Following the paper trail - Part I

Intro

This series will consist of examples from my document collection showing the enormous amount of paper that was generated by the different parts of the Luftwaffe during World War II.

Antrag auf Zerlegung oder Absetzung - Request to dismantle or dismiss (an aircraft from unit strength)

This pre-printed document was used by units to request either that an aircraft specified was dismantled following an incident that had led to a certain damage which rendered it useless to the unit - or to request that relevant documentation and spare parts connected to the aircraft be transferred to the industry for recycling, to use the modern word.

It is interesting to see at what level of detail these documents where filled in - for the engines even the number of operating hours and in some cases the number of take-offs the engines had been involved in were recorded.

Of course this make one wonder what an enormous number of  paper that must have existed during the war - and to what level of detail one could have been able to research the Luftwaffe if more of these had existed.

Research notes

In my research I have recently come across this reference to a teletype message transferred to all relevant units on Luftflotte level etc on May 15th 1940:

Ob.d.L. Gen.Qu. Genst. 6.Abt. drahtet:

Betr. Mitnahme der Lebenslaufakte im Flugzeug.Bezug: LV-Blatt 38 Teil B. Nr.26 Ziffer 182 vom 4.VII.38.
In Abänderung der Bezugsverfügung wird für Flugzeuge der Frontverbände folgende Regelung getroffen:Bei Abgabe an andere Dienststellen, Überführung zur Teilüberholung oder Instandsetzung ist die Lebenslaufakte in verschlossenem Umschlag im Flugzeug mitzugeben. Der Flugzeugführer der überführenden Besatzung ist für ordnungsgemässe Ablieferung der Akte verantwortlich zu machen.

In short for those not fluent in German:

For the aircraft of frontline units transferred to a new unit or sent for overhaul or repairs, the Lebenslaufakte is to be sent in a closed envelope with the aircraft. The pilot of the crew transferring the aircraft is responsible for the correct delivery of the Lebenslaufakte to the receiving unit.

I just thought I should share this with you all - it would be quite interesting to see if any of these will turn up in a wreck of a transferred aircraft in the future - and I would also deem it probable that Soviet forces must have come across some of these when they investigated aircraft found on airfields and other locations in the east.

Daily eBay scan - San-Ju travelling through Norway

Another interesting batch of photographs are currently at offer to the highest bidder, a series of photographs showing glimpses from the travels of a Ju 52 from a medical unit through Norway ending up in a snowy Alakurtti in Finnland.

Showing airfield buildings and even what must be a very rare bird in Norway at this time, namely a camouflaged DC-2 these are small historical gems.

Please comment my annotations, as I am unsure of the location of some of these.

Stop over at the airfield at Trondheim - Værnes?

Is this photograph taken in a Finnish airfield? The tower on the corner of a large hangar in a snow covered field give that association.

Note the camouflaged nose of a DC-2 in this photograph taken in Helsinki as far as I can determine from the building in the background

At the airfield at Alakurtti

Daily eBay scan - Caproni Ca 310 ´507´ at Stavanger-Sola

As part of a larger collection of Fallschirmjäger photographs obviously sourced from an album, the seller 100-years-of-history has a couple of really crisp photographs of the Caproni Ca 310 with callsign ´507´. Having seen a lot of Caproni photographs through the years there is really nothing new here, but the quality of the prints looks to be very good indeed as a basis for detailed research.

Caproni Ca 310 callsign ´507´ as found by the invading German forces at Sola-Stavanger on April 9th 1940

A selected group of flying personnel and paratroopers posing in front of Caproni Ca 310 callsign ´507´ at Sola-Stavanger on April 9th 1940

The rest of the photographs in the selection give an interesting view of the preparations and inflight photographs of the Ju 52 transporters bringing the Fallschirmjäger towards Norway and Denmark on April 9th 1940.

Paratroopers preparing for the invasion. Nothing very military about the suitcase they seem to be packing.

Inflight photograph of Ju 52´s en route to Norway and/or Denmark

Daily eBay scan - Prayer card with link to Norway

The first post for April on the date Germany invaded Norway and Denmark in 1940. This time a small eBay find with a link to Norway, a so-called Sterbebild or Prayer card.

Oberfeldwebel Jörg Zehetmayr (or Georg Zehetmeyer as his name is registered as by the Generalquartiermeister) was killed when he flew a He 111H-6 of Wettererkündungsstaffel 6, Werknummer 4358 coded D7 + RN, into the mountainside of Tømmernesaksla near Svartnes in Balsfjord on a transfer flight from Værnes near Trondheim to Banak.

The Flugzeugführer Zehetmayr and the Bordmaschinist Alios Waindl was badly burnt and killed in the crash, while the Bordfunker Werner Frevert was wounded and receoved medical treatment from the doctor onboard the Bernhard von Tschirschky supply ship - Luftsicherungsschiff.

He was transferred to the hospital at Tromsö for further medical treatment.

Remains of the aircraft were still visible on the mountainside when Kjell Sørensen visited and photographed the site in 2004.