Jagdwaffe vs. 332d Fighter Group

[Nick Beale]

And not all Germans of the period, even serving officers, were obsessed with race, this is simplistic, black-and-white thinking

The people they were working for—the German government of the time—were absolutely obsessed with race and recognising that is neither "modern perceptions" nor "simplistic". The NSDAP had mass support: it won 17 million votes in the election of March 1933 and according to Wikipedia: "When it came to power in 1933, the Nazi Party had over 2 million members. In 1939, the membership total rose to 5.3 million … by 1945 [it] reached its peak of 8 million". NSDAP ideology had been the norm in Germany during the childhood and adolescence of most wartime Luftwaffe aircrew. Someone reaching military age from 1939 onward had almost certainly been a member, successively, of the Jungvolk, Hitler Youth and Labour Service. This suggests to me that it would hardly be surprising if a great many Luftwaffe personnel shared the party's outlook, if only because they had so little experience of anything else.

[Broncazonk]

Originally Posted by VtwinVince

No, don't let modern perceptions cloud your thinking. [...] this is simplistic, black-and-white thinking which does nothing to expand our knowledge.

Please don't jump to conclusions. That is not where I am going with this.

I was trying to come up with the most recognizable Allied fighter unit imaginable (like the Polish) and wondering if Luftwaffe intelligence would be monitoring their pre-mission radio traffic. If they could recognize who and what has happening, by keying in on that unit specifically, it might unlock Allied flight operations coming from the Mediterranean and Italy.

Before bomber raids the 8th AF B-17s would tune their radios in the early hours of that day, so before dawn Luftwaffe intelligence knew *exactly* who was coming that day.

Nothing racial about this, just recognizable.

All my Best,

Bronc

[VtwinVince]

Nick, as a German citizen I feel I don't need a lecture on modern German politics. There seems to be a massive push in recent years to portray German society of that period as a racially obsessed construct, something which I would dispute, based in no small part on the experiences of my own family. But I don't want to hijack this thread any more than I already have.

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by VtwinVince

Nick, as a German citizen I feel I don't need a lecture on modern German politics. There seems to be a massive push in recent years to portray German society of that period as a racially obsessed construct, something which I would dispute, based in no small part on the experiences of my own family. But I don't want to hijack this thread any more than I already have.

Not intended as a lecture (I have a politics degree, so I hope I know a politics lecture when I hear one) just an observation based on my own conversations with Luftwaffe veterans recalling the pervasive nature of the propaganda. I would argue that the NSDAP did its best to make Germany racially-obsessed but not that it was totally successful.

P.S. I'm not sure where modern German politics starts for you (1949?) but I am a great admirer of the Bundesrepublik and the federal system.

[VtwinVince]

LOL, my view is that modern German politics started on January 18th, 1871 and ended on May 8th, 1945. The current Bundesrepublik is a weak substitute for a real country, as evidenced by the shenanigans regarding the Wiedervereinigung of 1991.