Could the "bent-arm" salute be an echo of the way field marshals of the day saluted with their batons?
The first picture shows two field marshals, Keitel of Germany and Ionescu of Romania, returning salutes in this way. The second, of King Constantine of Greece, provides a nice illustration of the incompatibility between the carriage of a field marshal's baton and the rendering of a conventional military salute.
The Hitler Salute
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Re: The Hitler Salute
In a word, no, I don't think Hitler's personal salute -- which was also occasionally used by other senior Nazis (just yesterday I saw a film clip of Hitler and Göring greeting each other at a meeting of the Reichstag on the Kroll Opera House dais and, face to face, they both used the same personal salute toward each other and Göring had no Field Marshal's Baton in his hand). While I'm not certain whether Hitler invented this personal salute himself or if someone else created it for him (I believe it was OSAF Franz Pfeffer von Salomon who brought the well-known 'stiff right arm' salute -- the "deutschtem Grüss" -- into usage for the SA), when Hitler combined both salutes together when facing a mass of supporters, it does seem to present a natural feel to it.
Br. James
Br. James