Re: Estonian personnel in the Luftwaffe
His very age (15 in 1943) more or less precludes all but one possibility, and that’s membership in the Eesti Noored (Estonian Youth) movement that was for boys between 16 and 18 and girls between 14 and 20. He would have been employed as a Flakhelfer (Flak helper) in Estonia in mid-1944. These boys wore a blue Luftwaffe uniform with the E.N. badge on the left breast pocket. The approximately 3,000 E.N. Flakhelfer volunteers were mobilized in June 1944 and retreated from Estonia with the German forces in September 1944. About 800 of them went to Wismar near Lübeck and were assigned to Flak-Ers.Abt. 60 (Flak-Replacement Detachment 60). After 3 weeks of basic training, they were assigned to various active Flak units, mostly in North Germany, at Dortmund in the Ruhr and at Odense in Denmark. They were treated well by the Allies after the war because of their youth, their branch of service (Luftwaffe) and the fact that they were Estonian and not ethnic Germans.
The exact identity of the Flak units to which they were assigned may only be found in the papers of the individuals. Flakhelfer served in many different units and the official documents and rosters that might have matched individuals with specific units did not survive the war.
Sources:
Littlejohn, David. Foreign Legions of the Third Reich. San Jose (CA): R. James Bender Publishing. Hb. Heavily illus. with photos and drawings, both color and b/w. VG to Mint. Volume 4: Poland, the Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Free India, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Russia (1987, 384p., ISBN: 0-912138-36-X). Pages 154-57.
Neulen, Hans Werner. In the Skies of Europe: Air forces allied to the Luftwaffe 1939-1945. Ramsburg (Wilts): The Crowood Press, 2000. ISBN: 1 86126 326 0. Hb. Dj. 383p. Illus. Appendices. Source notes. Bibliography. Index. Page 298.
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