A personal or unit emblem on aircraft?

[sidney]

Fw 44 flown by Bulgarians... That I doubt. All these photos are taken from a II.(s)/LG 2 album showing the campaigns in Poland and France, and sold individually. The Fw 44, as far as I can see it, is with the Luftwaffe markings, there is just nothing to suggest the presence of the Bulgarian air force personnel here.

Furthermore, the so-called Tripartite Pact was joined by Bulgaria only on 1 March 1941, so at the time when the aforementioned campaigns took place, it was strictly speaking a neutral country.

[sidney]

The "Kriegsverdienstkreuz mit Schwertern" was introduced in October 1939, while a good number of these photos can be dated to the Polenfeldzug. A couple of photos from the old LEMB shows what I believe was a rampant lion with a sword in the centre of the emblem, a feature that the Kriegsverdienstkreuz did not have.

[Bf 110]

Ok, that shows clearly the bulgarian enblem. My fault.

Regards
Gunnar - Bf 110 -

[sidney]

No fault, Gunnar, it is somewhat unusual for a LW unit to apparently adopt a Bulgarian emblem in Poland, so I guess there will be some more discussions on this one.

[Theodor]

Is it Poland for sure? During/after the operation against Greece, lots of Luftwaffe airmen got Bulgarian Bravery awards. Also, lots of Germans got the award during the WW1, could it be some traditional link?

[sidney]

In my post No.8 you can see the Polish Air Force checkerboard (1921-1993) under the port wing of the twin-engine bomber in the background of the photo.

[sidney]

The photo went for EUR 229.00, see http://www.ebay.de/itm/311960170912. Perhaps there was some merit in the above discussion after all.

[Theodor]

For sure the aircraft, prepared to be delivered to Bulgaria, but destroyed in the German attack, are a rare subject, but this is well known story and there are decades old articles on the theme, nothing unseen and nothing sensational. There were also a few Bulgarian student-pilots trapped in the conflict, they fled right infront of the advancing Germans, not to be caught in the combat, and by mistake two took the wrong train and ended up in... the USSR! Arrested for a few days, fortunately soon were released. But that's a different story. The real highly unusual and interesting were the white "Bravery cross"emblems. Still a mystery?!

[Evgeny Velichko]

Gentlemen,
There is a photo currently on EBay, L2+AC, of Poland campaign, with this Cross eblem.
Was it a mount of Major Spielvogel? May be it was his personal emblem, connected somehow with Bulgaria? Because, when Otto Weiss became Gr.Kdr., I see L2+AC with an emblem of bird superi,posed on ace of diamonds.

[sidney]

Yes, still a mystery indeed...