Can anyone ID these men?
What Ranks are they?
What Awards and Decorations have they?

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Are they fallshirmjaegers?, some apear to have the badge, as well as wound badges, iron cross, both first and second, knights cross, combat clasp badge and the the two on the left appear to have a nazi badge, do you have any other information.?

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They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We shall remember them. Lest We Forget

Nothing else just they appear on the cover of this book.
Amazon.co.uk: Tapping Hitler's Generals: Transcripts of Secret Conversations, 1942-1945: Sonke Neitzel: Books

And in this article.
The Genocide Generals: secret recordings explode the myth they knew nothing about the Holocaust | the Daily Mail

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__________________
They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We shall remember them. Lest We Forget

They are all Knights Cross holders. I don't see any fallshirmjaeger badges, only pilot officers badges so they are pilots. One enlisted and the rest officers but not higher than a major. Excellent quality photo though taken at the Berghof. Interesting that the Oberleutnant on the extreme right has an arm shield. I wonder if that is the Crimea shield?

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American by birth, TEXAN by the grace of GOD!

They appear to be a group of Luftwaffe ground unit commanders. I'll use 1 to 13 going left to right to point things out:

Number 5 has a Crete armband on (the tan armband). He obviously fought there and is likely a fallschirmjäger or was.

Numbers 10, 12, and 13 all have wound badges. 10's is black indicating one. 12 and 13 are silver indicating 3 to 4 wounds or one very serious wound.

6, 10, 12 and 13 all have close combat clasps on their jackets (above the pocket).

It appears all have the Luftwaffe version of the ground combat badge (the circle looking thing with what appears like a set of wings in it) just below the pocket on the jacket.

10 and 13 have arm shields visible likely indicating they fought in the East and were in one of the pocket actions for which these shields were issued.

11 is interesting. He is the only non-general officer present. If the color is correct, his arm of service is flak artillerie (red).

8 and 12 have an armband on their right (the reverse of normal) sleeve. These are likely unit cuff titles of which there are a number. I can't make out which one they might have.

Hope that helps.

My call is still pilots with exception of a couple. Those are Pilot badges. The Ground Combat Badge has a smaller eagle with a large thunderbolt underneath it. The Fallshirmjaeger badge has a 'diving' eagle of which I do see on the two officers on the extreme right.

Pilot officer's badge:



Fallshirmjaeger's badge:



Ground Combat Badge:



Day Fighter Clasp could be mistaken as close combat badge from afar



List of other Clasps:

Luftwaffe Badges

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American by birth, TEXAN by the grace of GOD!

Definitely possibilities. Hard to call in some cases, you just can't make out things. But, if it is the pilot's badge then the right armband could go with one of the several squadrons that were authorized one. Some included:
Boelke, Immelmann, Hindenburg, Horst Wessel, Lutzow, Richthofen, Udet, Mölders, Schlageter, and Wever. There were also ones for the Condor Legion, and several flak regiments.

Number 6 might, might be Mölders himself. Again, its hard to tell for sure.

note the lower left portion of their pockets and what is around their neck guys

pilots badge as well as nearly all of them have an EK, the farthest chap on the right looks like Krupinski, this may well be the aftermath of an oakleaves presentation by the old hunched up guy in the ugly suit in the middle of the foto. note also the nco guy on the right as well. it might be ground attack/bomber and fighter personell

nice colorized pic by the way, offizier Jabs (possibly) of NJG 1 is 5th from the left, note the black wreath on his flight clasp

Hey, that's somebody's uncle.

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Best Regards,
JW

Seeing all of them with the knight's cross made me think of the same thing as Erich, some kind of awards ceremony.

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American by birth, TEXAN by the grace of GOD!

The Iron cross 1st and 2nd class are not awarded to pilots are they?, and what are the nazi looking bage on the two men o the left? I have seen that somewhere before, a nazi party badge?

__________________
They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We shall remember them. Lest We Forget

One of the most sought after of all Third Reich awards, the War Order of the German Cross in Gold (Das Deutsche Kreuz) was established by Hitler on September 28th, 1941. The award had as its objective the recognition of repeated acts of bravery or exceptional command skills. The recipient of the German Cross in Gold had to already be a holder of the Iron Cross 1st Class 1939.

I counted at least 4, possibly one more.

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Best Regards,
JW

ACK! Simultaneous post and you beat me to it Jeff. Can you remove this post so as not to duplicate. Thanks.

It is not a party badge. One of the most sought after of all Third Reich awards, the War Order of the German Cross in Gold (Das Deutsche Kreuz) was established by Hitler on September 28th, 1941. The award had as its objective the recognition of repeated acts of bravery or exceptional command skills not justifying the award of the Knight's Cross, but superior to requirements for award of the Iron Cross 1st Class.

Awarded for an act that surpassed the awarding of the Iron Cross but not substantial enough to earn the Knight's Cross

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American by birth, TEXAN by the grace of GOD!

Great info chaps.
I'd not seen this photo before today.
To be honest I thought someone was going to be able to name them all left to right and what they'd had for lunch too.

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The Guy in the middle looks familar but not famous as with the others. Erich would have been the one to name them

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American by birth, TEXAN by the grace of GOD!

I think that you are right with the two names

Hans-Joachim Jabs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Walter Krupinski - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

__________________
They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We shall remember them. Lest We Forget

I guess Goering liked the pilot's badge...

the chap to the stinky fuhrers left has a Spanish cross low on his right side of his tunic, he looks very familiar and possibly a Stuka or Bomber ace. My photo data base is not coming up like it should so cannot attest to that as fact, also the chap to the possible Jabs off his right shoulder looks also like a fighter ace I have seen.

sad when the mind starts to go ...........

I didn't notice Goering in the picture.

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

I'm the "Confederate with a pipe"!! LOL