Germany - Third Reich: Spanish Blue Division Russian Front Volunteers Medal, German made version in zinc with bronze wash, unmarked with original paper envelope marked ‘Deschler & Sohn, Munchen 9’ to the reverse.
Condition: the packet in a worn state, and heavily creased, the medal, Nearly Extremely Fine.
The Blue Division (Spanish: División Azul, German: Blaue Division), officially designated as División Española de Voluntarios by the Spanish Army and as 250. Infanterie-Division in the German Army, was a unit of Spanish volunteers and conscripts who served (1941-1944) in the German Army on the Eastern Front during the Second World War. The Blue Division was the only component of the German Army to be awarded a medal of their own, commissioned by Hitler in January 1944 after the Division had demonstrated its effectiveness in impeding the advance of the Red Army. Blue Division casualties throughout the Soviet-German conflict totaled 22,700 (3,934 battle deaths, 570 disease deaths, 326 missing or captured, 8,466 wounded, 7,800 sick, and 1,600 frostbitten). In action against the Blue Division, the Red Army suffered 49,300 casualties.
