Germany was very keen on this sort of thing - anything marked 'Erinnerung' roughly translates as 'souvenir of..' or 'memento of...'.
Hildesheim was ( and still is ) a small airfield in Northern Germany which hosted a flying club between the wars as well as some Lufthansa commercial flights. Gliders were built there in WWII and it was taken over as a Luftwaffe flying school. Although not an 'operational' base it was bombed by the Allies late in the war.
The ashtray is a nice piece and a typical thing for Allied soldiers to 'liberate' - it would have been given to students by the Head of the school.
I thought it was an FJ base during the war although I may be wrong ?
The only reason I say so is that a mate of mine was based there in the 80's with the RA, he has a funny tale of there being a monument to the FJ's outside the NAAFI or close by and the drunken squaddie's would often piss on it on the way out at night !
Cheers
Not a permanent FJ base - but it's almost more interesting.....
Apparently, prior to the Eben-Emael attack, an area close to Hildesheim was found which was similar in profile to the Belgian fort so the Fallschirmjager based their ( then top-secret) Eben-Emael training at the airfield, hence the memorial. This may ( but I'm guessing ) also tie in with the airfields' glider connection....
Thanks everyone! Thats pretty cool
I like it!! I sure would use it to crush out my Newports.
I thought it was pretty neat. It now resides in my WWII collection with my German memorabilia
Similar Threads
Bookmarks