Strange Luftwaffe Abbreviation

[Larry deZeng]

A clutch of 5 Luftwaffe documents have been forwarded to me with the sender asking that I identify a peculiar abbreviation that I have never seen before. Essentially, all 5 pages consist of a formal request from 3./schwere Flak-Abt. 573(v)Gn. to decorate a certain low-ranking Luftwaffe 8.8 cm gun commander (Geschützführer) for shooting down nearly a dozen Liberators and Fortresses over the Budapest area in 1944.

The strange abbreviation appears several times whenever the unit designation is mentioned and for all of the 40 years I have spent researching the Flakwaffe (Flak Branch) in surviving Luftwaffe documents, I have NEVER seen it before. The abbreviation is the suffix attached to the end of the unit's designation, specifically "Gn". Does anyone have any idea what it might mean? It's not to be found in any of the Wehrmacht/Luftwaffe abbreviations handbooks.

Thanks,

L.