[Below: 'Festzeitung der Dienststelle
der Feldpostnummer L 51523 A'
(Commemorative Newspaper of the Office
Field Post Number L 51523 A)
Since 'L' is before the Feldpost number we know it is Luftwaffe.
This Feldpost number is from:
Luftnachrichten
Ausb.Regiment 302
I. Abteilung
51523
Luftnachrichten is a German term that refers to a department that evaluates the contents of coded and encrypted messages.]
This appears to be a humor newsletter. At the bottom it says:
'Verantwortliche Redaktion ist nicht verhanden
Verlegt in einer alten Negerkaserne in Chaumont
Preis viel, sehr viel Gemütlichkeit'
(Responsible editorial team is not available
Laid in an old Negro barracks in Chaumont
Price a lot, a lot of cosiness)
HAHA!
[Below: Close-up.]
[Below: Page two. It says:
'Luna - Verordnung
Est ist verboten
§1 Weniger zu trinken, als man vertraegt.'
(Moon Regulation
It is forbidden
§1 To drink less than you can tolerate.)
HA! I am going to have to get someone to translate more of this. And they say Germans don't have a sense of humor.
***UPDATE: Here is the translation!
'This is a humorous newsletter for a group of recruits and their instructors. The recruits celebrated the
end of the three-month basic military training.
The humorous newsletter contains three parts:
"Luna-Verordnung" is difficult to understand. After reading the newsletter my point of view is this:
In "Luna-Verordnung" there are five things that are "verboten".
Highly difficult to understand is:
I suggest this translation of "Luna-Verordnung":
Some other examples of the humor in the newsletter:
A huge thanks to our friend M. for making some sense of this newsletter. You're the best, comrade!]
[Below: Page three and four.]
[Below: Page five and six.]
[Below: Page seven and eight.]
[Below: Also worth mentioning, I researched 'Luna Park' and found it to be synonomous with 'amusement park'. There were MANY parks named 'Luna Park' spread all around the world, some still in operation today. Kind of like how we Americans call tissues 'Kleenex' or various colas 'Coke'. Below is the entrance to one such Luna Park, in Sydney, Australia.]
[Below: A 'Luna Park' in Berlin, 1935.]
[Below: A 'Luna Park' in Paris, France, 1923.]
[Below: The one that started it all. The entrance of Luna Park on Coney Island in 1924. It opened in 1903.]
*It's is also interesting to note that the place that these men trained at was located two miles southwest of the city of Chaumont, beginning in the mid-1930s, a grass airstrip was used by the French Air Force for training. After France's defeat in WWII, the German Luftwaffe used the facility as a training station. I hope fortune smiled on our boys and they survived the war, which so many Germans did not.
[Below: This is an NSDAP leaflet from 1942, it says:
'Kriegsmeihnacht 1942
Zur Erinnerung an die Lazarettzeit im Gau Franken mit den besten Weihnachts-u. Neujahrswünschen gewidmet! Heil dem Führer!'
(Wartime Christmas 1942
Dedicated to the memory of the hospital in the Franconian Gau with the best Christmas and New Years's wishes! Heil to the Führer!)
This also shows the rune of life, the Elhaz and has a Wound Badge. Front/reverse.]
[Below: This is a return postcard for the newspaper Der Sturm (The Storm). Click image to enlarge and see an English translation. Front/reverse.]
[Below: Inside.]
[Below: This is from the from the Strasburg District Court and was sent to 'Den Arbeiter' (The Worker), August 22, 1939.]
[Below: Close-up of ink stamp.]
[Below: Back of letter showing government seal.]
[Below: Close-up of seal.]
[Below: The envelope folds out into a letter. It is about guardianship, signed by the 'Justizangestellter' (Judicial Officer).]
[Below: This is on flimsy carbon paper. It is advice for a living room competition. It's pretty funny that it advises you to not put up five pictures of the Führer, one will do! Hehe...]
[Below: Reverse.]
[Below: This is interesting, on the top it says:
'Zum Nachweis der arischen Abstammung'
(To prove Aryan ancestry).
It is from the Archdiocese of Salzburg. It is certifying that Alois Koler was married on February 10, 1925 to Franziska Geierhofer.]
[Below: Reverse. This document is dated January 25, 1939, with the seal of Braunau am Inn (where Adolf Hitler was born).]
[Below: Government ink stamp.]
[Below: This Winterhilfswerk (WHW) collectible little tag says:
'Wehrkreis im Dienste des WHW'
[Below: Reverse of tag says:
'Tag der Wehrmacht für das WHW'
[Below: This is very odd and interesting. There is no date on it and I couldn't find a single reference on the internet. Unlike most swastikas it is tilted like the National Socialist one. It says:
'Compo Ruber - Bedachung - Isolierung'
[Below: Page two.]
[Below: Page three.]
[Below: Page four.]
[Below: Page five.]
[Below: Page six.]
[Below: Page seven.]
[Below: Page eight.]
[Below: This is neat, I've never seen a Third Reich business card before. This is larger than a modern business card, probably by about 30%. On the back it lists a multitude of different jobs a person can get training in, and this guy will basically help you land one. Front.]
[Below: Reverse.]
[Below: This is a Hitler Youth shooting target. Neat huh? The reverse is blank.]
[Below: The coolest battery ever made! This was made by a company called 'Daimon', whom also made a military flashlight, which this battery fits.]
[Below: Reverse. This says 'property of the Wehrmacht'.]
[Below: This says: 'Building block to the NSDAP House - Non-profit Housing Procurment Association'.]
[Below: Reverse.]
[Below: Here is a British leaflet dropped on civilians. It uses words from 'Bomber' Harris, a true psychopath, who expresssed after the war that he had no problem burning children alive. First is the German version, then the English translated one.]
[Below: Leaflet reverse.]
[Below: Leaflet reverse - German.]
[Below: English.]
[Below: This is a leaflet is from 1919 and refers to Johannes Hoffmann (July 3, 1867 – December 15, 1930), who served as a Minister in the Bavarian Soviet Republic and subsequently in the People's State of Bavaria administration, 1919–20. After being kicked out of Munich he returned with Reichswehr troops and paramilitary Freikorps units in May 1919 and retook the city. The reverse is blank.]
[Below: English translated.]
[Below: Johannes Hoffmann.]
[Below: This is so cool! This is from when Hans-Ulrich Rudel ran for office in Germany. In the West German federal election of 1953, Rudel was the top candidate for the 'German Reich Party', yet predictably was not elected. In case you don't already know, Rudel is the greatest ground-attack pilot in the history of earth. Truly staggering victories. This shows the front and reverse.]
Ausb.Regiment means Ausbildungs.Regiment (training regiment).
These German recruits of the Luftwaffe were stationed in Chaumont (France). Because they were
recruits they had the lowest rank "Funker". Some of them came from Augsburg (Germany).
Luna-Verordnung
Wettervorhersage
Ausbilder ABC
"Luna-Verordnung" seems to be a kind of inside joke. I assume they named their exercise area
"Luna-Park" (where they had to do things like crawling through the dirt) after a pleasure ground
with the name "Luna-Park". I came to this conclusion because "Luna-Park" is mentioned in the
text.
Therefore I suggest this translation of the three parts of the newsletter:
Luna-Verordnung = Luna Regulation
Wettervorhersage = Weather Forecast
Ausbilder ABC = Instructor ABC
"§5 Wer gegen diese Luna-Verordnung verstoesst wird zu einem Liter Zuchthaus bestraft."
Zuchthaus means jail. In the newsletter we can read when a recruit did something wrong a penalty
was to be arrested. I assume "ein Liter Zuchthaus" [one liter of prison, literally] is a joke and means "a liter of beer". Therefore I suggest to not translate the sentence word by word.
I can fully understand that it's difficult for you to translate parts of this newsletter. By the way, the
newsletter is full of typos and there are some words in dialect.
Luna-Regulation
It is forbidden
§1 To drink less than you can tolerate.
§2 To spoil the mood, this should be constantly increased.
§3 To obey noncommissioned officers, today the former recruits have the word.
§4 To argue, quarrel and command, because today we are going from the bitter world to the realm
of cheerfulness.
§5 Anyone who violates this regulation will be punished to drink a liter of beer.
1. From the beginning of the part "weather forecast":
The initially frosty mood will soon give way to general cheerfulness.
2. An example for a penalty:
When you go outside to pee at night and you are only in your underwear or nightwear as a penalty
you have to keep watch at night.
3. Some jokes about an instructor:
Corporal Leader Beer
has a hard time with his men.
One recruit demolished his boots
and a particularly big fool
broke his beautiful rifle,
as if it was made of cardboard.
4. The newsletter ends with:
We all just want to laugh
and not to be angry.'
(Military District in the Service of the WHW).]
(Day of the Armed Forces for the WHW).]
(Compo Ruber - Roofing - Insulation).]
