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Historically significant Major's Fliegerbluse as worn by Luftwaffe night-fighter ace and Brilliantenträger Oberst Helmut Lent.
The Major's rank Fliegerbluse is now available separately for USD $12,000. Originally two Fliegerblusen were offered and below is the original description of both garments.
Historically significant uniform grouping of two Fliegerblusen as worn by Luftwaffe night-fighter ace and Brilliantenträger Oberst Helmut Lent
BACKGROUND - Helmut Lent (13 June 1918 – 7 October 1944) was a German night-fighter ace in World War II and shot down 110 aircraft, 102 of them at night. Lent claimed his first nocturnal victory on 12 May 1941 and on 30 August 1941 was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for 22 victories. His steady accumulation of aerial victories resulted in regular promotions and awards. On the night of 15 June 1944, Major Lent was the first night fighter pilot to claim 100 nocturnal aerial victories, a feat which earned him the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds (15th recipient) on 31 July 1944. Lent and his Ju-88 crew died as the result of a non-combat air crash landing in October 1944 and received a state funeral in Berlin. Lent was promoted to Oberst posthumously. Please paste the URL at the bottom of this summary for additional information.
The offered Fliegerblusen were originally in the collection of the Deutsche Luftwaffenmuseum. The Museum, which was initially based in Uetersen, had a vast collection of NS-period Luftwaffe insignia, uniforms, decorations etc. In 1995 the museum was relocated to Gatow in Berlin and at that time, refocused its attention on the postwar development of the German Air Force, including the East German Air Force after reunification. It appears that a decision was made to dispose of much of the Third Reich period material, perhaps for political reasons. Many pieces, including a vast number of collar tabs, shoulder straps and other material appeared on the market.
In 2009, three garments formerly worn by Lent, one four pocket service blouse and two Fliegerblusen, were acquired by a well known German collector/dealer. He took the precaution of approaching the museum to ascertain that these were indeed pieces worn by Lent and were formerly in the Museum collection. This was confirmed, with the information that they had been donated directly from the Lent family. The original letter from the Luftwaffenmuseum der Bundeswehr confirming that the uniforms were obtained from the Lent family in the 1960s will be included.
The two Fliegerblusen are now for offered for sale via VirtualGrenadier. Both blouses are privately made, earlier war quality garments exhibiting overall patina from wear as well as wartime repair and alteration with the purpose of prolonging their service use.
FLIEGERBLUSE WITH THE RANK OF MAJOR - has the woven tailor’s label of Ernst Litte of Torgau, it is made of soft, finely ribbed blue grey colored trikot wool and is lined in grey colored rayon, it has a single internal breast pocket with somewhat faded nametag dated 19.3.41 and 2142 (customer order number), there is the provision for suspension of a dagger or sword through the slash pocket, sleeve linings are of black and grey striped rayon and what may be museum inventory numbers are inked to the sleeve lining at the right shoulder area, blouse has open collar, four large horn button front closure and slashed hip pockets without pocket flaps, the shoulder boards are sewn in and anchored with full size pebbled aluminum buttons, the collar patches are hand stitched with blue grey colored cotton thread but some of the attachment threads have popped and they are loose in areas, the lower collar edge is piped in thick twisted aluminum cord attached with light grey cotton thread, the hand embroidered in aluminum wires over paper Unterlagen national emblem is hand stitched to the breast, it is missing some of the wing thread highlights, there are loops for a single badge to each left and right breast, the faint outline of a formerly applied Narvik shield is discernible to the left upper arm, blouse shows fading to the exposed areas and overall broad soiling/sweat staining, two sections of the lower internal lining hem have been repaired with rectangular shaped ribbed cotton patches, the rear collar edge at the neckline has darned by machine sewing, a similar darned area is found at the left rear elbow, certain of the lining seams have been restitched by hand
FLIEGERBLUSE WITH THE RANK OF OBERSTLEUTNANT - constructed of somewhat heavier quality trikot wool and having slightly padded shoulders, it is lined in ribbed black rayon with striped sleeve linings, it has a single internal breast pocket, it has an open collar, four tan colored plastic button front closure and slashed hip pockets, due to wear and perhaps reflecting the thrift of its former owner, the entire collar and lapel section was professionally period replaced with new components of closely matching blue grey colored ribbed trikot, a section of the lower inner skirt was replaced using the same fabric, this most likely at the same time that the collar was replaced, rectangular sections of the lower rear sleeves were also repaired, but perhaps at a different time as the the replacement fabric is slightly different, this too was accomplished with machine sewing and the lower cuff edges were reworked at the same time, insignia includes sewn in shoulder boards that are held with smaller silver pebbled buttons, the collar patches are machine straight stitched, the collar's lower edge is piped in thinner twisted aluminum cording, the outline of the national emblem is clearly visible but it has been removed, the Narvik shield was also removed from this blouse but its outline is plainly visible and clear sign of the shield's outline may be observed to the corresponding sleeve lining, the cloth pilot’s badge is embroidered in aluminum and silver wires and is originally hand sewn below the EKI award loops, at one time a screw back EKI was worn as there is a small hole for the post and the outline from the back plate is visible inside the internal breast pocket, in addition, there are also loops for a short ribbon bar and loops for the German Cross in Gold are located at the right lower breast, it would seem this blouse was favored by Lent and, in fact, it appears to be the very same garment worn by him in 1942, perhaps before alteration, as shown in the photograph on page 143 of The Lent Papers by Peter Hinchliffe, as with the other blouse, there is fading to exposed areas and sections of the lining seams have been resewn by hand, there is a darned repair using closely matching fabric to the upper right front shoulder area and a couple of small stains and picks, the lower sleeves ends show wear and age that occurred subsequent to their repair - this example now SOLD
Rare opportunity to own a service worn garment by one of history's most famous and highly-regarded pilots
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmut_Lent
