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Luftwaffe Belt Buckle


Gildwiller1918

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Here is a new item, 2nd pattern LW belt buckle with leather tab, this is the aluminum type. After 1940 the production of the aluminum types stopped, and after 1942 the use of the leather tabs ceased. This one has some of the stitchinging left and the markings are clearly visible.

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Nice example of the second pattern! Tab has unit mark!
Fliegerhorstkommandantur Giessen. Maker C.??? Dicke, Lüdenscheid. The maker may be familiar with some.
Well done, you've made a good haul.
Buckles were also made in zink. There was also the blue painted steel verion, these were more for ground troops,
field divisions, Flak, etc.

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I got lucky is all, but thank you. It is getting hard to find these buckles with the tabs. From what I understand this was from a HQ unit, below is some information about the Airfield itself that I found on the internet. I actually have been to Giessen, but not in a very long time. 

Giessen (50 35 40 N – 08 43 30 E), General: airfield (Fliegerhorst) 50 km N of Frankfurt/M. in Hesse and 3.6 km ENE of the town center of Giessen. History: 1928 classified as a civil landing ground (Verkehrslandeplatz). In military service from 1932 and then built out as a full Luftwaffe air base 1936-37. Used almost exclusively by bomber units to mid-1940. Dimensions: approx. 1145 x 915 meters (1,250 x 1,000 yards). Runway: grass surface with concrete starting platforms on the E and W boundaries, paved hangar aprons and a perimeter road that connected the hangars with the starting platforms. Equipped for night landings. Infrastructure: fuel, numerous refueling points, communications, ammunition dump, compass swing, machine gun registration range and other amenities were available. Had 7 hangars along the S boundary, including 1 large repair hangar, with workshops and stores buildings off the SW corner of the airfield. Control tower between the hangars and barrack blocks behind the hangars. Airfield served by a branch rail line.


Dispersal: 7 open aircraft shelters and 4 or 5 blast bays off the SW corner (Apr 44); later, 5 large open shelters were built off the NE corner. Defenses: none identified in Dec 43. Satellites and Decoys: Giessen-Daubringen (GER) (50 38 10 N – 08 44 45 E). Dummy 5 km NNE of Giessen airfield. Mock-up included representations of 4 hangars plus station buildings at the edge of a woods on the E boundary with dummy aircraft parked near the buildings. Believed to have been equipped with a lighting system.

Remarks:
20 Jul 44: bombed by 12 B-17 Fortresses. 9 Sep 44: attacked by 9th AAF P-47 Thunderbolts with claims for 3 aircraft destroyed on the ground and several more damaged. Also attacked same date by VIII Fighter Command P-47s – claimed 1 x Bf 109 and 1 x Ju 88 destroyed. 24 Dec 44: bombed by 74 B-17s and heavily damaged; urgent repairs underway. 28-29 Mar 45: Giessen taken by U.S. 7th Armored Div. Operational Units: II./KG 254 (Apr-Nov 38); Stab, II./KG 155 (Nov 38 – Apr 39); Stab, II./KG 55 (May-Aug 39); I./KG 53 (Sep 39); I./KG 4 (Oct-Nov 39); Stab, I./KG 1 (Jan-Jun 40); 1./JG 3 (Feb 40); 2./JG 3 (Mar 40); I./LLG 1 (Sep 44); Staffel z.b.V. Reich (Oct-Nov 44); Flieger-Kp./Ln.-Rgt. 3 (c.Nov 44 – Mar 45). School Units: Flieger-Techn.Schule 1 (c. 1940-45); Lehrwerft Giessen (Jan 45). Station Commands: l.H.Kdtr. L Giessen (1940); Fl.Pl.Kdo. A 32/VII (c.Jan 43 – Mar 44); Fl.H.Kdtr. A(o) 5/XII (Apr-Jun 44); Fl.H.Kdtr. A(o) 21/VII (Jun 44 – Mar 45). 

Kommandant (prior to the establishment of a numbered station command – not complete): Oberst Dipl.Ing. Rudolph Schmock (22 Mar 42 - 1 Jan 43). Station Units (on various dates – not  complete): Stab/Luftgaukdo. 11 (Apr-Oct 37); Stab/Luftgaukdo. XII (Oct 37 – Mar 38); Koflug Giessen Luftwaffe Airfields 1935-45 (Jul 39 – c.Aug 40); Flugzeugschleuse (aircraft routing center); 4. Flugh.Betr.Kp./KG 55 (May-Aug 39); 5. Flugh.Betr.Kp./KG 55 (MayAug 39); Werft-Kp. 9 (n.d.); I./Flak-Rgt. 111 (gem. mot.) (Aug 39 –1940); III.(Tel.Bau)/Ln.-Rgt. 10 (Giessen and Lohra, c.Nov 44 – Feb 45); Stab/Ln.-Rgt. 40 (Holzheim, Jan 45 - ? ); I./Luftgau-Nachr.Rgt. 12 (Jul 38 - ? ); 12.(Flum.Res.)/Luftgau-Nachr.Rgt. 12 (1939-45); Fluko Giessen; Ln.-Flugsicherungshauptstelle 14 (1944-45); Lw.-BauRgt. Giessen (1940); E-Hafen-Ausrüstungs-Kolonne (mot) 3/XII; Trsp.Kol. d.Lw. 110/IV (summer 44); KriegsSanitätsoffiziernachwuchs-Kp. d.Lw. 22 ( ? – 1944/45). [Sources: AFHRA A5257A pp.201-04 (1 Feb 44 updated to 1 Apr 44). 

 

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Maker is Christian Theodore Dicke of Ludenscheid - Marked:  "C. TH. Dicke"  on the tab

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Good information. Usually a lot of good information can be found under:

http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gliederungen/Flughafenbereichskommandos/FBKGiessen.htm

in this case relatively thin. You could propose them an update, they also have a Forum!

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Very good Fritz! I might just do that. As always, thanks for your help. I also found it interesting they had a decoy field as well.

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Yes, I noticed that, that was common practice. Would be always interested to find out more about Luftkriegsschule 7 in Langenlebarn bei Tulln.
Some of the remainder from the Alarmbataillone formed from the school personel went into American captivity in the Salzburg area at the end of the war in May 1945. Amongst these was Oberfeldwebel Walter Neusüß (orig. from Hamburg). He was for a while a P.O.W. but sometime later released and found his way back to Hamburg, exact date unknown.
Do you know any more about this? Which US units were involved? Which P.O.W. camp?  The demarcation line was said to be at Radstadt,ca.  4.-6. May 1945

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I have been looking for information, but all I have been finding regarding German POWs is from camps in the US, not in Europe. The National Archives is the best bet to find out, but in the 1970's there was a fire and a lot of records were lost, especially from WW1 and WW2. But I will keep digging. 

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That's very strange, all the archives in each country seem to have had a convenient fire, where most records were destroyed!

GB - War Office - most records lost by "enemy action in 1940"
D - Heeresarchiv Potsdam, records from 1867-1945 - "lost due to destruction February 1945!"

However, some records have been turning up since...

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For example when I researched my relatives records for WW1 service, I got a notice saying that the records may have been lost in the fire, however I got lucky and got the records. Oddly enough a lot of these old storage buildings did not have any fire sprinklers although they were available. 

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