More Luftwaffe signatures

As a matter of interest, the picture above of 'Oblt. Philipps' is in fact Hans Philipp who was a top-scoring Luftwaffe ace, amassing 206 victories and becoming Kommodore of JG 1 before falling in combat with P-47s in October 1943.

An almost identical photo is reproduced on p26 of 'The Lent Papers'.

 

Theodore Eicke, the nicest of them all...EEEK!

Thanx alot for the pics, Bob!!

 

Thank you Kai. I collect autographed photos of all the Waffen-SS Ritterkreuztrager that I can... some more expensive than others... I have a post-war signed photo of Sepp Dietrich.

Bob

 

The mind boggles !

I'm afraid that my own collecting means are much more modest : ie today I 'won' an autograph of the late 'Tino' Becker on e-bay for less than £5.....

 

I expect to pay $15 to $75 for a nice post war autographed photo, depending upon the individual. Many of these guys survived the war and lived for many years afterwards, e.g. Gunther Rall (still truckin'). Some only lived into the early 1960s, so they didn't sign as much. In fact right after the war, they probably didn't sign much because they were still somewhat disgraced. But if you want to complete collections, then you have to track down the wartime signed postcards because many of these guys were killed in action, or during the war. If it hadn't been for Hitlerjugend autograph collectors, many of these autographs wouldn't be here today at all. We owe them a debt of gratitude.

Bob

 

Wow...Some GREAT pics and autographs there, Bob! Thanks for sharing. I am quite proud of my signed pics of Herr Spoden and Martin Drewes....

Then I have a few signed pics by some American gents and quite a few signed books (mostly self published) by a number of vets, but none of the 'names' shown here.

When I look at this...and read Martin's post, I think I should visit Ebay more often....Enlarge my collection. Oh, I do have a number of autographs (no pictures though) of German Generals (Gen. d. Wehrmacht and Gen. d. Gebirgstruppe) Have to see which names I have there. I think I have about 20 of them....

 

At the first Luftwaffe Night Fighter Pilot Association Reunion I attended in Gustrow, north of Berlin at Fliegerhorst Laage, there were three Oakleaves recipients: Drewes, Rokker and Zorner, plus three Knight's Cross recipients: Hoffmann, Johanssen and Rumpelhardt. And of course my friend Peter Spoden. He is a real character. We took a bus ride on Sunday up to Peenemunde where the rocket base was. Peter shot down one or two RAF bombers the night the base was attacked, 17 August 1943.

Bob

 

very fascinating bob, keep it up

 

Here are 4 more wartime autographed photos of Swords recipients: Oesau, Muncheberg, Lutzow and Ihlefeld.

 

that is very cool, any more?

 

I'm running out of Luftwaffe wartime autographed postcards... I have some others. Most of my collections are post-war autographed photos because they're less expensive. I resort to buying these pricey ones when I have to... mostly when I encounter them. You gotta be in the right place at the right time and have the money...

Let's see some others from y'all. I'm trying to breathe some life into this forum... come on!

Bob

 

. . . shrink my bank-balance.....

 

Do post-war pics count? I can put up the three I have. I also have one by Heinz Ewald "Esau" of JG52.

Martin...Yes, but 5 GBP... I have learned to put all the books i would like in My Ebay....and leave them there....And then see for how little they go....but then again....a few small ones, do make one big one....(money wise)....Hmmmmm....

 

Sure post-war ones count, although I'm not going to start putting mine up here because I have too many. I'd be posting all night long.

Bob

 

Bob I have posted a bunch over the years, and to be honest have no clue where they are here.........

grumble grumble, guess I am going to have to painstakingly look for them. Nearly all Luftwaffe but some Heer/Stug chaps as well. I have chatted with several RK winners and of course written many Luftw vets from the common pilot at 1 victory to Swords winners.

let's see what I can dig out soon, oh wait how about

 

sorry smacked the send button too bloody early. RK-EL winner that Bob has met if I understand correctly. 1./NJG 2 Staffelkapitän Heinz Rökker whose kills will be ocevered in my Ju 88G book in the future


another friend by deceased recently SturmFw ace Will Unger, Will signed on the back and I have copies of his fotoalbum through a friend and author


I really enjoy the close details of that Fw 190A-8/R8 of which the pilots flew like they were armored knights. Another friend an winner in Stab I./NJG 2, Bordfünker Anton Heinemann who flew with RK winner Gerhard Raht


E

 

three more Luftwaffe gents. RK winner in 10.Sturm/JG 3 Hannes Weik, Staffelkapitän. Shot down and wounded severly keeping him out of the war in the summer of 44 by return fire of US heavies. Transferred into JG 7 but never flew the vaunted Me 262A.



another pic of Will Unger in October 44



friend but passed away in August of 94, another great pilot of JG 51 and later IV.Sturm/JG 3 ace and flew the Dora-9 on the Ost front racking up at least 8 kills against Soviet a/c Oskar Romm



E ~

 

Very nice Erich. I have all of these gentlemen too. But always good to see other pictures of them and signed.

Bob

 

very true Bob. Nothing like talking or writing to these pilots first hand though.

Hans W. was reluctant at first to give us an interview but he did and fortunate for us we were the last to interivew him as he died a week later.

Anton H. is a great guy very helpful and tried to correspond with me in English at first and then just said, forget it lets deal in my home language if we would please ....

Will Unger gave very freely to me and others before he passed on one of the most outstanding Fw 190A pilots.

Heinz R. has always been super, with at least 5 different signed pics from him besides much helpful text for my book. Got a singed RK pic of his radar op Carlos Nugent and was in the middle of sending him a long letter when he passed away, so then wrote the radio/rear gunner Wefelmeier who ansered my questions in very brief form but sent a wonderful signed pic of him in full on tunic with DK and a most unusual photo.

sadly history is passing through these men too fast............the window of oppoutunity are fleeting.

just wrote 2 more 8th AF fighter pilots today.

will try and transfer more NF pilots.crew to the data files for scanning here soon.......funny I have written to more Bordfünkers than pilots

 

Erich,

If you'd like, I can send you a list of the autographs that I have. Email me at dltbgyd1951@hotmail.com.

Here is something interesting. They used to change photos during the war using airbrushing. I have two autographed photos of SS-Brigadefuhrer Mohnke, who ended up as commander of defending the government sector in Berlin. He was prominent in the movie DOWNFALL. Anyway, here he is as an SS-Standartenfuhrer (Colonel) wearing his Knight's Cross. And next to it is the exact same picture but two oakleaves have been added to each collar tab denoting his new rank of SS-Brigadefuhrer...



Bob