several years ago, in which he was wearing a (I think) a white/light-color Sailor's uniform.  He was posing at the back end of a fairly small German naval boat (possibly E-Boat or a little larger), with naval flag flying from the flag post behind him.


On another note, the man I grew up with and called "Opa" (German grandfather) was actually my mom's step-father.  I didn't know this until I was a teenager.  My mom and I stayed up all night one night and she told me of her early childhood memories of the war.  She was actually born in East Prussia, and her family fled westward to Germany before the Soviets could roll in.  She recalled her aunt begging on her knees to a group of Polish soldiers not to shoot them.  She handed over what jewelry they had.  Mom said that she ended getting butt-stroked to the face and lost s few teeth.

Mom told me of the bombing raids - with the Americans bombing by day and the Brits by night, and having to take cover in a cemetery. After her father's death, her mom remarried to the man who then became her step-father.  Mom told me of the brief marriage ceremony in a building's basement.  Mom stepped outside and was looking up and was looking at lots of balloons in the sky ... except that it was an air raid and the "balloons" were actually falling bombs.  Married only a few minutes, and she received the first spanking she'd ever had from her new father!

My Opa was a pretty neat old man ... very quiet/reserved.  He spoke French as well as his native German, but only a little bit of English.  I was fortunate enough to have lived a large part of my life in Europe when I was growing up (three years in Germany and three years in Belgium).  He was born in 1901 and at 16 years old took part in the First World War in the Prussian cavalry.  Still had horses then.  He rarely ever spoke of the war - either one.  He survived that war and went on to become an architect.  He was an Engineer Officer in the German Army during the Second World War, and served throughout Europe.

On one of their visits to the U.S. during the 1970's my father and I took him to Aberdeen Proving Grounds, MD to the large museum of captured military equipment.  He walked through the rows of parked tanks, and every so often would point to one and quietly say how he had been in France in '42 when that particular model was out, or how he was in Poland in '41 when another had been made.  It was pretty cool.  Within the museum were numerous arms on display.  At one point he stood quietly in front of a WW1 trench display with some early crew-served machine guns.  He quietly told us that he had been about 17 years old when his Lieutenant had been hit by machine gun fire.  Said that it had ripped his chest wide open, and that they were stunned and amazed at how much damage it could do.

On a trip to the U.S. Air & Space Museum my Opa looked up at a V1 'Buzz Bomb' suspended from the ceiling.  He told me that when he was in France in '44 he used to see these things flying overhead ... He smiled and said that he never knew what they were.

My Opa was captured by Soviet troops in 1945, near the end of the war.  He survived a long foot march, during which he had lost some friends.  At a POW processing site, German prisoners were being doled out between U.S. and Soviet forces.  Apparently he stepped out of line and into another and was fortunate enough to have gone in to American custody.  He carried a wooden walking stick, which a fellow German POW had hand-carved for him.  I have this cane in my possession, which I'll eventually dig out and post.  At our large family dinners (in Germany) I hadn't noticed (until my mom pointed it out to me) that my Opa never ate the German egg noodles Oma made with the meal.  She always prepared a small bowl of cooked potatoes just for him.  Soviets fed them noodles while he was in their custody, and he never touched them again after the war.

The only items belonging to him are a First World War Iron Cross (2d class), a Hindenburg Cross (with swords), a Second World War Iron Cross (2d class), WW2 War Merit Cross (with swords), Eastern Front Service Medal.  I have these medals in my keeping, as well as a ribbon bar for a couple of these awards.

As a kid, I was an avid military memorabilia collector.  Living in Europe, I spent my weekly allowance in the local markets buying old helmets and other such.  I have a number of WW1 and WW2 helmets.  My Opa used to take me on long walks through the Black Forrest, as well as through the nearby orchards outside the small town they lived in.  We found and picked wild blueberries and strawberries.  Knowing how fanatical I was into collecting old military stuff he once had a bit of fun with me.  He told me a story of how once he had been out walking and collecting fresh mushrooms, when he came across the largest and most beautiful mushroom he had ever encountered ... and was disappointed to find that it was only a helmet!


Long post - Sorry.  Late at night, couldn't sleep, but also was great recalling all this from my childhood.  My Opa passed away in 1979.  My Oma passed last year (at 96 years of age).  They were really cool, and I enjoy thinking of them.  I'm about to cut & paste all this to a word document, to save and pass on to my grand kids, when I finally pass on Opa's medals, along with my Grandpa's (American) Merrick NY Fire Chief Badge, as well my father's Bronze Star from Vietnam, and my Bronze Star from Iraq.

Very neat story!  I'm huge into World War 2 which is why I reenact now.  Moving to Germany next month and can't wait to spend the next couple years exploring the battlefields of Europe.

Thanks OP. Interesting read. Looking forward to more.

Very nice, OP.  My mother is originally from Germany as well, and came to the US after the war as a teenager.  Both my Oma and Opa passed before I was 6.  

bryang - thank  you for sharing your story of your oda.

Yes, very interesting story.  
About the photo - the rank is Feldwebel = buck Sgt.  The colar piping is yellow, none of the other branch colors would look like that, which is flying troops so he could have been in a Fallschirmjäger unit.  By mid war there were lots of replacements who had not gone to jump school - or didn't go till later.  The cord is for a whistle - Not a marksmanship lanyare which would be on the other side.  
Also a reenactor - FJR1 (Fallschirmjäger).  
Sarge

If hes a Feldwebel then why does he only have only one wing on his colar tabs?  Why doesn't he have a diamond on his epaulettes?  Otherwise he would have Three wings on the collar tabs and the diamonds on his epaulettes.  I guess my copy of  TM-E 30-451 Handbook on German Military Forces is wrong.

This is strange indeed, The football team the eagles, used to have almost an exact copy of the luftwaffer emblum, an eagle diving holding a swastika, the eagles had a diving eagle holding a football. when jeffrey lowery bought the team logo changed without fanfare,strange indeed. Check it out for yourself. There are plenty of pictures on the internet.Very strange'

It could be that he has the Navy long service medal (probably only four years).  And the  photo may have been prior to his receiving the paratrooper badge...  Hitler Youth pin is the other as others have stated.

DF is correct, he is an Unteroffizier, silver tress on the collar with a single eagle, plus tressed shoulder boards with no pips...Unteroffizier....

I would say the Waffenfarbe on the collar tabs is yellow, which is flight (which includes Fallschirmjager)...I guess it could be white, which would be a member of 1st Fallschirm-Panzer Divison 1, Hermann Goering...but I am guessing its yellow.

I also agree the ribbon is a long service ribbon, blue with a small eagle...and the pin is HJ former member....

Very interesting history Bryang...