World Orders, Decorations and Medals

Luftwaffe Silver Goblet of Honour for Outstanding Achievement in the Air War, Alpacca issue made by Joh. Wagner & Sohn, officially inscribed ‘Oberfeldwebel Siegfried Plappert, Am 18. 8. 42’, together with the recipient’s original Wehrpass, dated 13 October 1938, with pass-photo; four original photographs, three of Stukas and one of Plappert in uniform with medals, and a photocopy of his flying log books which record 327 operational sorties in the period August 1941 to March 1945, nearly extremely fine

See illustration

Siegfried Plappert was born in Mühlhausen on 8 September 1914. He began his military career serving in the Infantry from 1934 until October 1937 when he transferred to the Luftwaffe. After training as a pilot with KG-155, KG-158 and Stukaschule 1, he was transferred to an operational unit, Stuka Geschw. 1, with whom he flew in Russia until February 1943. After serving at Rechlin in Germany as a flying instructor, he was transferred, in November 1943, to Schlacht-Geschw. 151. He flew with this unit on operations in Serbia, Croatia and Hungary until October 1944, when the unit returned to Germany to become a non-operational replacement and training unit. Despite this, Plappert made a further 9 operations in February 1945, attacking the Oder bridges near Göritz and Fürstenberg. He was entitled to the following awards: Pilot’s Badge; Long Service Decoration, 4th class; Medal of the 13th March 1938; War Merit Cross, 2nd class with swords; Operational Flying Clasps for bomber crews in Gold, Silver and Bronze; Iron Cross, 2nd class; Iron Cross, 1st class; Goblet of Honour; and German Cross in Gold, awarded on 8 February 1943.

Plappert was a central figure in one of the most bizarre flying episodes of the Second World War whilst he was serving in Russia. On 19 April, 1942, he was taking off from Gorodetz airfield on a test flight in a Stuka Ju-87-1. Two members of the ground crew jumped onto the tail to make the take-off easier for the pilot, quite a normal practise when the runway was muddy and soft. However, neither Plappert nor his passenger, a technician, were aware that the men were there and, pleasantly surprised that the plane reacted so well, very quickly took off. Taken by surprise, one man fell off but the other man clung to the tail-plane as the aircraft took to the air. Once airborne, Plappert found the plane very difficult to fly and, at an altitude of about 500 metres, ordered his passenger to prepare to bale out. As the technician fastened his parachute he suddenly saw the man clinging to the left-hand tail-plane and reported this remarkable sight to Plappert who immediately made as smooth a landing as was possible in the muddy conditions. After landing, the pilot and the technician opened the canopy, still amazed by this remarkable event, but before they could leave the cockpit, their involuntary passenger had climbed onto the wing to harangue them for not having seen him. He was particularly upset with the prospect of having to pay himself for his cap which was lost during the flight! The lot is sold with photocopies from a publication regarding this unusual testflight which is also recorded in Plappert’s log book.