A Staffelkapitän, the Luftwaffe’s equivalent of an RAF squadron leader, in front of a Junkers Ju 88 bomber.
The commander gives the bomber pilots and crew in a final preflight briefing.
An architypal image of a bomber’s pilot, the Flugzeugführer, at the controls of his aircraft.
Through the pages of Signal and various other publications, many of the Luftwaffe pilots became as well known to the public as any celebrity sportsman of today, their exploits followed with keen interest.
Hans-Ulrich Rudel was a Stuka dive-bomber pilot and became the most highly decorated German serviceman of the war. Rudel flew 2,530 combat missions and claimed a total of 2,000 targets destroyed – vehicles, tanks, nine aircraft, armoured trains and a number of ships, including the Soviet battleship Marat.
Oberfeldwebel (Flight-Sergeant) Johann-Peter Oekenpöhler at the controls of ‘a new type of aircraft’, according to the original Signal caption, with an unidentified co-pilot.
All eyes scan the sky for enemy aircraft. Looking out from the side fuselage gunner’s position on a He 111.
‘The enemy in sight.’ The position of the wing above and in front of the glazed canopy identifies this as a Heinkel He 114 or possibly the Fieseler Fi 167, a torpedo bomber and reconnaisance biplane designed for operation from the decks of the Graf Zeppelin class aircraft carriers.
Flying gear
Luftwaffe summer flight suit, the one-piece Sommerfliegerkombi in a light tan colour, and the 10-76A Schwimmweste kapok-filled life vest. Kapok is a cotton-like fibre obtained from the fruit of the kapok tree. The canvas flight helmet featured internally wired earphones. An example of the winter helmet and oxygen mask is shown above.
Presentation of awards to aircrew.
Heinkel He 111
A formation of Heinkel bombers fills the sky. See here.
Junkers Ju 88
A discussion or training talk concerning the Junkers Ju 88. As can be seen, the aircraft has been loaded with bombs.
Preflight
Planning the route and marking up the navigation maps prior to a mission.
Loading bombs on to a Ju 88. The size of bomb and the load carried had a direct effect on the range of the mission to be flown. These yellow-coded 50-kg bombs are SC50 HE (High Explosive) bombs – quite a weight for a man to lift – with an explosive charge of 23 kg.
Armourers load ammunition for the Messerschmitt Bf 110’s machine guns located within the aircraft’s nose. The Bf 110 was a twin-engine heavy fighter and the configuration of armaments varied between different versions. For more on this aircraft, see here.
Refuelling a Heinkel He 111 bomber. The aircraft had a main pair of 700-litre (154-gallon) fuel tanks located between the wing roots and the engine nacelles.
Throughout a mission, developments are closely monitored by radio, shown opposite, and the information is then passed on by telephone to the command centre, right.