Please help me trace the pilot for these medals.

[jeffooi]

Hi All, this is my first post and I'm new to Luftwaffe so hopefully I don't sound too silly.

About a month ago I became the lucky owner of these medals. The dealer who sourced them was Klaus Butschek and he certified these came out of a house clearance near Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany in 2010.

What I underestimated was the task in identifying a Recon Pilot, who had flown over 600 missions as evidenced by the gold recon spange and the 600 pennant, who also had the knights cross and gold wound badge.

Alas the job is providing difficult and I need help.

I originally took all the data out of the Luftwaffe Officer Career Summaries in http://www.ww2.dk/lwoffz.html and put it into a database. Using the database I narrowed the criteria:

• Was awarded RK
• Died after 1957
• Unit contained the following terms: Aufkl OR NAGr OR Nahaufkl OR Recon OR SAGr OR .(F)

This gave me a list of about 160 as a start but from that point I took a few liberties that maybe not quite correct. I assumed for instance that if there was no WIA or wounded entry in the record that the pilot could would not qualify, also some records mentioned pilots that had reached "Pennant" stage but then again some pilots had careers spanning 1939-1945 but whos # missions were not mentioned at all.

I do have a shortlist of about 8 but I want to know whether there is a better way of doing this, Any help even criticism would be appreciated!

[hucks216]

I think you will need to list all the possible matches, both Officer and Non-Commissioned, you have come up with and why you think they are a match.
Of the 8 you have narrowed it down to did any of them die in the town where these items were found?

[Adriano Baumgartner]

HELLO JEFFOI

Firstly, congratulations....it must be a beautiful item.
Please do find a list of Aufklärer (Fliegers - First list- and Beobachters - 2nd list) of RK-träger...it may help you narrow a bit....if you risk down those who were KIA or KIFA...you can narrow a bit more...
http://www.luftwaffe39-45.historia.nom.br/ases/rk.htm

Yours
Adriano Silva Baumgartner

[jeffooi]

[jeffooi]

Apologies gents, for some reason all my posts are being moderated at the moment which is causing me to give you a very slow response.

Adriano, yes your list was the one that inspired me to start looking! I had finally gotten 8 by taking out all the KIA and MIA and only limiting the pilots of Recon squadrons who hadn't transferred to other roles such as bomber, stuka or JG/JD. (I'm assuming to get 600 flights in recon you'd be pretty focused on just the recon side of things! To get to 8 pilots I had to filter by cases of wounding.

The real problem is I don't have enough detail about wounding to know it was severe enough to be a Gold wound badge.

Here is a summary of what I have:

Aechtner, Fritz (DOB 04/03/1916 - Nürnberg + 01/05/2007 - Nürnberg)
Reportedly wounded twice but not on any official records
Pros: died 99km from Regensburg and 3 years before medals were found
Cons: No official documentation of being wounded

BAUER, Joachim Albrecht. (DOB: 25.03.03 in Heinitz/Bautzen). (i.G.).
†25.04.99 in Rendsberg
Pros: He lost an eye in Crimea, Career Recon Man
Cons: Died 818km from Regensburg where the medals were found. Died in 1999, 11 years before medals were found

ECKEBRECHT, Fritz. (DOB: 08.05.12 in Berlin). †08.02.73.
Pros: WIA (not known how severe), Career Recon Man, Died 143km from
Regensburg where the medals were found.
Cons: Died in 1973, 37 years before medals were found

HESSINGER, Franz. (DOB: 13.07.19 in Fürstenfeld/Steiermark).01.01.2006
Pros: Career Recon Man, Flew 4000th mission for 2(F)./Aufkl.Gr. 123, Died 2006 4 years before medals were found
Cons: Unknown place of death, only minor wounds recorded

SCHULZE, Wolfgang, Dr. (DOB: 27.08.22 in Kirn/Nahe). †25.12.89.
15.03.45 Oblt. in 1./NAGr. 5, WIA – in Bf 109 G-5 that crashed while taking off from Fp. Cirava in the Courland (Kurland) pocket.
17.03.45 Oblt., awarded Ritterkreuz, 1./NAGr. 5.
Pros: may have been a severe wound after accident
Cons: Unknown place of death, unknown number of missions

SELL, Wilhelm. (DOB: 15.06.10 in Schweinfurt). †14.01.98 in München.
23.11.41 WIA by a Russian fighter near Barvenkovo/130 km SSE of Kharkov.
01.06.44 promo to Maj. 05.09.44 Maj., awarded Ritterkreuz, Kdr. NAGr. 5.
Pros: may have been a severe wound after attack, died 124km from Regensburg
Cons: unknown number of missions

STRASSMAIR, Hannes (Hans). (AKA Strassmeier) (DOB: 02.01.15 in Garmisch). (W.B.K. München III). (R, DKG). †16.03.62 near Erlsried.
03.04.43 Lt., awarded the Ritterkreuz (in 2.(F)/Aufkl.Gr. 122).
30.10.43 Oblt., 2.(F)/Aufkl.Gr. 122 WIA during a raid on his base at Perigia/Italy.
Pros: Died 158km from Regensburg, no other records mentioned after 1943 wounding so it may have been severe
Cons: Died in 1962, a bit early for a 1957 award.

[jeffooi]

As requested here is my shortlist available on google spreadsheets:

Out of the 160 I have excluded:

• KIA, MIA, Died < 1957
• Pilots who have moved from Recon to any other Branch (Bomber, Stuka etc)
• Pilots who have no reported Wounds

Feel free to add to my spreadsheet as you see fit.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

[hanshauprich]

Hello,
this medals are not orginals from the wartime, they are all of the socalled "57er" without the swastika, made for members of the new Bundeswehr. I hope you have not paid to much money.
hans

[hucks216]

The problem with things like these is that it could so easily of been put together by a collector just so he had a display piece.
If original to one pilot I'm surprised that he clocked up over 600 sorties and wasn't awarded the DKiG unless that '57 example is missing.

[jeffooi]

Originally Posted by hanshauprich

Hello,
this medals are not orginals from the wartime, they are all of the socalled "57er" without the swastika, made for members of the new Bundeswehr. I hope you have not paid to much money.
hans

Thanks for your replies all and valid points.

Firstly apologies for the late responses, The forum is restricting my posts to be pre-moderated (I think all new members go through this?). I am posting this at 0949 13 Dec 2014...

I realise these are 1957 awards and no I didn't pay much for them. Hucks, what I didn't mention was that the vet made little swastikas to be glued and drilled into the awards to (I presume) wear at social gatherings!! Here is a picture of the core of the RK. some of the other badges also shows sign of the same "glue" on the obverse sides.

[jeffooi]