Germany - Third Reich: A Moscow winter counter-offensive Iron Cross 2nd Class and subsequent Black Wound Badge award certificate grouping to Unteroffizier Wilhelm Moritz, 8th Company, 59th Rifle Regiment, 20th Panzer Division, who was likely subsequently discharged due to his wounds. A scarce small document group comprising 3 award certificates which includes an unusual and scarce variation of a wound badge certificate with the words ‘Res Kriegslazarett Zakopane’ printed above the signature block at the bottom of the certificate.
Award certificates:
The Iron Cross 2nd Class awarded by Divisional HQ on 24th December 1941 as an Obergefreiter, 8/59th Rifle Regiment. Signed by Von Thoma as Generalmajor and General Officer Commanding 20th Panzer Division.
Ritter von Thoma was awarded the Knights Cross on 31.12.1941 as Generalmajor and General Officer Commanding 20th Panzer Division
The Black Wound Badge for a wound received on 19th January 1942, awarded at the Reserve Hospital at Zakopane on 30th March 1942, as an Obergefreiter 8/59thRifle Regiment. Signed by Volker as Oberstabsarzt and Chief Doctor of the Reserve Hospital Zakopane, Poland
The Ostmedaille awarded on 24thJuly 1942 as an Unteroffizier. Signed for correctness by the Major and Officer in Charge of the 2ndArmy Discharge Centre of Wehrkreis XI.
Serving on the Eastern Front, Moritz was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class on 24th December 1941 most likely for an act of gallantry in the early stages of the Russian winter counteroffensives in the Moscow area that had begun on 5th December. Pushed backed to the area around Gshatsk, Moritz was wounded on 19th January 1942 and was sent back to Zakopane, a spa town in Southern Poland with a Reserve Hospital, where he received the Black Wound Badge on 30th March 1942 during his recovery.
It is possible Moritz was discharged due to his wounds, as his Ostmedaille Certificate that was issued several months later, was done so by the Army Discharge Centre of Wehrkreis XI.
Nothing further is known of Moritz’s wartime service, the 20th Panzer Division however went on to see service at Orel to the north of Operation Citadel, in the fighting around Bobruisk during Operation Bagration in the summer of 1944, in Romania in the late summer/early of autumn of 1944, before it moved north again, being involved in the defence of East Prussia, Hungary, and then in Czechoslovakia and South Eastern Germany at the end of the war, being involved in the counterattack at Bautzen in late April 1945, the last successful German attack of the war, before its troops surrendered to the Americans in early May 1945
