Historical Question fur Luftwaffe Uniformen Experten

[VonL]

Our local air museum has what appears to be a WWII(?) German black leather flight suit in its collection. Further investigation indicates it's more likely a Kriegsmarine foul-weather coverall, as used on U-boats, etc. It does lack the usual big thigh-pockets seen on Luftwaffe coveralls. If it is U-boat gear, it's odd that it's in this collection.

 

My question is this:

 

I suppose the flyers could swap with their KM bro's to get them. Is it feasible that a WWII Luftwaffe (or KM) flyer would wear one of these things at work, given the WX conditions in say, Norway & Russia, not to mention high-altitude?

 

 

Discuss...

 

[ghodges]

I can only give you my impression on the subject, since I've never seen any specific example of what you cite.

 

In my mind, beyond their normal uniform worn under the "flight suit", their flight suits consisted of whatever worked! I think it's easy to try to compare them to today's pilots, whose gear seems to be official issue from head to toe; but that wasn't the case at that time. I've seen many, many pics of Luftwaffe pilots and it seems there were many styles of flight jackets, unlike our side where almost everyone seemed to use the issued brown leather types. I think if one of them got hold of a naval coverall suit that seemed warm and comfortable to fly in; they'd use it.

 

I back this up by citing the German Air Service of WWI (and generally all WWI flyers). If you look t them, and especially the film footage of VonRichtofen preparing to fly, you see them wearing multiple layers of any sort of winter/skiing/hunting gear to keep them warm while flying. While there was more equipment issued to them in WWII, I'm betting that tradition continued in supplementing their gear in WWII.

 

GIL