NAZI Kriegsmarine Officer 01 Closeup

1) Combatant Iron Cross 2nd Class 1914
2) Hindenburg Cross for WW1 Combatants
3) NSDAP 15 Years Service Cross for full-time members of a Nazi party uniformed organization
4) NSDAP 10 Years Service CRoss
5) plain blue long service award*
6) Third Reich Civil service Cross for either 25 or 40 years service, awarded 1938-43

Ribbons numbers 3,4, and 6 can only be reconciled by Nazi "double dipping," creditting concurrent service in the Party and State-- the latter very often phony and for "should have been" service in the Weimar Republic which often had never happened due to political dismissals.

Ribbon number 5 must be for an Imperial period Prussian/navy long service award since the possibilities for any other Third Reich award with this ribbon are not possible. POSSIBLY it is a Reserve Landwehr Medal from BEFORE the First World War (they were last awarded by Prussia in June 1914), making the final ribbon for a 40 Years Cross.

If not... if that was an award for a career NCO then it is only modesty (yes, modesty) that kept him wearing ONE ribbon here. Holders of former Imperial military long service awards were authorized to REPLACE them by current Wehrmacht versions when remobilized for WW2. So the holder of a XII years Service MEdal would wear Wehrmacht 12 and 4.


and THAT would have given our elderly junior officer a REALLY "impossible" FIVE long service awards!!!!!!!!!