The use of the code Amsel

[icarus]

I believed that the phonetic alphabet employed by the German forces used Anton to stand for A ,,, yet in a reminiscence by an English observer the pilot in a Luftwaffe plane designated himself as Amsel Eins. This duplicates the code used to describe the SS elsewhere who were known in wartime slang as the Blackbirds. I wonder if anyone on the forum can account for these ornithological codewords and why the phonetic systems seemed multifarious during the war. Thank you in anticipation of some interesting response. A new member.

[Nick Beale]

I think the answer is likely to be that Amsel was a unit callsign, not a phonetic letter. Just as in the RAF and USAAF, these callsigns didn't have to mean anything, they just had to be words clearly distinguishable over a radio link. In early 1944 for example, Staffeln of I./JG 2 were Trommelfell (ear drum), Mansarde (attic) and Pilatus (Pilate), their ground control was Bleistift (pencil).


Someone here may know which unit Amsel was.