Propaganda Postcards of the Luftwaffe

PROPAGANDA

POSTCARDS

OF THE

Luftwaffe

PROPAGANDA

POSTCARDS

OF THE

Luftwaffe

JAMES WILSON

Pen & Sword

MILITARY

First published in Great Britain in 2007

PEN & SWORD MILITARY

an imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Limited

47 Church Street

Barnsley

South Yorkshire

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Copyright © James Wilson, 2007

ISBN: 978 18441 549 13

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Contents

Introduction

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Bibliography

The Wasserkuppe

Arado

Arado Ar 66

Arado Ar 68

Arado Ar 79

Arado Ar 95

Arado Ar 96

Arado Ar 196

Blohm & Voss

Blohm and Voss BV/Ha 138

Blohm and Voss Ha 140

Bücker

Bücker Bü 180 ‘Student’

Bücker Bü 131 ‘Jungmann’

Bücker Bü 133 ‘Jungmeister’

Dornier

Dornier Do 11

Dornier Do 15 ‘Wal’

Dornier Do 17

Dornier Do 18

Dornier Do 23

Dornier Do 24

Dornier Do 26

Dornier Do 215

Dornier Do 217

Fieseler

Fieseler Fi 156 ‘Storch’

Fieseler Fi 167

Focke-Wulf

Focke-Wulf Fw 44 ‘Stieglitz’

Focke-Wulf Fw 56 ‘Stößer’

Focke-Wulf Fw 58 ‘Weihe’

Focke-Wulf Fw 187 ‘Falke’

Focke-Wulf Fw 189 ‘Uhu’

Focke-Wulf Fw 190 ‘Würger’

Focke-Wulf Fw 200 ‘Condor’

Heinkel

Heinkel He 9

Heinkel He 42

Heinkel He 45

Heinkel He 46

Heinkel He 51

Heinkel He 59

Heinkel He 60

Heinkel He 72 ‘Kadett’

Heinkel He 111

Heinkel He 112

Heinkel He 113

Heinkel He 114

Heinkel He 115

Heinkel He 116

Heinkel He 118

Henschel

Henschel Hs 123

Henschel Hs 124

Henschel Hs 126

Junkers

Junkers Ju W34

Junkers Ju 52

Junkers Ju 86

Junkers Ju 87 ‘Stuka’

Junkers Ju 88

Junkers Ju 290

Klemm

Klemm Kl 25

Klemm Kl 35

Klemm Kl 105

Messerschmitt

Messerschmitt Bf 108 ‘Taifun’

Messerschmitt Bf 109

Messerschmitt Bf 110

Messerschmitt Bf 162 ‘Jaguar’

Messerschmitt Me 163 ‘Komet’

Messerschmitt Me 262 ‘Schwalbe’

Siebel

Siebel Fh 104 ‘Hallore’

Siebel Si 202 ‘Hummel’

Siebel Si 204

Commanders and Aces of the Luftwaffe

Oberst Heinrich Bär

Major Werner Baumbach

Oberst Alfred Druschel

Generalmajor Adolf Galland

Oberst Gordon Gollob

Generalfeldmarschall Hermann Göring

Oberst Hermann Graf

Major Hartmann Grasser

Oberst Joachim Helbig

Oberst Hans Joseph Herrmann

Oberst Herbert Ihlefeld

Hauptmann Hermann-Friedrich Joppien

Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring

Oberst Günther Lützow

Hauptmann Hans-Joachim Marseille

Generalfeldmarschall Erhard Milch

Oberst Werner Mölders

Major Joachim Müncheberg

Major Walter Oesau

Oberleutnant Max-Hellmuth Ostermann

Hauptmann Johannes Pfeiffer

Oberstleutnant Hans Philipp

Hauptmann Günther Rall

Generalfeldmarschall Wolfram Freiherr von Richthoffen

Generalfeldmarschall Hugo Sperrle

Generalmajor Walter Storp

Hauptmann Wolfgang Tonne

Generaloberst Ernst Udet

Udet, Galland and Mölders

Major Helmut Wick

Places and Everyday Service Life

Appendix

Introduction

Today the words ‘Nazi’ and ‘propaganda’ go almost hand in hand, as, with the passage of time, the two have become inextricably linked. With no yardstick by which to judge the innovative, compulsive, unprecedented propaganda to which they were continually subject, many Germans were persuaded to believe in the Nazi Party, and, more importantly, in the persona of Adolf Hitler as the saviour of Germany. Hitler, they believed, was the one man capable of invigorating the nation, restoring national pride, and rebuilding a shattered economy. The magnetic attraction of the dramatic Nazi symbolism, combined with Hitler’s dominant, almost hypnotic personality and brilliant oratory, would ultimately prove too potent a cocktail for the German people to resist. ‘What good fortune for those in power that the people do not think’. – Hitler

In the wake of the First World War (1914–18), sections of the resulting, and, needless to say, extremely unpopular Versailles Treaty, signed on 28 June 1919, denied Germany the right to develop aircraft for military purposes. Less than 14 years later, Hitler, the former soldier and now leader of the Nazi Party, would emerge victorious from the 1933 elections. Soon after this, Hermann Göring, on his appointment as Reich Commissioner for Air, set about the development of a new German air force – the Luftwaffe.

‘I joined the party because I was a revolutionary, not because of any ideological nonsense.’ – Göring

The development and strength of the Luftwaffe remained secret until March 1935, when Hitler, in direct contravention of the Versailles Treaty, announced the existence of this new air force to the world. Foreign reaction to the Führer’s proclamation at the time, with few exceptions, was one of general apathy and dismay. ‘Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.’ – Göring

Through the 1920s, Germany had managed to evade many of the restrictions placed upon aircraft development. The Nazis would later capitalise on the existence of a huge number of civilian flying clubs together with a number of well-established aircraft manufacturers as the basis for their newly planned air force. (Today it is almost universally accepted that the Versailles Treaty was indeed a humiliating and unfair way to treat a defeated people; in retrospect, it is now believed that the treaty actually contributed in many ways to Hitler’s emergence and success in the following years). ‘The victor will never be asked if he told the truth.’ – Hitler

By 1939, both in terms of equipment and tactics, Hitler’s Luftwaffe was arguably the most advanced air force in the world. Luftwaffe pilots having seen active service with the ‘Condor Legion’ during the Spanish Civil War (July 1936 – April 1939) imparted invaluable tactical knowledge to their comrades on their return to Germany. The Condor Legion was a Luftwaffe unit made up of several squadrons of fighters and bombers. The unit was dispatched to Spain by Hitler in late 1936 following a request from Spanish Nationalist leader General Francisco Franco for military aid in the war against the Republican forces.

The Spanish Civil War had acted as a ‘testing ground’ for Hitler’s new air force, and as a result, the Luftwaffe entered the Second World War in September 1939 using tried and tested combat tactics, giving them a distinct advantage over their opponents. ‘Blitzkrieg’, (lightning war) was an entirely new concept. While the First World War had seen millions of men on both sides ‘digging in’ to face their opponents across ‘no man’s land’ for months on end; the Second World War would bring about the introduction of the modern mechanised army, employing both weapons and tactics that had not existed in 1918. The development and implementation of Blitzkrieg tactics saw the Wehrmacht (German armed forces) brush aside all opposition during the early part of the Second World War.

Nazi Germany’s use of propaganda as a political tool eclipsed everything previously seen in that area. Under the direction of Dr Paul Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, the Propaganda Ministry achieved the unimaginable. By infiltrating and influencing every aspect of public, and, to a great extent, private life, the Nazis, through visual and verbal means, led almost an entire nation, still smarting from the defeat of 1918 to the belief that they, the Nazi Party, and they alone could restore German honour and kick-start economic revival. Goebbels, almost single-handedly, conceived and brought together those elements necessary to construct the greatest and most efficient propaganda machine that has ever existed.

This brief statement taken from an interview with Goebbels, accurately encapsulates his own beliefs in the implementation and ultimate purpose of propaganda. ‘This is the secret of propaganda; the saturation of a group of people, with propagandist ideas, without them even knowing it. Of course propaganda has a goal, but the goal must be so clever and so brilliantly concealed, that the people who are to be influenced by it don’t notice anything.’

There was no escaping the influence of Nazi doctrine, radio, television, cinema, theatre, and the press; these and other forms of communication came under the control of the Propaganda Ministry and the innovative Goebbels. ‘If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economical and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus, by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.’ – Goebbels

As we will see, even the simple postcard became a useful tool in the promotion of Nazi ideas and successes. Employing professional photographers, the regime initiated a subtle propaganda campaign to display the might of the re-emerging armed forces. The postcard, already a potent visual medium, would become an important weapon of seduction in the Nazi arsenal. Seduction was considered crucial to gaining the interest and trust of the people. Once this was achieved, there followed a process of intense indoctrination. ‘Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the Government can play.’ – Goebbels

The young, whose obedience and loyalty were paramount in Hitler’s vision for a planned ‘Thousand Year Reich’, received particular attention. Many young men were to be influenced by romanticised postcard images portraying Luftwaffe pilots as the new ‘knights of the skies’. Encouraged by such images many thousands flocked to the various Nazi youth organisations. ‘Nazi Political Guidance Officers’ were assigned to most military units. Their role was to preach the Party line and pre-empt dissention of any kind before it could take root.

The importance of the advancements made by Nazi Germany in terms of weapons can be judged in the frantic efforts of the Allies, even in the last months of the Second World War, to get their hands on both examples of the equipment and, more importantly, the German scientists and technicians responsible. By 1945, Nazi Germany possessed the best aircraft, the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet-fighter, arguably the most powerful tank, the ‘King Tiger’, and the best ocean-going submarine, the Type XXI. Had these advanced weapons been available to the Wehrmacht as little as two years earlier, an Allied victory might not have been possible.

In the case of the Luftwaffe, it was neither the inability of German aircraft designers to conceive new ideas, nor the inability of technicians to produce the finished aircraft, many of which were superior to anything flown by the Allies, that led to the demise of the Luftwaffe. Rather, it was the short supply of highly trained pilots and crippling fuel shortages after mid-1944 that ultimately caused its downfall. ‘The victor will always be the judge, the vanquished the accused.’ – Göring

In capturing and employing Wernher von Braun, the man who developed the V-2, the world’s first ballistic missile, the Americans would save almost two decades of research in the area of space exploration. The V-2 rocket, ‘Vergeltungswaffen Zwei’ (Reprisal Weapon 2), was without doubt the single greatest technological advancement of the Second World War and a prize for the Allies. All modern missiles and space rockets can trace their ancestry back to the V-2.

Even before the Second World War came to an end, there existed an obvious mistrust between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union. Ironically, one of the main factors that drove Hitler to war, the fear of a developing policy of expansionism within the Soviet Union was realised, as countries including Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania were swallowed up by the mighty Russians after 1945. Not until the break-up of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s would a form of stability return to post-war Europe.

Finally, and in order to better understand the captions that accompany the following images, it should be explained that all text shown in ‘bold type’, whether this appears as just part of the caption, or the entire caption, is a translation of the original German text taken from that particular postcard.

James Wilson

March 2007

Foreword

Today every large company has a public relations officer, their job is to promote the organisation and show it in a favourable light to the public and to other companies. As always, the practice of advertising is essential for attracting new business. In the pursuit of success, every large organisation needs to attract and recruit well trained and highly qualified young people to achieve its aim. Once achieved, the organisation must attempt to maintain its success, and to that end it will make every effort to recruit the best people to do the job.

Even military organisations like the Luftwaffe – or the air force of any other country, needs to advertise and, even to use propaganda to interest young people in its task. To win hearts and minds and to influence the right people to support and join the organisation is the primary aim.

James Wilson has looked closely at the pre war Luftwaffe, to find out how this new part of the German Armed Forces, secretly formed and trained after the lost First World War and in the aftermath of the highly unpopular Versailles Treaty, achieved this essential task. In Germany, pilots of the First World War like Richthofen, Boelcke and Immelmann were very well known. Udet, and others, including female pilots like Elly Beinhorn-Rosemeyer and Liesel Bach, fascinated people with their daring flying and aerobatics at air shows during the 1930s. Göring, who was also a First World War flying hero, announced, that Germany needed to become a country of flyers. Flying clubs were supported by the government.

The war in Spain (July 1936 – April 1939) created many pilot and aircrew heroes whose exploits were used for propaganda purposes. Postcards were published with pictures of military aircraft and successful pilots and these became collector items amongst the youth. Young boys were enthusiastic, especially during that time of great technical advances, which in the military world meant weapon systems. Politics became something of secondary importance to most of these young men. The chance to fly, to master a machine which would get you into the air and into the three dimensional environment, to rise above everyone else and to feel the freedom of flight, became a common wish.

This propaganda campaign continued successfully into the Second World War and the Luftwaffe always had enough young men for its aircrews in spite of the immense losses in the air war. Even when flying training became more and more limited due to fuel shortages, caused by the bombing campaigns of the allies, and more and more inexperienced pilots had to join the front line squadrons, there was no shortage of applicants for aircrews. The propaganda campaign had achieved its goal.

We wish James Wilson the success he deserves with this book. It covers a difficult subject very effectively.

Anton Weiler,

Fähnrich (Officer Cadet), Messerschmitt Me 109 pilot with Fighter Wing 105.

Former president of the German Fighter Pilots’ Association.

Wilhelm Goebel,

Oberst (Colonel), retired.

Kommodore (Wing Commander) Fighter/Bomber Wing 38 ‘Friesland’ at GAF Jever.

Present historian of the German Aircrew Association.

Acknowledgements

There are those who deserve a great deal of thanks for their kind assistance and indulgence while I was carrying out the research and planning for this book. A special thank you also to all those at Pen & Sword Books Limited for their continued support.

David and Christine Harper, Eagle’s Nest Tours, Berchtesgaden.

Brian Johnson, who, through personal contacts, was in a position to introduce me to the Luftwaffe veterans who in turn have been gracious enough to write the foreword.

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, who now own part of the Heinrich Hoffman Picture Archive, together with the reproduction rights to those images in their possession. A number of images appearing