Early Luftwaffe Air Traffic Controller’s Gorget

Product Description: This early Luftwaffe Air Traffic Controller’s Gorget is a very desirable piece, with an impressive look and outstanding visual appeal. It’s a high quality piece, with multi-piece construction that is entirely non-magnetic. It shows slight, even, honest wear, with small marks throughout, but no dents or deep scratches. The obverse is adorned with a winged swastika emblem, made of a brass alloy. The golden look of the central swastika is highlighted by contrast with the brassier wings, which show a normal age patina. Beneath this is the wording “REICHS-LUFT-AUFSICHT.” On the reverse, this Air Traffic Controller’s Gorget is missing the original blue leather backing, which reveals the prongs that hold the devices in place. The central “tongue” retaining clip on the reverse is intact, and is maker marked for the prestigious firm of C. E. Juncker in Berlin. It’s also nicely unit marked, with a hand-engraved property marking for Fliegerhorstkommandantur Celle, a Luftwaffe air field unit. This gorget is complete with its original chain, which shows correct soldered links towards the ends. This tough-to-find early gorget displays exceptionally well. The condition rates as excellent.

Historical Description: Gorgets were originally part of a knight’s armor during medieval times. Long after suits of armor were abandoned, the gorget continued to be used in many European armies as a form of military insignia. In the Imperial German Army until 1914, gorgets were worn as a special mark of distinction by certain elite units. Following WWI, German paramilitary and police organizations used gorgets for standard bearers, as insignia, and to denote personnel assigned special tasks. Following the Nazi rise to power, there was a vast increase in the number of uniformed organizations, and a variety of new gorgets were instituted for use by these civil, political and paramilitary organizations, as well as by the military. Standard bearers of most organizations, who were entrusted with carrying flags at rallies and in parades, wore gorgets. Other gorgets indicated assignment to guard or security forces. The military police personnel of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS had their own gorgets as a part of their uniforms and were nicknamed “chained dogs” by the troops, due to the chain used to suspend the gorget around the wearer’s neck. Because gorgets were never general issue to all personnel of any organization or military branch, they were manufactured in limited numbers, and are generally scarce to encounter today.

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