Flakhelfer Ranks

Forums New posts
D

duke54na

Joined
May 9, 2020
Messages
106
Thanks Received
12
In flakhelfer to Grenadier he states he was promoted to oberhelfer the highest rank.But yet I see flakhelfer boards with rottenfuhrer rank .Black boards with blue piping and white and red tresses.Thanks
 
Trying to duplicate Karl Heinz Schleiser.Have pretty much everything but lacking the shoulder boards.Very interesting person.Book is highly recommended.
 
There was no Flakhelfer Rottenführer rank but the Oberhelfer boards look exactly the same. One silver Litze means Oberhelfer - a rank one could achive after 9 months of good service and attitide.

You don't have permission to view attachments.

The red cord means Kriegsfreiwilliger - war volunteer.
 

Attachments

    You don't have permission to view attachments.
Should i buy the so called rottenfuhrer and pull the red tress so its now oberhelfer or wait
 
He states he was registered in dj then klv camp n right into flakhelfer no hj service .Says he felt odd wearing a hj uniform.
 
Flakhelfer boards

You don't have permission to view attachments.
You don't have permission to view attachments.
Thanks Jack how they look
 

Attachments

    You don't have permission to view attachments.
Last edited:
Just need flakhelfer cap,luftwaffe steel helmet and of course flak badge to finish $$$$ .ikea detolf cabinet would be nice but local ikea closed few yrs ago.closest hours away n shipping very expensive.
 
I see no probs here ;-). It's a Lw-Oberhelfer (not a HJ-Rottenführer ;-))
Not quite sure about the red cord of a Kriegsfreiwilliger in connection with Flakhelfer being officially like at the HJ but there were a lot of non-regulation things.
 
I thought most flakhelfer were conscripted not volunteers.I have seen another set with gold braid above the white tress.No idea on those.
 
Of course, the service as Luftwaffenhelfer or Marinehelfer was an official duty. Kriegsfreiwilliger means that the boy volunteered to join the Wehrmacht after HJ respectively that Lwh service.
 
Last edited:
I have checked it - the red cord was also worn by kriegsfreiwillige Flakhelfer.
So you have a nice matching set Duke.
Sources: W. Saris :yo:, Handbook, p463ff
Nicolaisen, Einsatz, p37, referring on Befehlsblatt RJF für die Luftwaffen- und Marinehelfer der HJ, August 1944
 
Hello Jack
you know if the flackhelfer were many to get the reward LUFTWAFFE FLAK BADGE
have you get information in your books
thanks in advance
Jean Francois
 
The information I have related to Luftwaffenhelfer is about 140 pages
from January 26, 1943 up to the last addendum I have from November 1944.
It is all explained in the booklet "Luftwaffenhelfer" from the Reichsminister der
Luftfahrt, which includes the addendums I through XII.
The granting of the badge for Flakartillerie is mentioned in July 1944.
A Luftwaffenhelfer could get it with the same directions as for other soldiers.

A guy leading a section, a so-called Mannschaftsführer was allowed to wear
pip, until July 1944. Then this was forbidden for wearing. They did wear either
the green cord or the white/green cord. The "insignia for Kriegsfreiwillige" was
allowed to be worn with the Luftwaffenhelfer uniform.
 
Hi Jean Francois,

no, unfortunately I hadn't much time. The Nicolaisen books contain 2500 pages :w00t:.

It wasn't a rare decoration. They had to take part in bringing down a confirmed number of enemy aircrafts.
It was said the confirmation had been the harder part.

Sometimes the Flakhelfer only got the certificate of award because the badges were out.. I remember one case: The father of one chap was working as a dentist, they borrowed one badge from a comrade, the father did a plaster cast - and all of them got nice badges of lead.


Hello Wim,

great to have you here in this thread.
I can't answer Jean Francois' question about the number of awardings of the Flakkampfabzeichen. I doubt if there are concrete numbers. Do you have further information?

Every (school) class of Flakhelfer had to form a Schar. The highest HJ leader of them should take over as Manschaftsführer, responsible for internal and HJ service.
Are there more classes, so they form one by one several Scharen, and the highest HJ leader takes over this Gefolgschaft as Mannschaftsführer (RJF, 19 Jan 1943, Der Hitler-Jugend-Dienst der Luftwaffenhelfer, Entwurf, quoted from Nicolaisen, Einsatz, p231ff). But this Mannschaftsführer as the speaker of his classmates never played an important role on them nor had a command as intended by the RJF (Nicolaisen, p192).

The attempt of introducing the HJ lanyards instead of the pip was one of the increasingly desperate RJF list of measures to gain more influence on the Flakhelfer who considered themselves as soldiers, not as "little boys" and refused HJ service very often.
These conflicts intensified after the additional conscription of apprentices as Flakhelfer in August 1944.

BTW: There was another cord allowed to wear: A (usually twisted) silver (or white) cord meant Offiziersbewerber (officer candidate).
 
I have never read the full 140 pages I mention, neither do I much research these days
in relation to HJ. This was in the past, when writing my handbook. I do not know the
book from Nicolaisen. From when is this?
These days I have other writing plans, which not have to do with HJ, nor was the HJ
involved with my writings, but merely the SA and NSKK.
 
thank you Jack for your reply, it's always a pleasure to read you, as well as Mr SARIS for his participation on
I became passionate about hj flackhelfer
Jean Francois
 
Hans-Dietrich Nicolaisen (being Flakhelfer himself) did a large dilgence work on this topic some time ago. His books were published between 1980 and 1993, all in all 3000 pages. "Die Flakhelfer" (picture bottom right) is more popular science, the rest very detailed - every town, every school deploying Flakhelfer he could get information about. And of course most of the official documents from the Bundesarchiv etc.

He died last year.
You don't have permission to view attachments.


Good luck for your new project, Wim!
 

Attachments

    You don't have permission to view attachments.
Thanks Jack,

The planned booklet is about Hilfszug "Bayern" and Reichsautozug "Deutschland", as I have mentioned this elsewhere (also
with this forum and elswhere).

As I explain things, I also included there other units with such names as Reichsautozug "Vierjahresplan", Reichs-Theaterzug,
Hilfszug "Fuchs", Hilfszug "Goebbels" and such. The longer involved I am in this project, the more pop-up. Many will not
ever have heard of them! These last I included with mainly photos, as these will do the talking!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top