Early Luftwaffe Officers Sword with Crescent Hanger by E & F Horster and Unit Markings

Here on offer is a very early unit marked Luftwaffe Officers sword by E & F Horster, complete with its original crescent hanger.

What is special about this example are the various unit markings on the sword and scabbard that allows it to be dated to the early days of the Luftwaffe.

The blade and scabbard are stamped with the number “14”.

I think this refers to one of the early Luftwaffe units “Flieger-Ersatz-Abteilung 14”, that was established on 1st October 1935.

In addition, there are later unit details beautifully engraved onto the rear of the upper scabbard fitting and under one of the crossguard wings.

These reads as:

/Flea.47 I

This refers to the unit, Flieger-Ersatz-Abteilung 47, which was formed in Stade near Hamburg, on the 1st April 1937, from Flieger-Ersatz-Abteilung 14, hence the link between the two units.

Then this unit was redesignated on the 1st November 1938 as Flieger-Ersatz-Abteilung 42, so the Flea 47 markings must have been put on sometime between April 1937 and November 1938.

The Roman 'I' would, I believe refer to the first 'Gruppe' of this training unit.

The commander in 1938 was Oberst Wolf, Freiherr von Bidermann who was promoted to Generalmajor in 1941.


Now the details about this “long” sword:

The pommel is in great condition, with no dings to the rim. The brass Swastika Sunwheels have a lovely burnished finish to them on both sides and the top edge is engraved with the oak leaf pattern. There is some loss of silver plating on the background of the brass pommels.

The grip is made from wood covered with fine quality dark blue Moroccan leather. This shows some surface wear with a several small nips to leather and is complete with tight double wire wrap.

The sweeping ‘wing’ style crossguard has the finely detailed feathering on the wings and the central Swastika Sunwheels have the same age burnished finish to them. Some of the plating looks to have worn off but it has a nice dark patina colour overall.

The nickel-plated blade measures 28.25” (71.8cm) in length and is in excellent near mint condition with just light surface runner marks.

It has a ‘crisp’ E & F Horster makers trademark, and a little Waffanampt stamp on the blade ricasso.

It also still retains its original dark blue leather blade washer.

The metal scabbard is straight and covered with the same high quality dark blue Moroccan leather as the grip. There are some usage bruises and impressions to the leather finish.

The scabbard mounts retain a lot of their silver plating and the four scabbard screws are all in place.

There is a tiny shallow ding to the reverse of the top mount.

The original leather crescent hanger is still attached to both scabbard rings. It’s a little worn with use, but still very sound.

The sword in the scabbard measures a total of 36.75” (93.4cm) long and weighs a heavy 910g.

Please see my pictures for the details of the condition, which complement this description.

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Code: 51032