Germany – Third Reich: A good mounted group of 3 medals comprising: Iron Cross 1939, 2nd Class, without ring stamp; Eastern Front Winter War Medal 1941-1942 not ring stamped; West Wall Medal 1939-1940, 1st type, bronze issue. Mounted continental style for wear.
Germany – Third Reich: A mounted group of 3 medals comprising: Iron Cross 1939, 2nd Class, without ring stamp; Eastern Front Winter War Medal 1941-1942 not ring stamped; West Wall Medal 1939-1940, 1st type, bronze issue. Mounted continental style for wear.
Condition: mounted continental style for wear, one small area of paint loss to the Iron Cross, otherwise, Good Very Fine
Adolf Hitler restored the Iron Cross in 1939 as a German decoration (rather than Prussian), and continued the tradition of issuing it in various classes. Legally, it is based on the enactment (Reichsgesetzblatt I S. 1573) of 1st September 1939 Verordnung uber die Erneuerung des Eisernen Kreuzes. (Regulation for the Re-introduction of the Iron Cross). The Iron Cross of World War II was divided into three man series of decorations with an intermediate category, the Knight’s Cross, instituted between the lowest, the Iron Cross, and the highest, the Grand Cross. The Knight’s Cross replaced the Prussian Pour le Merite or “Blue Max”. Hitler did not care for the Pour le Merite, as it was a Prussian order that could be awarded only to officers. The ribbon of the medal (2nd Class and Knight’s Cross) was different from the earlier Iron Crosses in that colour red was used in addition to the traditional black and white (black and where were the colours of Prussia, while black, white and red were the colours of Germany). It is estimated that some four and a half million 2nd Class Iron Crosses were awarded during World War II, and 300,000 of the 1st Class.
The Eastern Front Medal was awarded to both combatant and non-combatant personnel who saw service on the German Eastern Front during the period 15 November 1941 to 15 April 1942. It was instituted on 26th May 1942 and is more commonly known as the Ostmedaille (East Medal). It was commissioned to recognise the hardship endured by German and Axis personnel, combatant or non-combatant, during the especially bitter Russian winter of 1941 and 1942. It was wryly called the Frozen Meat Medal. It was awarded to combatants for 14 days served in active combat within the specified area between 15th November 1941 and 15th April 1942, or to non-combatants for 60 days served in specified area between the dates given above, and also to all those wounded or killed in action, or to those injured by frostbite which was severe enough to warrant the award of a Wound Badge
The West Wall Medal / German Defence Medal was instituted on 2 August 1939 and was given to those who designed and built the fortifications on Germany's western borders, known as the West Wall or, in English, the Siegfried Line, and to the troops who served there prior to May 1940. In 1944, as Germany was expecting the arrival of the allied invasion, it was again awarded to those who took part in the fortification of the western borders. In all 622,064 medals were awarded by the end of the war. The medal was struck in bronzed brass.
