Books or resources on the Latvian Air Force in WWII?
 

Hi guys

can anyone point me in the right direction? Looking for books, magazine articles, research, online resources on the WWII Latvian Air Force, specifically as an Axis collaboration force. All I am aware of is the old Insignia booklet by Blue Rider Publishing that came with a sheet of decals.

TIA

Rich

Re: Books or resources on the Latvian Air Force in WWII?
 

Richdic -

Dierich-VdL; Tessin-Tes; Kannapin-FpÜ; D.Littlejohn-Foreign Legions of the Third Reich/v.4:192; H.W.Neulen-In the Skies of Europe - Air Forces Allied to the Luftwaffe 1939-1945:300-12.

Especially Neulen (13 pages on it) and Littlejohn. AFAIK, Latvia's "Air Force" units were all components of the Luftwaffe with Latvian personnel and a small German cadre of 5 men including an officer. There was no separate and independent Latvian Air Force. One exception might have been a small seaplane unit that flew obsolete seaplanes over the Gulf of Riga.

L. deZ

Re: Books or resources on the Latvian Air Force in WWII?
 

Thanks Larry, most interesting...
Rich

Re: Books or resources on the Latvian Air Force in WWII?
 

After googling some of your sources, and for anyone else interested, a slight expansion courtesy of feldgrau.net:

Dierich-VdL; Tessin-Tes; Kannapin-FpÜ; D.Littlejohn-Foreign Legions of the Third Reich/v.4:192;

H.W.Neulen-In the Skies of Europe - Air Forces Allied to the Luftwaffe 1939-1945:300-12;

NARA WashDC: RG 242/T-311 (Heeresgruppe Nord) documents;

Luftwaffen-Revue magazine: Heft (issue) 1/1985 (reproducing the Luftwaffe’s “Aufmarsch d. fliegende Verbände” order of battle map for 26 June 1944);

PRO London: AIR 40/1981, 1982, 1983;

BA-MA Freiburg: Flugzeug-Bereitstellungen (Aircraft Availability Status Reports – FzB) in: M.Holm-website (ww2.dk);

BA-MA Freiburg: Signatur RL 2 III (document OKL(2.Abt.) Nr.13215/44g.Kdos.);

BA-MA Freiburg: Signatur RL 40/Kart (“Aufmarsch die fliegende Verbände” order of battle map for 3 Oct 44)].

Latvian Legion - Silgailis, Arthur - R. James Bender

Re: Books or resources on the Latvian Air Force in WWII?
 

Rich

I can send you a scan of the Luftwaffen-Revue magazine although I'm not sure contents will be of much use.

Files AIR 40/1981 - 1983 are part of the named airfield files for 'Russia' (R-T one file per letter) so will only include a few mentions from intercepted signals concerning Latvian airfields. Again, I'm not sure how much use these would to you.

Steve

Re: Books or resources on the Latvian Air Force in WWII?
 

thanks Steve, yes by all means please send it.
Thanks for the other info too.

Re: Books or resources on the Latvian Air Force in WWII?
 

"Of Struggle and Flight"-History of Latvian Aviation by Karlis Irbitis

Re: Books or resources on the Latvian Air Force in WWII?
 

I forgot about that one, thanks...