Ukrainian Luftwaffe volunteers

[Askold]

Here are some ultra rare photos of Ukrainian YBB (Ukrainian Liberation Army) Luftwaffe volunteers. The photos are from newspaper "Ukrainian Volunteer".


Ukrainian Liberation Army also has many pilots within its ranks, whose military deeds were recognized by the Germans. On this photo are three officers from the propaganda company.


German general greets Ukrainian pilots from one of the flieger squadrons, who are bravely fighting for German victory and Ukrainian freedom.


Porutchnyk P. helps with Sotnyk T. with his gear.


Against the enemies for freedom of Ukraine! Volunteer pilots sotnyk T. and pidporuchnyk S. before the combat mission.


Return from scouting mission

[Benoit Douville]

Askold,

This is really rare indeed, your post is really appreciated. Do you know the year the pictures were taken? 1944?

Regards

[Askold]

General-inspector of Luftwaffe Ashenbrenner visited Ukrainians in October 1944 (pictured in the photos above). If anybody has any other photos of Ashenbrenner - please post them.

[Askold]

Couple of interesting notes on the photos:

- We can see that pilots in the first photo are wearing EK 2 ribbon, Ostvolker medals and Ost volunteer shoulderboards (officer grade). They are also carrying personal sidearms.
- Second pic, some officers are wearing officer version of blue-yellow YBB cockades.
- Third photo - nice shot of YBB armshield on the Oberfeldwebel. He is also wearing Luft Ostboards.

Here is an example of such Luftwaffen volunteer boards from my collection. One is piped yellow for pilot, the other is in black - for pioneers.



- The plane used for scouting mission is believed to be Gotha GO 145

[Igor Karpov]

Also these planes were used for night bombardments.