Hellmut Nodinger collection

[Kapper]

Larry,

This is a theory but I believe Nodinger was a Bordfunker in 1940 not a pilot. Many Bf became pilots later in the war which may explain the pilots badge. I believe the additional notation is from someone adding his pilots victories at a later date. I believe the seller is deliberate trying to deceive that this is a pilots logbook (during B of B) to get more value in the sale because the pages of the logbooks only show one half of the page, the other half would have determined if he was a Bf and who his pilot was.

As to who his pilot is I believe there is 2 possibilities, Kaldrack or Tonne or even both? One of the victories noted was on 11 June 1940 but if you look at the pages closely there is no entry for 11 June – goes 10th then 12th. Furthermore the entry shown for the Hurricane victory has the date cut off but if you look at the hour tally at the end of the page it would make it after 18 June. I believe the write up is wrong and it should be 11 July where Kaldrack and Tonne both claimed Hurricanes. Since the Hurricane is noted at the time of entry (nota later entry) suggests that Nodinger as Bf was the true victor of this claim, though most list seem to credit the pilot. Also you have stated in previous posts that both Kaldrack and Tonne claimed swiss Bf109s on 8th June which matches. The 18 or 23 December comment suggests that this could have been Kaldrack, but Kaladrack was in 4/ZG1, 7/ZG76 and EK is 9/ZG76. Furthermore on 18 December 1939 the unit was JGr101 and I believe they were flying Bf109s, so he couldn’t have been flying with Kaldrack.

This is what I believed happened. Kaldracks Bf (Fw Hermanski) was WIA on 24 May 40 and Nodinger became Kaminski’s Bf thus the uncertainty of Kaldrack’s 18 or 23 Dec 39 claim that was noted at a later date. At some point Hermanski returned and Nodignger became Tonnes Bf. Kaminski became Gruppenkammandeur in August 1940 while Tonne became Staffelkapitan of 9/ZG76 in August 1940, so when Nodinger received the EKI it was while with 9/ZG76 on 4 Sep 1940. The write up also states that there was a Blenhiem on 23 June 1941, Tonne claimed a Blenhiem on 18 April 41 protecting a convoy, this may be another error but without seeing the logbook page I cannot tell.

Anyway, I believe the document to be real and would be beneficial to your project.

Regards,

Craig…