Luftwaffe personnel, Athens.

[Thanton]

A photo from ebay, which the seller is mentioning:
'Dr Helm und Kollege, Griechenland 1941'.
Does anyone recognize or even better has more on those two?
Regards.

[Adriano Baumgartner]

From L. de Zeng (and others) LW Officers List

Maybe your man:

HELM, Alfred. (DOB: 16.01.94). WWI served as a fighter pilot. (n.d.) Kdr. in KG.z.b.V. 172.
27.11.39 Maj., appt Kdr. Blindflugschule 4 (to 16.05.41). (n.d.) with Erprobungsstelle Werneuchen.
1941 in Stab IV./NJG 1. 29/30.06.42 Maj., detached to II./NJG 2 from Erprobungsstelle Werneuchen.
Late summer 1942 returned to Erprobungsstelle Werneuchen. 18.08.42 Maj., II./NJG 1?. 1943 with
Stab II./NJG 2. Was the oldest night fighter pilot in the Luftwaffe. 1950s worked for Lufthansa.
Credited with 3 victories plus 3 more in WWI. †14.02.65

[Adriano Baumgartner]

At least Rank (Major) and Family Name (Helm) do fit....not the Doktor though (Dr)

[edwest2]

A doctor in the Luftwaffe seems possible. I don't know if the word 'doctor' was also used in some other way at the time.

[BABIN]

Originally Posted by edwest2

A doctor in the Luftwaffe seems possible. I don't know if the word 'doctor' was also used in some other way at the time.

Yes, a "doctor" was possible in the Luftwaffe. For instance in Wekustas units, most of meteorologists officers were "doctors"

Pierre

[Larry deZeng]

In World War II Germany, including officers in the Wehrmacht, anyone with one of more of these degrees used the "Dr." prefix before his name:

Juris Doctor (J.D.)
Master of Laws (L.L.M.)
Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.)

I believe this also holds true for any officer who had a P.h.D. in a scientific discipline such as chemistry, physics, biology, etc.

L.

[VtwinVince]

My uncle was a lawyer, so Major Dr. Albrecht Ochs.

[Adriano Baumgartner]

The question is:
Who is the Dr? The LW Major or the WH officer?

I understand that the first person would be on the left side of the photo...but not sure how does it works in Germany....

What do you think?

A.

[edwest2]

During World War II, 'aviation medicine' was part of keeping pilots alive at high altitudes. This also included studies into rapid acceleration. We all experience the force of gravity, however, in the case of rapid takeoffs and rapid changes in direction, especially up and down, a change in the force of gravity is experienced by the human body. This is expressed as the letter G along with a number. So, in a rapid maneuver, a pilot may experience 2 G's or more. A blackout could occur where blood rushes toward the feet, momentarily depriving the brain of oxygen. Although brief, the pilot might lose control of the aircraft upon recovery.


Next, the Germans were fitting ejection seats to aircraft, which required prior testing. An example would be the Heinkel He 219. Further work was carried out in the United States immediately after the war using captured German documents. The man given the job was Doctor John Paul Stapp. He was also an officer during the war and promoted to the rank of Captain in 1946. In August 1946, he arrived at Wright Field in Dayton Ohio to work as a project engineer assigned to the pilot escape technology program. Although he pointed out he was not an engineer, he was issued 1,200 pages of captured German technical documents. (See Sonic Wind by Craig Ryan.)


In 1950, the US Air Force issued a two volume set titled "German Aviation Medicine World War II." This was done, in my view, to intimidate the Russians who had embarked on the Korean War.

[Adriano Baumgartner]

ED,

Recently finished "Test Pilots" by Wolfgang Späte (JG 54, Glider Pilot, JG 400, etc.), a book which I fully recommend to every member of this board. I read it only now...so some of you may have already been aware of the incredible contents there...it do cover some Aviation Medicine works, as well as test with ejection seats, etc....a fantastic work to read. Fully recommended to anyone...one of the best I have read this year!

Adriano