LUFTWAFFE jackets - Eagles who Dare to Wear..!

[johnnyjohnny]

LufTWHAT jacket???

i saw uswings jacket since i'm on their mailing list. thing with them is, a few things they do good. and a bunch they do inauthentically and poorly.

i won't rehash the rest of their stuff, though i'm a big fan of their milspec a-2 and g-1 when they can send out one that doesn't have defects...however, this 'ww2 german flight jacket' that they don't even have the guts to call a luftwaffe jacket is about as much a luftwaffe (or ww2 german flight) jacket as an edsel is a car...looking at the pics you can see it's just not quite right

i'm sure the folks at uswings know about the jacket market, and knew luftwaffe jackets command high prices...their foray into a horsehide a-2 at a hefty price reveals their watering mouth at breaking into this 'premium' market...but calling their jackets premium is like putting a gourmet label on a can of campbell's soup...nothing wrong with campbell's soup...but it is what it is

pretending they could even get $895 for this jacket, and they were reducing it to $595, shows they are in the same LaLa world as the u.s. car companies have been in during the late 70s, 80s, 90s and early 2000s...drinking their own 'koolaid' (to use a horribly overused phrase that i regret even using)

uswings is superb for what they are...purveyors of real deal, economy milspec jackets made to military standards, made inexpensively and some of the times aptly, and priced properly...this in fact is what the a-2 and g-1 were always supposed to be, going back to ww2...so you can't fault them...except for customer service issues i won't rehash here

they may get a few suckers on this jacket, but they're pedaling false premium jackets, and for the most part the only people who buy premium jackets are those who are educated enough to spot a pig with lipstick (to use another hackneyed phrase since the election)...which this monstrosity is

as for charlie and his pix, that is quite a fine jacket...looks great on you too...i think i hear your Messerschmitt Me 262 running

 

[taggers]

Hello folks, read the thread with interest. I've always loved these jackets, but like a few here, I'm not crazy about dressing in what is, after all a Nazi uniform (yes I know...)

But something was nagging at the back of my mind, I've seen these jackets before... then it struck me, 1930s-1960s, German:

There are better pics out there, but I imagine Astrid Kircherr is looking after her copyright.

Four lads with a different approach to world domination.

 

[H.Johnson]

The lad on the right should go far...

 

[taggers]

Ok, 3 lads...

 

[BellyTank]

Oh... the Nazi uniform angle again...:eusa_clap not.


B
T

 

[Dixon Cannon]

The lad on the right should go far...

That "lad on the right" may be the most successful of the lot! Married to the same woman all these decades, did an honest days work every day to support his family, raised that family to adulthood without any controversy or public drama. Now in retirement in a life he built himself in contentment and personal inner strength - Pete Best is now enjoying a resurgence of fame, popularity and wealth. He tours the world with his new band (with his brother Roag) and performs for people who never had a chance to see those lads in the Cavern or the Star Club and for his own personal satisfaction.

Many other individuals who endured the public humiliation that Pete Best put up with would have become drug addicts, alcoholics or suicides. Pest Best, who in many circles is a living legend, not only endured but thrived through that inner strength that many others lack.

And besides, he had that "sullen charm" that is evident in that German leder jacke!

-dixon cannon

http://www.petebest.com/

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Oh... the Nazi uniform angle again...:eusa_clap not.
BT

I have my complete Luftwaffe uniform that I were when re-enacting. But I'm always cognicent that the Luftwaffe IS the only Nazi created military branch.

[/IMG]

Banned by the Versailles Treaty after WWI, a military air arm was verboten. Starting with gliders and kites, the Nazi regime built an Air Force from the ground up until by 1939 it was the most modern, well equiped and powerful air force in the world.

The other branches, the Wehrmacht, the Kriegsmarine, had roots back to Imperial Germany.

Does a Nazi connection prevent me from enjoying the uniform and the historical aspects of re-enacting - not at all - I'm a Libertarian!

-dixon cannon

 

[BellyTank]

Waffen SS.

B
T

 

[Opas Coat]

Now, do you speak German?

Hell, I was in an AWACS based out of Germany two weeks ago, there was an Italian Pilot, Canadian Comms tech, German radar guy and an American whos job I forgot giving a tour of the air craft. Just look at the world we live in now compared to sixty some years ago.

Goooo NATO!

 

[PADDY]

There's mission creep (stay on topic please)

Luftwaffe style jackets please gents

(Off topic conversations can happily be discussed elsewhere). Thanks

 

[johnnyjohnny]

luftwaFFe...sTyLe

i have been as guilty as anyone, well, more so, of using the term luftwaffe jacket...but i loved the pix of the french resistance wearing them, and spanish rebels wearing the jackets, likely at the same moment that luftwaffe pilots dropping bombs on them during the spanish civil war were wearing the same jacket

but, in writing, it is the quickest, shortest and often catchiest phrase that catches on...to xerox's dismay when everyone usurped their brand name for 'copies'...i worked on newspapers when we were still receiving letters from xerox not to use their brand name unless it was a reference to a xerox product, rather than a generic copy...i'm kinda getting flashbacks here

aside from the estute folks on this forum, and the politically fearful at uswings who call their luftwaffe (style) jacket a 'german fighter jacket', most people refer to the style as "luftwaffe jackets"

i'll be a bit rambunctious here and profer that being correct can at times sound like one has a stick up their tailpipe...i just can't bring myself to say, "30s-40s motorcycle jacket chosen for wear by the un-nazified german luftwaffe, which were also used by spanish rebels against gen. franco, and later by victorious french resistance fighters at the end of ww2"...

whilst correct, and something i'll use on the forum here, the term "luftwaffe style" jacket fits, in my perhaps twisted mind, in the category that includes other politically correct terms such as "ms." and "spokesperson"

just my feelings, respectfully stated to all those who perhaps 'correctly' disagree with me ;D

 

[Charlie]

Tow others "luftwaffe"/bike jackets :

the first one is the Eastman's "Hartmann" in 38 :

the second is a real one from the 30's, gorgious details !

 

[Hawk_Eye]

Great pics of the ELC and original Hartmanns. My ELC still hasnt shown up, despite it being 9 weeks since I ordered. Suppose all I can do is wait...

 

[Windsock]

ELC Hartmann- love it!

This is my recently aquired Hartmann- size 46, i'm 6'2" and it's a perfect fit. Extremely versatile jacket. I love the sleeve shape.

 

[johnnyjohnny]

the pix all you guys are showing show an amazing jacket re authenticity and a superb look...wow!

 

[H.Johnson]

RAF crew in 'Lufftwaffe' jackets.

Apologies in advance - this is going to upset people.

Over the week-end I visited an old RAF collector and historian who showed me an album of personal photographs taken by a ground crew member of No1 Squadron (Hurricanes) which moved from Tangmere to France with the BEF in September 1939. The notes say that the photographs were taken at Octeville and Vassincourt. The pilots are wearing tunics and white 'prestige' overalls. The armourers are wearing leather jerkins and the aircrew are wearing dark overalls and in three cases er... short leather jackets with a centre zip, twin horizontal breast pockets and sharp, pointed collar. In other words, the same contemporary civilian leather jackets that give this thread its title.

These particular pictures are obviously private, but this squadron was sufficiently notable for others to have been published, so a quick search by name identified one on page 14 of 'Aircraft of the Aces: Men and Legands - Hurricanes to the Fore, the First Aces' published by Osprey Aviation (ISBN84-8372-221-6). The un-named A/M is acting as rigger to Flg Off Paul Richey* and the picture was taken at Vassincourt in October 1939. Note that this predates many of the photographs of Luftwaffe fliegers taken in France wearing similar jackets. I suppose you can speculate that both sides may have bought their jackets from the same sources!

* Author of 'Fighter Pilot'. FO Richey describes how he was once engaged (solo) in an air battle with a six French Morane fighters (this was before the fall of France). He was able to use the Hurricanes superior speed to escape. The Moranes had French markings, but it is uncertain whether they were were flown by French or German pilots. Whichever it was, this sort of incident places the decision to attack the French Fleet at Oran in a different, contemporary context.

 

[John Lever]

Some 1930's British jackets were similar in design to the so called Hartmann type.

 

[H.Johnson]

Of course, John - my father had one. Civilian French jackets (which are almost certainly being referred to above) and German jackets are very similar. That's the point. In fact, what are almost always referred to as 'Luftwaffe flight jackets' are in fact the fashionable civilian leisure jacket of the time.

I think it's a shame that most of the preserved examples were 'saved' because of their military connections (with, perhaps, the added fascination of their association with Nazism) rather than as interesting items of clothing in their own right.

Just my opinion, of course, and I apologise for any offence casued by my views.

 

[John Lever]

Here's a recently ended auction for one -
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....K:MEWAX:IT&item=390055845803#ebayphotohosting

 

[BigHairyFinn]

Of course, John - my father had one. Civilian French jackets (which are almost certainly being referred to above) and German jackets are very similar. That's the point. In fact, what are almost always referred to as 'Luftwaffe flight jackets' are in fact the fashionable civilian leisure jacket of the time.

And wasn't France the "fashion trend setter" even then. I mean there are some *definitely local* trends in clothing, but say the "U-boat/Dr.Who" is a coat is a coat is a coat we call a "driver coat" and thats a horse-drawn taxi or an open T-ford era... nothing to do with U-boat and sea salt smell but more like horse sweat. Though I have the same style German peacoat branded as a "Hamburg watchcoat".