Luftwaffe HQ

 More of what I think are WWII era German WHW figures.
 

 This one is like Daedalus from Greek mythology.

Like the others he comes in black and red.

That's why I suspect it may be a game piece rather than an actual WHW item.

Same markings on the bottom.  I use them as monuments at a Luftwaffe headquarters.

German Troops

This figure is one of the German Winter Relief figures.

He is made out of  a hard plastic and is a semi-flat Germans soldier with grenade.

A second item is a mortar crew and mortar.

This third set is a communications group, with field phone.

 

These are all one piece and show troops in action.  They stand up pretty well.  They all seem to be about the same scale.  Not quite enough poses to make a wargame, but interesting historic figures none the less.

Little Soldier Figures

Before and during World War Two the Nazi Party had a charity called "Winter Relief."

They collected money and donated to the poor to help them pay for their winter heating bill.

If you gave a donation, in return you got a small token of some kind.

Sometimes those tokens were plastic figures, even plastic soldiers.

You could show your token as a way to prove you gave at the office and they would not bother you again until the next weekly or monthly fund drive.

I have been told these figures are from such a fund drive.

I got them at a gun show a few years ago.

They look to me like chess pieces.

The figures themselves are rather vague, and generic.

The VW is the only marking on them.

One of my friends said they look like a proposed award for Best Soldier based on the famous "Oscar" statue.  I don't know if these are really from the WWII era, but they make interesting figures.  I use them as statues for impressive government buildings.  The figures are generic enough to be used for almost any 20th Century nation.

Eagles

Another of the game pieces that might be WHW items.

It's a great eagle, it certainly looks like it is from the 1930s, and could be either German or even American in style.

I think it's way cool, myself.

The black one looks like it should be the GI Joe Maltese Falcon.

Same markings as before.

Looks almost like chess pieces.

An officer points towards the enemy as the last of the Volkssturm marches off to defend the crumbling Reich.

Nazi Army Men

Nice ships, they are Winter Relief premiums. In the 1920's in Germany their were few social services. and so political parties often filled that gap. The Nazi Party collected money to give to people to needed money to help pay for heating expenses in the winter. In exchange you would get a small premium as a token of thanks.




















I have included a couple of HaT WWII German soldiers to show the relative size of these premiums. The ships are made of a hard plastic, like styrene, and are two halves glued together. There is a wave down the side of each ship.





















These are the first ever small scale plastic army men. While not exactly to an exact scale, they are just about 1/72nd scale. These figures are also two parts glued together.
























Again, two HaT figures have been used for scale. These old German figures are very close in size to the original Airfix figures, German Infantry and Infantry Combat Group.




















They also did slightly larger figures too. These, like the others are rather flat, but have nice details. The radio set is particularly nice. I am looking for more of these, I have seen a few others, some men on horseback, and some guys in an assault boat. If you have more information about these grandfathers of the hobby, post a comment.