Luftwaffe Officer Career database now available

[FrankieS]

B R A V O !

Wonderful, thanks for sharing.

[Marcel Hogenhuis]

Hello Larry and Doug,

As already ventured to you directly, this huge and most generously presented database will not only help all of us tremendously, but hopefully will inspire us all to send in additions, corrections, still failing names etc.

As several people have copies of Luftwaffe Personalamt files of officers, I do hope that the essential info of these are sent to Larry and Doug too. If we all benefit from this list, we all should support this magnificent job as well I think.

Keep this train moving! All the best, Marcel

[Peter Cornwell]

This is an invaluable source of information for any serious student of the subject. You are both to be congratulated for putting it together and thanked for making it freely available. Good job - well done.

[CJE]

My voice can only echo what all other members said.
In this world of "profit first", your move is absolutely remarkable. Thanks for it.
Since I donwloaded the files, I have searched them about a dozen times!
Just a question: where can I find a glossary?

Chris

[Larry deZeng]

Thanks for the kind words, Chris, and that goes for everyone else, too. We labeled the "Glossary" as "Terminology" and here it is:

http://www.ww2.dk/Lw%20Offz%20-%20Ap...0-%20Intro.pdf

Larry & Doug

[Nick Beale]

The database is proving useful practically every time I'm working on anything, so a big thank you to Doug and Larry.

In return, I'm attaching a small but colourful contribution to one biography:

[CJE]

Originally Posted by SES

Dear Larry and Doug,
What a tremendous piece of work, the list of abbreviations is in itself a nugget.
I very much look forward to going through the lists and using them in my research.
One small point. You have like scores of others before you translated zbV almost literally to "for special purpose". The correct transliteration is "provisional" i.e. "not in the normal establishment/organisation". Knowing Larry's attention to detail I trust my comment will be appreciated.
bregds
SES

I am sorry to have this old thread pop up again, but would it mean that the transport units had been considered as "provisional/not in the normal organization" for over 7 years?
It makes no sense, does it?

[Larry deZeng]

And who, dear SES, is the supreme authority who has irrevocably given forth English language definitions for all German military abbreviations and set them in concrete for all time and ever after? There isn't a single one of the more than 20,000 translations that at least one person won't find something to argue over.

We used the Manual of German Air Force Terminology: German - English, prepared and publishd by the Air Intelligence Section 12 of the British Air Ministry in 1945-46 as a standardized reference for the use of all the Allied Powers as our source for translations. These are the ones we used.

The abbreviation "z.b.V." is given as "zur besonderen Verwendung" and translated into English as: "special duties (literally 'for special employment')" (see page 13 of the cited Manual).

Personally, you can call it anything you like. That would be fine with me. It may well be that you are right and the Air Ministry is wrong. But Doug and I had to use a generally accepted standardized source to prevent eternal squabbling and nitpicking over the translation of some word or other.

If I already addressed this complaint earlier, then I apologize for repeating myself.

Larry

[CJE]

Some units, such as the Jagdgeschwader zbV, surely were "provisional".
As for the transport units, I read somewhere (a long time ago) that this designation (KG zbV) had been given to raise the morale of the crews who had been promised to be part of the striking arm of the Luftwaffe (bombers) but were mainly used for pizzas delivery.
If this story is true, it would fully explain the "special duties" designation.
But is it?

[Larry deZeng]

It was my understanding that in the mid-1930's the Ju 52-equipped units were temporarily considered auxiliary bomber units until such time as there were enough Do 17s and He 111s to outfit them as proper bomber Gruppen. Hence, the z.b.V. designation.

Pizza deliveries? Maybe Bratwurst, Schnitzel, Schinkenbrot and Bier deliveries, but not pizza! Pizza was all but unknown in the 1930's, I think, at least in Germany.

L.