Personal and Unit insignias..... (1 Viewer)

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Lucky13

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Aug 21, 2006
In my castle....
Always been wondering what they mean and come from....like Gallands Mickey Mouse, JG 26 Griffin etc., etc... Any ideas?
 
Here's an interview with him and he said this...

WWII: What was the real story behind the Mickey Mouse insignia painted on the fuselage of your fighter plane?

Galland: We started this in Spain, and when I painted it on my Me-109E in JG.26 it was holding a hatchet and smoking a cigar, which I loved. But after the war I had to give cigars up.
 
Yep, the Mouse was a unit insignoa in the Kondor Legion, but don't know its origins. Many of the Luftwaffe unit badges, shields etc were based on the area, or town, where the unit was originally formed, often using the towns badge, or coat of arms, or that of the area. For instance, the Grunherz badge signified the Green Heart of Germany, after the area where it's original Kommandeur originated, the well known shield and cross of Jessau was another, and the Bear of Berlin another, and so on. The shields such as that used by JG26, with the Gothic 'S' were normally 'Honour' titles, in this case Schlageter, a rather unsavoury Nazi activist, killed in a street fight in the 1930s.
 
some chose where they were born and used their village/cities wappen as their personal insig, others used catchy sayings and if any insig was part of it they were absorbed. Girlfriends names were extremely popular. anything from serving in Legion Condor pre-war was used as well, the commanding CO sometimes was honored with his initial for the whole Geschwader as another example. Naval A/C usually used some sort of naval-see theme, bombs, mines dropped, etc.
 
There were several that were created during the BoB that I will bring up in my thread. But like Erich said, many were cities or towns, honorific titles or girlfriends/wives, etc.

Bit of trivia: The Native woman and leopard used by JG 27 - most closely associated with their time in North Africa - was adopted BEFORE any aircraft even went to that theatre.
 
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The Hollenhund was a character from legends. Somewhere, I have the origins of its use with JG26. I think it was used due to that Staffel being formed in the area where the legend originated, or where the Griffin, again, was used in the coat of arms or town badge, but would need to check.
The Tatzlewurm of JG3 was another creature from legends, and appears, in various forms, and with differing names, right across europe, including the UK.
 
check JG 3's Geschwader emblem the red U for Udet. JG 1 has the flying red 1 in different forms, JG 2 the black cocks head in different colour forms as well. JG 5 Eismeer, rising sun over Finnland which would make sense. JG 7 running dog in at least 4 different forms - fast as a grey hound.

then if you get into bomb groups..............sheeeeeeeeeeeesh have fun
 

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