I work in the States (Chicago,Illinois) as a Paramedic & had the honour of meeting a gentleman in a local nursing home that was a German Paratrooper. He had a black & white photo of himself in uniform by his Heinkle when he was only 19 years old! I spent time stopping by there to visit him & hear his stories. I collect helmets & have the replica of their helmet. I gave it to him as a remembrance. He passed several months ago & my Ambulance service got a call from his Niece telling them that they wished to get it back to. When I met her, she said he spoke kindly of our visits & being able to hark back to the days of his youth & being part of history. May God keep you under his wing Hans!
Great story, it shows how young soldiers were back then, even some members of the volksturm were 12 years old! Great that you gave him a helmet, sad that he died though, he shall be rememberd
Beautiful tale. Thanks for sharing. In my high-school years one of my classes had a teacher's aid who was a retired old man who was a B17 navigator. I was one of the only student's who would brighten up when I learned of his past and constantly would inquire. Other students were less than kind to him and it only drove me to be even kinder to him and ensure he understood my respect for his service. He even brought in original B&W pictures taken from his navigator view as the bombs were going off on rail stations n' such. My father's side of my family is German and my name is Hans but I respect the service of all who partook in their fight for the world-view. The old man's name was Ed.
Ehhhhhhh to be honest that is not a very accurate FJ impression. He ought to be wearing a jump smock, not just zeltbahn. Then there is much more but...whatever. lol
That'sSoEdgy I agree most wore the jump smocks but it's not inaccurate at all for an fj to wear a zelt.iv seen a few photos of them wearing zelts but they probably mainly did when it was raining.
I totally agree, the kit that he's got on is pretty farby. Though, thinking realistically, this could've been a case as the Fallschirmjager were primarily used as infantry forces after Crete.
Andrew Mclarty Yus, in rainy and wet cases they actually wore the zeltbahn, but during or before a drop it was strictly forbidden to wear anything ontop of the smock, which increases the chance of losing your equipment, so i'd say this is an accurate representation of an after drop.
I mean really good items cost a pretty penny so I don’t really blame him, if he’s having fun doing it then just let him be. If he claims everything is accurate even though he has been corrected then there is a problem
So, fun fact for people, while I can't speak for sure about all parts of the German military, I know that the Heer's uniforms atleast were actually designed in women's focus groups. Despite the "facebook quotes" you may see going around the Germans really emphasized women taking an active part in German society. There were summer camps and parades honoring women and these focus groups were another part of that. Because Germans only had one uniform (unlike the Americans for example who had several: combat uniform, dress uniform, etc) their uniforms had to serve as both a combat uniform and a dress uniform. So these focus groups with women were used to create a uniform that was not only a functional combat uniform but also a good looking presentable, "sexy" uniform that would make German soldiers not look as utilitarian and boost morale. You can clearly see this in the Fallschirmjager uniform as well (which makes me think it was more than the Heer that did these focus groups).
Fun fact: neckerchiefs were common across the board because wool and gear chafing sucks. They even issued certain kinds that button into the tunic collar, kind of a hold over from pre ww1 uniforms. Very common early war, later on it was a useless piece of kit but neckerchiefs are multi use items. Use them to wipe sweat away, keep your neck safe, wipe your mouth and spoon(most started carrying just a spoon, either lost their kit or just didn’t care to add the weight) after eating, use it as a makeshift tourniquet etc. all sorts of uses for neckerchiefs other than fashion. By mid/late 1944 most german forces looked damn near homeless.
Bad ass dudes. My friend's father was fallschirmjager in Crete and Greece. He told me stories that his dad told him when he was growing up. It was awesome speaking German back and forth and no one had a clue what we were saying.😂😂😂😂
The yellow & green helmet camo like that was very commonly seen among paras in the 6th Regiment (FJR.6) in Normandy, and in other theatres, there tended to be camo paint schemes common to other certain units. More commonly, an FJ would be wearing a jump smock... later war, Splinter-B camo and later still the "marsh" pattern. Zeltbahns were more common on really late-war units that may have consisted of mostly non-jump-qualified men, and looked more like Luftwaffe Field Division troops, led by cadre paras from earlier units. Blue MP-40 pouches were fairly rare, and more seen in early war kit... tan, olive, or natural canvas color pouches were the common colors for those later in the war. Actually, most squad leaders armed with an MP-40 would've been wearing one right-side pouch, and ditched the left-side one to make room on the belt for a map case and the pistol holster... extra magazines were then stuffed into the jump smock's pockets.
The G.S.G.9 Used the Fallschirmjager helmet all the way into the 90's I'v got one that a H&K rep gave me back in the 90's and still use it as part of my S.W.A.T. call out gear.
If I'm not mistaken, you could make tent from any number of zeltbahns, even one could serve as very... insufficient tent, but two were already enough for two men.
Andrew Mclarty Actually it's the colours that dont match not the items themselves, (im assuming the colour matching look bad) As a 1940-42 ish FJ re enactor id say its pretty mixed up badly xD The canteen is early war, you can notice from the blue cover, the pouches were not usually used for FJ, only luftwaffe, (blue was standard colour for luftwaffe) The helmet however is mostly noticable, it looks like Normandy-ish, which goes badly with the early war items
ww2 colorizer Correct, the rest is early war, now the only way you would have kept early war items was if you were really hardcore and survived the whole war, which was quite lucky with FJ
Great work on those uniforms. I wonder if they are just incredible reproductions or actually preserved uniforms from the time. I think the former is more likely, but they look so good.
With regards to Fallschirmjager helmets camouflage, you need to research the type/unit and terrain in which the figures you are painting, are going to operate. A lot of variation in camouflage especially Mediterranean theatre of war and late war western.
From the start they carried a lot, because most of their weapons were delivered separately in crates, so if they were in a hurry, they could just pick a gun, and fight immediatelly and not care if they had the right ammunition for it. But after they developed FG42, they didn't have to carry as much.
Question: why didn’t the regular infantry wear them types of bandolier? Seems like you could get more ammo in them compared to the triple ammo pouches.
Conservation of ammo mostly.. regular infantry were well supplied with ammunition and mpst squads were assigned missions which did not require too much ammo. The Fallschirmjäger were mostly behind enemy lines or in dangerous and elite missions, therefore the need for the bandolier
there wore scarfs like cow boys because my dad told some office told him to take it off but said was part of uniform so office dint know maybe was ss or whermacht didn't ask
I think you jung fellows need to do some more research on the details.I do not remember some of the items you showed, you probably saw it in the movies and they are often wrong to.
Pablo Pickasso US tankers had K-rations, which the infamous Ansel Keys designed, so its perfectly in character to show early signs of insulin resistance. They were years away from discovering the benefits of LCHF keto diets 🤪
