History

The German Wehrmacht was composed of three main branches, the Heer, the Kriegsmarine, and the Luftwaffe. The Heer and Kriegsmarine uniforms were based upon the designs utilized by their predecessor organizations, the Deutsches Heer and the Kaiserliche Marine. Conversely, the Luftwaffe uniforms were based upon the uniforms worn in the sports and para-military organizations that were the forerunners of the Luftwaffe. The Luftwaffe uniforms were specifically designed to deviate from the designs of the other Wehrmacht service branches. It was also necessary that the uniforms differentiate between military and civilian pilots.

The flags and pennants employed by the Luftwaffe during the Third Reich were used as markers for headquarters, vehicles, units, and divisions.

The design of Luftwaffe flags and pennants was based upon those used in the Army (Heer). Vehicle pennants were generally attached to the fender of Luftwaffe vehicles.

This Luftwaffe command flag was used by Hermann Göring to represent his dual positions of Minister for Air Travel and Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe.

The initial design of this flag was introduced in 1935, but with Göring’s change of title to Generalfeldmarschall in 1938, crossed batons were added to the reverse of the flag design.

In 1940, Göring was elevated to the rank of Reichmarschall and had an entirely new command flag created. The new flag made this flag obsolete.

Thus there are two patterns of this command flag, the 1st pattern was in use from 1935-1938, and the 2nd pattern was in use from 1938-1940.