Wouldn't most of the German officers have to wear the red armband w/the swastika symbol? I noticed a few in the Hitler Youth boy as well as the plane, but everywhere else it's pretty absent. Could this have been done deliberately by the film's producers so as to not offend the sensitivities of survivors watching the film? No doubt there were be a lot more of them at the time The Great Escape was released in theaters, so maybe.
shareNeither the Wehrmacht nor the Waffen SS wore swastika armbands with their normal uniforms. The SS did with the black parade uniform but not with the grey combat uniform. SS armbands were usually only worn by Nazi Party officials or organisations. The Hitler Youth had its own distinctive armband.
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I always found it odd that the Luftwaffe carried Swastikas on their planes as well as the Balkenkreuz and yet even Waffen SS tanks only had the Balkenkreuz and no Swastikas anywhere.
shareGerman vehicles did use the swastika flag as an aerial recognition aid though and there are plenty of photos showing the national flag tied to the tops of hulls, turrets and bonnets of trucks etc.
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Yeah I know that Hotrodder, but I was meaning Waffen SS tanks with painted on as standard paint jobs Swastikas a la Luftwaffe planes. They have the same Balkenkreuz in the same places as army tanks.
I never understood why Luftwaffe planes had the Swastika when the Waffen SS tanks didn't. I know the Swastika was part of the Luftwaffe emblem, but it just seems odd to me hehe.
Perhaps Goering thought that the gammadion cross would be lucky on the aircraft.
shareThe fin flash swastika was a subdued version of the pre-war full colour flag fin flash that was on all German military and civilian aircraft pre war. vehicles likely just retained their late WWI and post war Balkankreuz markings. The Waffen SS would be getting their vehicles from the same factories as the Heer. there would be little incentive for them to change the national markings instead of just adding their own licence plates and formation markings which tended to be Nazi enough. Changing national markings might also have legal implications.
shareJust a thought, but the movie was filmed in West Germany, and the swastika was banned (still is, if I'm not mistaken). Maybe the producers just couldn't get permission? Because I would think that Von Luger would have one in his office, whether or not he agreed with the philosophy.
shareSwastika armbands were not part of Army, Navy, Police, or Air Force uniform. Even the SS only wore them in full ceremonial dress black uniforms, which they rarely wore.
shareMembers of the armed forces, even Waffen-SS, did not routinely wear swastika armbands (not even Hitler did during wartime, when he changed from brown Nazi dress to a grey uniform which was meant to be semi-military).
I thought that German town was rather unrealistically free of swastika flags, but it was and is a banned symbol in Germany and probably they could not get permission to display them.
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Most of the German soldiers had Swastikas on their uniforms in the movie. I don't think there was a lack of them at all.
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I blame autocorrect.
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