Artur Dau 7/JG51 - Bf 109 Call Sign - 10 July 1940

[Peter Cook]

July 10th was the first 'official day of the BOB.

Peter

[Stig Jarlevik]

So how did the Luftwaffe pilots communicate with each other in the air?

Fighters: Verbandskennzeichen ie weiss 1 and so on? But what about those with a specific task
as <, <I, << etc?

Bombers and other units using long VKZN?

Cheers
Stig

[robert]

E.g. Adler 1 to Adler 2. Each squadron got his codename before takeoff.

[Chris Goss]

Shades of the film Battle of Britain with He 111s using the call sign Tomato!

[Stig Jarlevik]

Originally Posted by robert

E.g. Adler 1 to Adler 2. Each squadron got his codename before takeoff.

Thanks Robert
Can you explain it a bit more in detail please?

Were these code names permanent or issued for each mission?
If the latter, they would need the German dictionary to comply.....

Cheers
Stig

PS: I remember that film, but not the vegetable bit....
I and many others from the Swedish Aviation Historical Society were there with an exhibition
with models, photos etc
Jesus, where did time evapaorate.....

Cheers
Stig

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Stig Jarlevik

Thanks Robert
Can you explain it a bit more in detail please?

Were these code names permanent or issued for each mission?
If the latter, they would need the German dictionary to comply.....

Cheers
Stig

PS: I remember that film, but not the vegetable bit....
I and many others from the Swedish Aviation Historical Society were there with an exhibition
with models, photos etc
Jesus, where did time evapaorate.....

Cheers
Stig

On the RAF side "Rabbit Squadron airborne!", from the Luftwaffe »Tomate Eins an alle!«

My impression (largely from Pow interrogations and signals monitoring in Italy) was that the callsigns were used for more than one op, though for how long, I don't know. Examples:

ALTVATER ("Patriarch") was III./JG 53 in Summer 1944.

From the body of a pilot thought to be from I./JG 77, Allied Intelligence retrieved a list of callsigns which “confirm the presence in Italy of I./JG 2.” These were Trommelfell (ear drum), Mansarde (attic) and Pilatus (Pilate) and were thought to be used at different times of the month. The fighter control station in the south was Bleistift (pencil)

[Stig Jarlevik]

Thanks Nick

But all aeroplanes in the Gruppe could not have been Altvater (or whatever).
Since a Gruppe had by that time three or four staffeln I assume they then called out their
colour and Verbandkennzeichen, such as "Altvater weisse ein" and so on....
....which does not explain how our <,<I, << etc made their calls.

And what about bombers/recce and so on what did they use?

Training units where only Stammkennzeichen was used, did they use the German alphabet
for each letter, such as Dora, or whatever names they used?

Cheers
Stig

[Chris Goss]

I think name and number would be used. My call sign at 4 FTS was always Alpha 63