EK 1939 Schütze with two award documents for his Iron Cross 2nd class

[dedehansen]

Hello Gents,

today I would like to Show you the doc´s from Schütze Hans Nehls from

from 5./ IR 6.

First his document for the Verwundetenabzeichen in Silber for one wound.

[dedehansen]

His first award doc for his IC 2 signed by the General der Artillerie and Befehlshaber im Wehrkreis I Peter Weyer

[dedehansen]

And his second Award doc for his IC 2.

Why he got two I don´t know. Maybe someone

is able to explain it to me ?!

Every help appreciated

Kind regards

Andreas

[Chris Boonzaier]

Hi,

I dont remember the exact date, but there was an order that came down saying that seriously wounded men who qualified for the silver wound badge automatically qualified for the EK2. (There were some exceptions, but usually these did not come into play).

The award could be made without a citation from the mans unit.

Usually the way it happened was a man lost an arm, or leg, was sent back to Germany, was in a large hospital and an EK was awarded by the Stellvertretende commanding General of the Wehrkreis in which the hospital was.

I think it probable that he lost a limb in August, recieved an EK2 in Hospital in Königsberg in October, and Hamburg overlooked this and gave him another one in Hospital in December.... I imagine the transfers from place to place allowed for one dienststelle not to know what the other one had done.

I have a couple of WW1 groups where the guy was transfered and awarded the EK2 twice...

Best

Chris

[dedehansen]

Thanks Chris,

that was a thing I didnn´t know.

Kind regards

Andreas

[Brian R]

Yep, Chris is absolutely right. This is a schwerverwundete based on regulations stating that the recipient of a Silver or Gold Wound Badge for one wound was automatically eligible for an EK2 (provided he didn't already have one). The two awards of the EK2 in this case are very likely a clerical issue. The second one came from Wehrkreis X, the home area for 30. Infanterie-Division. So, it makes sense that the EK2 would have ultimately come from there and its actually a bit surprising that Wehrkreis I even processed one. I have seen these heavy wound EKs take a long time to be processed (many months, even years), so an award in October after a wound in August is pretty fast. Your guy suffered heavily while pushing into the Soviet Union with Army Group North.