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Luftwaffe Disciplinary Units

Soldiers within the Luftwaffe who proved to be a detrimental to the morale and cohesiveness of their unit were sent on a temporary assignment to Disciplinary Units. Their assignment time would be anywhere from three to six months. During this time, they were place on probation. If the soldier was not fit to be returned to a regular Luftwaffe unit, he was turned over to the authorities for disposition. There were three types of Disciplinary units for the Luftwaffe.

1. Special Detachment:
This unit was established on 07Aug1936, following the regulations of manual D73, "Regulations for the Special Detachments". This unit was disbanded by the onset of hostilities.

2. Probation Camp:
This unit was established by order BLB40 number 146 on 30Jan40. The purpose of this unit was to provide three months of "severe military special training". This unit was eventually disbanded, although no date is known(yet)

3. Special Companies:
This final unit was brought on line to replace the Probation Camp. The Special Companies at special purpose 1, 2, and 3 (Sonderkompainien z.b.V 1, 2, and 3) were established by order LV43 Number 1667 on 06Aug43. All members were demoted to the rank of private and were assigned dangerous work on the front line without weapons for 3-6 months.




Uniform and Insignia

All men wore the basic Luftwaffe uniforms and accessories.

Insignia for Cadre Members:
Enlisted men of the permanent cadre wore the waffenfarbe of the unit the Disciplinary Unit was attached to. Example, a cadre member of a Disciplinary Unit attached to a Flak unit would wear the Flak(red) waffenfarbe. Officers and non permanent cadre members retained the waffenfarbe of their previous unit.

Insignia for Detained Members:
The uniforms of the detainees would bear no waffenfarbe.
a. Collar tabs would be made from a blue grey cloth adorned with aluminum wings, according to their rank*.
b. Shoulder straps were unpiped and had a machine embroidered Roman numeral of the Luftgau where the unit was based, in bright red embroidery. Angolia states that there exists a specimen of an unpiped strap with the roman numeral 9-"IX" embroidered in pink.
c. On 17Jun38, a portapee for enlisted was approved. It was of standard shape and design, but was made entirely in the blue gray color.

*as of 06Aug1943, all detained members were ordered stripped of rank upon entry.

Below is a set of insignia for a detainee from Luftgau XI (11).

I would like to see what is out there. There has to be more LW Disciplinary Unit related things!

PaulR,
First I've been aware of this. Thanks for what you have posted and for starting such an interesting subject thread.

--dj--Joe

Thanks for the compliment. I had no idea what these were either. I got the tabs from a huge lot of other LW insignia. I was baffled by them. Initially, I was thinking that they could be some foreign tabs or perhaps some messed with SA tabs. I just could not part with them.

Then

I found the shoulder straps on Peter Weymonds site. They sat for close to a year. I finally bought them. He had them listed as Flak Reserve. After reading the unread parts of my Angolia books, I found buried in the last pages of vol1, the description of these insignia. Talk about luck!!!

I about crapped myself!

There have to be more things out there pertaining to this field!! I would love to see them!!

No one has anything to add on this group of men?

Paul, what is the book title by: Angolia?

--dj--Joe

Uniforms and Traditions of the Luftwaffe, By Angolia.

Toward the end of Volume 1(literally).

Hi Paul.. This is rare insignia! any branch services disciplinary section stuff is rare.. I've seen a Heer 'Dis' units dog tag and it brought in 3 times as much the amount of a standard Heer unit,,and of even a Panzer unit!
Thanks for showing us...,G.

Thanks Gaspare!

I love the LW Obscure!

I appreciate your kind words!

Paul, thanks for the title.

--dj--Joe

It's been awhile. Any one have any thing new to add?

--dj--Joe