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Old 10th July 2013, 19:29
Horst Weber Horst Weber is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2005
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Horst Weber
Re: Can anyone translate this sent from the Luftwaffe in 1944?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nick Beale View Post
The form:
No. 3

Place and day of the loss:
a) Weisswasser, Oberlausitz. [a town south east of Berlin, close to the modern-day Polish border] Jagen 105 [a Jagen was a night fighter control centre]
b) 11 April 44, 12,00 hours [i.e. midday]
c) no (Contact with the enemy)
d) Ju 88 G-1 BSZL [BSZL are the factory call sign letters which would appear on the fuselage either side of the German cross: BS+ZL. The operational unit would normally remove these and apply its own markings]

Rank: Oberfeldwebel [= US Master Sergeant]

Role: Radio operator [so, in a night fighter, probably the radar man]

Company etc.: 11th Staffel, IV./NJG 5.

First name: Otto

Family name and i/d number: Tillack, 53585/346

Date of birth:Tag: 20 January 1915

Birthplace : Wierschutzin [couldn't locate this, spelling?]

Kreis [= District] Lauenburg

Killed*) shot down

Remarks (e.g. burial place or probably overflowed from 14) [columns 13 and 14 are headed "Missing" and then 13 is "prisoner" and 14 is "other"]
a) will be reported later
b) Wierschutzin Kreis Lauenburg
c) Wife: Charlotte Tillack, Plumenkau, Oberschlesien [Upper Silesia]
d) Registry office: Peace Garrison, Vienna-Aspern

O.U. [can't remember what this stands for], 13 April 1944

Hauptmann [Captain] and Gruppenkommandeur [i.e. the officer commanding IV./NJG 5, a unit of about 30–40 aircraft]

Entrusted with the powers of a Gruppenkommandeur [or something like that!]
Good evening Char & Nick !

Some additions to this text.

In a text like "Ort und Tag des Verlustes", Jagen 105 is here the local crashplace. Jagen is an old term for a prussian forrestal subdistrict. A forrester was responsible for a certain district, which itself was divided in a number of Jagen as forrestal sub-districts. On old official topographic maps in the scale 1: 25000, you will find the local Jagens printed by number.

The abbrevation O.U. means Ortsunterkunft. This was then a military term and can be translated with local quarter or local accommodation. Background of this term is the secrecy of locations in the military correspondence by keeping a certain politeness in the correspondence, in particular, when the correspondence was adressed out of the military concoon. When you were stationed in Dortmund, you did not start your letter e. g. "Dortmund, April 13th, 1944" but O.U, April 13th 1944 .

M.d.W.d.G.b. means: Mit der Wahrnehmung der Geschäfte beauftragt
Here, this Hauptmann (Captain) is assigned, to do the full business as a Grppenkommandeur. But he is yet no Gruppenkommandeur, but is expected to get one soon.

Best wishes !

Horst Weber
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