Meaning of the "D II-Flug", "N1/2-Flug" and "Ze-Bo" Flugbuch entries

[Recceswind]

Hi everyone,

It is commonly known that German speakers love to use abbreviations. It is not a problem to tell what "Staka", "Stuka", "RKT", "EK", "PKW", "LKW" (etc.) means. But what do these German abbreviations stand for?

"D II-Flug", "N1/2-Flug", "N3/2", "Ze-Bo" (Zementbomben?)

I have found them in a Flugbuch of Luftwaffe NCO undergoing observer training.

Regards

[Marcel van Heijkop]

Hi, Don't know about the other abbreviations, but "Ze-Bo" indeed means "Zementbomben". Maybe the "N/Flüge" mean some type of Navigationsflüge? (Or maybe even Nachtflüge?)

Regards,

Marcel

[Recceswind]

Thank you Marcel. N-Flug is Navigationsflug indeed. But what do these numbers mean? I preasume that they are numbers of the exercises in the training programme.

D-Flug (D1, D2, D1-Flug, D II-Flug etc.) is the biggest mystery to me. Maybe Demonstrationsflug or Doppelsteuerflug? In my opinion the first version is more probable, however, I have no proof of that.

Regards

[ouidjat]

Hi Guys,

N/Flug for Navigation... I don't think so.

All "navigation" flights are written Überlandflug, überlandeinweisen, Überführung ... never read the term Navigation - well for the moment.

For night, Nacht of course, never read (for the moment) N/Flug but for me it could be "Nacht" or "Nähe" (TOO).
It depends of:
1/ Unit
2/ The column in which this word is written "Zweck des Fluges" or "Bemeckungen"
3/ Since it's very common to meet 1 Inst. Fl. (First instrument flight) or 1 Allein Flug (First flight solo) etc... I can suppose N1 is First Nacht flight; but N1/2 ... You have to check date too: One day he made TWO N/flug and he could very well decide to write N1/2 then N2/2 ... und so weiter!

It depends of context.

Well...

But Navigation? Again, I strongly doubt.

Regards, Franck.

[Rasmussen]

N isn't "Nacht" because the flights were made for example in the mid of the day. My "N 1/2" was an flight from 30 min ... so it could mean 1/2 hour. I'd guess the "N 3/2" flight from recceswind was an flight from 1,5 hour ... maybe it was indeed an Navigationsflug because my flight was done with an Fw 58. And "Nähe" ... I'd never read such an word in flightbook and "Navigationsflug" was usual in flightbooks most shorted by "Nav." or other abbreviations.

Best regards
Rasmussen

[Recceswind]

1. I have cross checked "N" flights with a few other logbooks of the students/instructors serving with the same unit. All such flights were made during day. One of the students used to write "Nav. N3", so "N" must be "Navigationsflug".

2. Numbers written at "N" letters have nothing in common with duration of flights (sample times from different logbooks: N 1 - 1 h 20 min, N 1/1 - 30 min, N 1/2 - 1 h 30 min, N 1/2 - 2 h 12 min, N 3/1 - 2 h 10 min, N 3/1 - 2 h 15 min, N 3/2 - 2 h 39 min).

3. All flights were made on different days.

4. N 1/2 flights were always made after N 1 (N 1/1) flights. N 3/2 flights were always made after N 3/1 flights (sequence of flights listed in one logbook: N 1/1, N 1/2, N 3/1, N 1/2, N 3/1, N 3/2).

5. Instructors did not write "N 1/2", "N 3/1", "N 3/2". They used to write "N 1", "N 2", "N 3" with no additional numbers.

6. What about "D" flights? Any ideas?

[Adriano Baumgartner]

Good night to all...
I do remember, from a former Luftwaffe airman (the documents are at home..will chech them later), that they used different kind of abreviations for the "brevets"; for instance...there was a Brevet A-1; a Brevet C, a Brevet B, etc...(will post what I have later, as informed). I am sure, there are people who know this information by heart...
Being a former Flight Instructor (civilian, though), I remember there was some pre-requisites for the Navigation Excercises...for instance: for Private Pilots (PP), the distance was 150 nautical miles (with two landings...), so a triangular Navigation was planned to match this requirement. For the Commercial License or IFR licences, you would need to navigate some 300 nautical miles with a full instrument approach, etc...
MAYBE (I am only guessing and will cross check the Flugbuchs I have later at home), those N 1/2 could means: Navigation one 1/2nd leg, thus N 1/2.
It could be also some kind of exercise...we did have missions (even on Civilian Flight Schools) to follow: PS-1 (means Mission Pre-Solo one); etc...PS-2, etc...NAV-1, NAV-2, etc..
I do remember (from memory) that at least one Flugbuch did have the Kilometers flown recorded, for the Instrument type rating....so, the Luftwaffe students did record the kilometers of their navigations, to fulfill the requirements for the A, or B or C Brevets....that's sure! I will try to scan those points and put here for all.
Will be back soon...thank you meanwhile for the very interesting thread, which arise so many good memories of my time as a Flight Instructor.
Adriano S. Baumgartner

[Recceswind]

1. Sometimes there are waypoints given in the "Bemerkungen" of the logbooks with "N" entries. In all such cases "N" flights were made on a triangular route (a whole route had a shape of a triangle).

2. All airmen undergoing observer training had to record number of the kilometers flown. N 1 flights were usually shorter than N 3 flights, however, there was no rule. I have seen 120 km and 300 km long N 1 flights. I have seen 300 km long N 3 flights too.

3. In my opinion D1, D2, D3, N1, N2, N3 are numbers (names) of the exercises which had to be completed during the training.