Information about Awards

[lpunktlpunkt]

Hello everybody,

do you know whether pilots in general would have heard about awards and special accomplishments of other flyers, like 150th victory or the Oak Leaves? If so, do you have any examples/anecdotes/mentions in the literature you can point me to?

I am part of a research project on the victory claims and motivations of pilots. We would expect that hearing about the accomplishments of others increases competitive pressures for pilots.

Thank you for your help!
- LL

[hucks216]

Such 'events' were regularly covered by the various publications of the time such as newspapers and magazines such as Der Adler and Signal, not to mention having postcards (both photo and artwork variants) produced of them wearing their newly won RK, EL etc.
Here are a load of copies of Der Adler that you can view online...
http://www.axishistory.com/axis-nati...adler-magazine

And this is a newspaper article for a late war pilot winning the RK:

[Tim O.]

In addition to the widely circulated magazines for the whole Luftwaffe such as Der Adler, there were magazines published by each Fliegerdivision, more specialist magazines such as Seeflieger and very many regional and local newspapers that covered the giving of awards. I have documents to a pilot who won the RK and who was a pharmacist before the war; even the pharmaceutical magazine ran an article on his award. The promotion of soldiers' brave deeds was literally everywhere!

[lpunktlpunkt]

Thank you very much!
Those responses were very helpful. I will take a look at the magazines.
Do you by any chance also know what magazines I should concentrate on for the Jagdflieger?

@hucks216: I saw that you are interested in collecting Wehrpasse and Soldbucher. Would it be possible for you to scan some of yours and share the pictures with me? I wanted to send you a PM but I did not know how that works here. I will soon be in Berlin in the National Archive. So if you want anything scanned there I might be able to return the favor!

[lpunktlpunkt]

Hello everybody,

does anyone have an example of when, where, and how a fighter pilot learned of a peer's accomplishments?

For example some story were a pilot learned that one of his (former) squadron members got the Knight's Cross or got mentioned in the dispatches of the Wehrmacht?

If you do, it would be great if you could send me a brief description!

Thank you for your help!
- LL

[VtwinVince]

When my uncle's squadron wiped out a squadron of Blenheims in July, 1940, the PK-Berichter was waiting at the airfield to interview him and other members of 9. JG 3 about the action. I have a photo of this event.

[edwest2]

To the OP,


I think you're after psychological effects, right? I'm unaware of anything like that. From pilot selection, through training, to their first mission, each pilot must have convinced his trainers that he had the necessary skills and motivation. How each one would behave in actual combat is another story. Awards are earned but that must be viewed in reference to the time and place: Eastern Front, Western Front, North Africa, Italy, Greece... The terrain features change, the amount of support changes and the direction of the war changes. Sure, each unit would hail a good combat sortie and the one who had reached a certain number of confirmed aircraft shot down would get whatever award he deserved, and the congratulations of fellow pilots and ground crew. But, in the end, all the factors are not static.

Were Luftwaffe fighter pilots better than their opponents or not? I think that is an open question since so many factors need to be taken into account. "competitive pressures"? Perhaps when it was a time that Luftwaffe pilots in general were feeling like they had the upper hand, but one would have to find evidence that a particular pilot was as interested, or more interested, in competing with his comrades than simply doing his duty: shooting down enemy aircraft, and just surviving.

Spreading the news (in a positive way) would be the job of the Propaganda Companies. Perhaps knowing their motivation and the results they were meant to achieve would be helpful. I recommend this book:

http://www.rzm.com/books/hc/mmbk3361.cfm



Usual disclaimer,
Ed

[lpunktlpunkt]

Thank you for your detailed answer, Ed!
Yes, I am interested in psychological effects.

Do you know if there was an official or inofficial ranking of pilots that was widely known about? With ranking I do not mean the official ranks (e.g. lieutenant, captain, etc.) but a ranking according to cumulative airvictories.

Since pilots were arwared the Knight's Cross and other medals at least partly due to their cumulative victories, I was wondering whether someone published such lists of victories. Then we could research how high-ranked and low-ranked pilots reacted to those lists.

[Snautzer]

I think you need to read in what it meant in pre ww1 an ww2 Germany to have such a medal. Then you will find out why many were so motivated.

I have all adlers and, for another forum, cut the Kreuz winners per year out.

[lpunktlpunkt]

Thank you for your nice reply!
Would you be willing to share scans of the Adler pages from which you cut out the Kreuz winners?

I understand how they were awarded, and that pilots were very motivated to get them. What I am trying to find at the moment is an exhaustive list of the pausible ways how the information of awards and mentions in the Wehrmachtsbericht reached fellow pilots.