Posted 13 years ago
Chrisnp
(310 items)
After seeing Dr. Rambow’s Cross of Honor, I thought I’d show the other two types he mentions.
Each of these medals had to be approved after reviewing supporting paperwork, and came with an urkunde, or certificate, signed by a local official. That’s an amazing amount of bureaucracy when you consider the sheer number of medals. In 1938, eligibility was extended to Germans in Austria and the Sudetenland.
Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer (combatants cross) 6,202,883 awarded. Dr. Rambow has shown his, so I’ll just show the ribbon bar to the award, which also has swords. The other ribbon on the bar is the Iron Cross 2nd Class.
Ehrenkreuz für Kriegsteilnehmer (non-combatants cross) 1,120,449 awarded. The wreath is oak leaves, whereas the combatants cross is laurel, and of course missing the swords of the combatant’s cross.
Ehrenkreuz für Hinterbliebene (commonly known as the “Widow’s Cross”) This was for widows and parents of those who died combat related deaths, died as a POW or were MIA – by then assumed dead) 345,132 awarded to widows and 372,950 to parents. In addition to being a blackened version of the non-combatant’s cross, the ribbon colors are reversed.
Thanks for posting these! When I bought mine, I was hoping he had the other two types, but alas! The search continues.
You don't happen to have the EKII to go with the ribbon bar do you? That's my next goal for medals. Hoping to find a nice imperial one, since I like the quality of that era over the TR stuff.
I do have some examples of the WWI EKII and an EKI and will post them. I got rid of my WWII EKII a long time ago.
I moved away from collecting the TR stuff about 30 years ago because there were just too many people collecting it back then, prices were (for the time) ridiculous, and fakes were cropping up everywhere. Plus there was (and is) the Nazi stigma that collectors of that stuff have to deal with. I started focusing on the WWI and SAW stuff when it was still a comparative bargain.
Thanks for the love, ttomtucker and Dr_Rambow.