If the Americans had a British passport when flying in the RAF, yes.
Cheers Hans K
If the Americans had a British passport when flying in the RAF, yes.
I am not sure what the point is of the question on this thread. This is getting bogged down in definitions of nationality.
...which I assumed, but obviously was not right. Depending on the country you wanted to serve, it could most certainly have been enough if you swore an oath of allegiance to that country - as Sheldrake points out.
Hello CF Geust,
Dear Hans,sveahk wrote: ↑29 Nov 2019 11:24...which I assumed, but obviously was not right. Depending on the country you wanted to serve, it could most certainly have been enough if you swore an oath of allegiance to that country - as Sheldrake points out.
Regarding the German Luftwaffe, we can read in Hans Werner Neulen: "In the Skies of Europe. Air Forces allied to the Luftwaffe 1939-1945" that at the beginning of the war Luftwaffe held back from recruiting foreigners, at least insofar as flying personnel were concerned. But with time the German Luftwaffe gave up its refusal to accept foreign airmen, "and by 1943-44 several hundred foreign flying personnel were in Luftwaffe service. These airmen came from right across Europe - there were flying personnel from Alsace-Lorraine, Spaniards, Italians, Russians, Croats, Danes, Norwegians, Czechs, Estonians, Latvians,Dutch and Belgians." And at least one from Brazil, as mentioned above...
The Luftwaffe High Command even found it necessary to establish a special department, so by May 1944 we had a General of Foreign Personnel - "responsible for the treatment and control of all foreigners within the Luftwaffe."
Interesting are two Swedes (with Swedish/German passports) who served high up in the Luftwaffe, but not in flying positions. Oberst Henry Schumburg and Oberstleutnant Nils Ångman. Schumburg was „Kommandant des Hauptquartiers des Oberbefehlshabers der Luftwaffe/Oberkommando der Luftwaffe“ and Ångman had his position the Luftwaffe Abwehr. I wrote about them some years ago in the swedish Skalman Forum:
http://forum.skalman.nu/viewtopic.php?f ... rg#p426479
http://forum.skalman.nu/viewtopic.php?f ... an#p552247
Hans K