Monday, July 5, 2010

Military Monday - What the heck is this thing and where did it come from?

I found something this weekend - something that doesn't make any sense but a very interesting item indeed.    This item was in my Dad's things, and from what my Mom recollects, he said it was his father's.  Dad was told sometime ago that it was from someone in his family, but who that was, we have no idea.

On one side it appears this way - with the year of 1813 at the bottom...


The flip side looks like this, with another year -1939 at the bottom and (gasp) a swastika (the official emblem of the Nazi Party) in the center.


I've done VERY LITTLE research on this item, but thought it was a great find and wanted to share it today.  From what I've read during the weekend, it's called the Iron Cross and was a German military award during WWII.   There are many different variations of it, I believe this one to be the Iron Cross - 2nd Class, an award for bravery in battle, or other military contribution on the battlefield.

Now for the mystery - my Dad's father did not fight in WWII, so how did he get this item? Who did it belong to and where on earth did they get it? These questions remain to be researched.

Posted by Cindy at 11:22 AM
Labels: ,

5 comments:

  1. Greta Koehl5/7/10

    My husband (the military history guy) says that this is indeed an iron cross second class. He says that they became quite common, so it would have been easy to pick one up - perhaps from someone else who had acquired it on the battlefield. He recommends checking out this site: http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/iron_cross/2nd_1st_class/2nd_class/ironcross_2.htm. It explains the history of it and how it was worn.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A rootdigger6/7/10

    I would go to ebay and do some reasearch. I believe it is a german military metal of some sort. I shall see if any of my guys are wearing them. It could be that it was special because of the ancestor. Now I am not sure why it would have two dates.
    But maybe it is usa????
    How long did war of 1812 last?

    Interesting to me isthe war of 1813 was at the gohrde near oldendorf and nHrendorf into the Tosterglope region as they retreated from the big battle with french in the steiner field. A famous opera was written over the woman who went into battle there.

    ReplyDelete
  3. A rootdigger6/7/10

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  4. A rootdigger6/7/10

    Can you delete the last one, it should have been this from google images
    http://www.google.com/images?q=iron+cross+second+class&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=mlUzTJjhOMjanAfRks21Aw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQsAQwAA

    ReplyDelete
  5. Michelle Goodrum6/7/10

    Very interesting find. I hope you let us know if you figure out where it came from.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)