Flight Jacket Hartmann

This is a well loved jacket of the WWII Luftwaffe pilots, and most known to be worn by the highly regarded Luftwaffe pilot Eric Hartmann.

Eric Hartmann, known as the "Blonde Knight of Germany", was accredited with 352 aerial victories during his service with the Luftwaffe in WWII (which made him the highest scoring ace of all time). Hartmann received many awards and decorations, and was eventually bestowed with the highest decoration for combat in the German armed forces, "The Knights Cross", with oak leaves, swords, and diamonds.

In most archive images of Eric Hartmann, he can be seen wearing this leather jacket. These jackets were purchased comercially by many Luftwaffe pilots (they were not military issued, and often referred to as cyclist jackets). What made them so popular with the pilots? The jackets were lightweight, close-cut, and could be comfortably worn in the tighter confines of the closed cockpits in fighter planes such as the Me109 and FW190. Since this jacket style was so suitable for many of the pilots purposes, it soon became adopted by a wide range of military personell such as day fighters, dog fight flyers, night flyers, observers, and stuka pilots.

In the 1930's and early 1940's, the jacket was produced in black and brown. It is hard to tell which color was preferred since the archive pictures are in black and white. To put a unique touch on this great jacket, our reproduction of the "Hartmann" jacket is in a russet color. Yet, the jacket is as accurate to the original as is feasible to be, including the one detail that stands out- the special shaped buckle which closes at the bottom front. In short, this is as close to the original jacket of Eric Hartmann as one can get.

Details:

- hand picket anelin steer hide
- russet color
- plaid wool inner lining
- 4 outside pockets… two zippered breast pockets and two flapped lower waist pockets
- 2 inside pockets, of which one can be closed by a zipper
- original "Ritsch" zippers
- true detailed reproduction of the front buckle
- sizes: S - 6XL (other sizes on request)