Throat Medals

[Chelsea 916]

Could the Iron cross first class or even the second class be worn around the throat or was that just the Knights cross of the iron cross that could?

Cheers

Chels

[Salacious Crumb]

Could the Iron cross first class or even the second class be worn around the throat or was that just the Knights cross of the iron cross that could?

Cheers

Chels

Only the Iron Cross 2nd class could, but it wasn't ment to. Mostly the persons who where awarded with a RK wore their EKII round their neck in the field, so the RK couldn't be lost.
Sometimes they simply put a smaller ring in the small loop of the EKII and trough that small loop they put the RK "paperclip" OR let a juweller fix a loop on the original ring of the EKII.
look at this conversion:
http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/iron_cr ... nv_ek2.htm

- Iron Cross 2nd class (EKII) the lowest class in the decoration; 3 piece cross (double faced) with a ring and a ribbon. the ribbon was ment to be sewn on the fieldjacket

- Spange for the EKII: a metal eagle+1939 that could be worn on the black and white ribbon of the WWI EKII and was awarded when a person won a WWI EKII and did it again in WWII.

- Iron Cross 1st class (EKI) the 2nd lowest class in the decoration was a 3 piece cross (one face) with a pin on the rewerse and was ment to be fixed on the left top pocket (side of the hart) of the jacket.

- Spange for the EKI: a metal eagle+1939 that could be worn above the WW1 EKI, but some medalmakers soldered the eagle on the EKI

- Knights Cross of the Iron Cross (RK): The neck piece of the decoration mostly with silver rimms and a paperclip like hinge.

- Kinghts Cross of the Iron Cross with Oakleafs

- Kinghts Cross of the Iron Cross with Oakleafs and Swords

- Kinghts Cross of the Iron Cross with Oakleafs, Swords and diamonds

- Kinghts Cross of the Iron Cross with Golden Oakleafs, Swords and diamonds

- Grand Cross of the Iron Cross

- Breststar of the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross (the prototype exists, altough never awarded)

[Chelsea 916]

Thanks for the great info

Chels

[352nd]

Knight's Cross of the Grand Cross was only issued once to Hermann Goring and the Knight's Cross with golden oakleaves was only issued once to Hans-Ulrich Rudel, a Luftwaffe fighter ace.

[Chelsea 916]

When was this award given to goering and what for? Or did he just award it to himself ?

[pzrwest]

It was awarded to RM Göring on July 19 1940 for his leadership in the Western Campaigns(For Führer and Fatherland Military Awards of the Third Reich by JR Angolia)

[Peiper]

Greetings kameraden, just been reading your intresting post, adding to the thread of Goring's Grand Cross, his original award was lost when his house had been bombed and he had an elaborate copy made. It was made with an onyx centre and platinum frame. Whilst no Star to the Grand Cross was ever issued in ww2, prototypes apparantly had been produced, manufactured by Rath the Munich jewellers. It took the form of an eight point solid silver star with an Iron Cross 1st class affixed to the centre, this apparantly was the highest form of Iron Cross decoration. Certain varations of this award were awarded in WW1 to Generalfeld marschall Mackensen and Generalfeldmarschall Prinz Leopold of Bavaria. (the award was the same as the WW2 varation except that it bore the WW1 version of the Iron Cross in the centre. I hope this insight has been helpfull, regards Peiper.