Figure 1.--Here we see Dutch girls with some youtfull Luftwaffe personnel. The Luftwaffe maintained an important presence in both the Netherlands and Belgium as part of Germany's air defenseses. We wonder about the girls here, Were they from pro-NAZI Fascist families. Or perhaps just young women oblivious to the political connotations. Notice that a girl is holding one of the soldier's rifles.

Here we see Dutch girls with some youtfull Luftwaffe personnel. The Luftwaffe maintained an important presence in both the Netherlands and Belgium as part of Germany's air defenses. We wonder about the girls here, Were they from pro-NAZI Fascist families. Or perhaps just young women oblivious to the political connotations. Notice that a girl is holding one of the soldier's rifles. A Dutch reader writes, "I have never seen a photograph like this one. But of course a Dutch girl or woman going with a German soldier was an every-day occurence in occupied Holland."

Chronology

We are unsure just when the photograph was taken. The soldiers don't look all that serious. And the girls seem totaly oblivious to what they are doing. This suggess to us that the photograph was taken fairly early in the occupation, posibly 1941. We are fairly sure it would not have been taken in 1944.

Location

We do not know just where in the Netherlands the photograph was taken.

The Luftwaffe Soldiers

The Luftwaffe soldiers here look quite young, probably about 17-18 years old. They are enlisted personnel, assigned to guard Luftwaffe facilities in the Netherlands. Part of the facility can be seen in the background, but we can not make out just what it is.

Dutch Girls

We wonder about the girls here, Were they from pro-NAZI Fascist families. Or perhaps just young women oblivious to the political connotations. A Dutch reader writes, "I have never seen a photograph like this one. But of course a Dutch girl or woman going with a German soldier was an every-day occurence in occupied Holland." This presumably varied over time. In 1940 and 41 the Germans looked as though they had won the War. The situation looked very different by 1943 when the Wehremacht had suffered serious reverses in the East and Amerivan entry into the War began to shift the strategic balance in the West. Also by that time the conscription of Dutch people for War work in the Reich had made the Germans increasingly unpopular, which must have affected the willingness of Dutch girls to consort with German soldiers.

Luftwaffe Discipline

Notice that a girl is holding one of the soldier's rifles. You do not often see this in World War II photographs of German soldiers. There does not seem to be NCOs about. We do not think that well disciplined troops would have ever handed their weapons to Dutch girls. We have noted reports of the Luftwaffe being the least disciplined of the German services. Code breakers found the Luftwaffe Enigma tranmissions the easiest to break, primarily the operators were the least careful to follow proper operating protocols.

Luftwaffe Role

The Luftwaffe maintained an important presence in both the Netherlands and Belgium as part of Germany's air defenses. The route that the 8th Air Force and Bomber Command took to bomb cities in northern Germany, including Berlin took them directly over the Netherlands. Thus the Luftwaffee had important facilities in the Nerherlands. There were both air bases and radar stations that needed to be guarded.

Created: 8:19 PM 11/2/2006
Last updated: 8:20 PM 11/2/2006