James Clark

I think this is a female member of the Reichsarbeitsdienst. The RAD was organised on a regional/local basis so I would have thought it is reasonable to suppose that this lady belonged to a N?rnberg branch of the RAD. I don't think there's anything to indicate that she was an auxilliary to any particular military organisation.

Good point. I didn't show you this late-war photo. Here, he's wearing the Olympic medal in last place. That's the way he wore it in the end, so that's why I had them mounted in this order.

That's interesting. This precedence would be correct for a Volkspflege award, which by the time this photograph was taken had replaced the DRK awards.

I have two award cases for the Polizei Dienstauszeichnung for 25 years service. One has grey velvet in the base, which seems to be normal for the 1st and 2nd class awards. The other has a purple coloured base (the lid liner is white sating), which matches the normal 3rd class award box. Both are the wider (10.5 x 6cm) variety of hard case for this award. Has anyone else come across a 1st class case with purple base liner?

The DRK award should come after the Olympia-Erinnerungsmedaille (as it does on the ribbon bar in the photos), but aside from that the quality of this reconstruction pretty much puts me off paying a premium for medal bars - I can't see how this can be distinguished from a wartime mount.

Women received the Hk without swords?

Yes - all the pictures I've seen have been without swords. Never seen one with swords.

I would be interested to hear of any additions to the above list. In particular, I would like to know the following:

Did women also receive the Medaille des Deutschen Roten Kreuzes 1937-39 or only the Frauenkreuz?

Were there are any known female recipients of the Rettungsmedaille am Bande (as opposed to the non-portable Erinnerungsmedaille f?r Rettung aus Gefahr) or the Kriegsverdienstkreuz 1st Class ohne Schwerter?

Did any women receive any further classes of the Verdienst-Auszeichnung f?r Angeh?rige der Ostv?lker (in addition to the 2nd Class in Bronze award noted above), or any grade of the Tapferkeits-Auszeichnung f?r Angeh?rige der Ostv?lker?

Finally, I believe that Spanish nurses served with the Division Azul ? is there any evidence that they received the Erinnerungsmedaille f?r die Spanishen Freiwilligen im Kampf gegen den Bolschewismus?

Building on another thread in this section, this is a list of the Third Reich awards for which I have seen documentary evidence (photographs or award documents) of awards to women. In the case of photographs, I?m talking about pictures of women in their own uniforms, not dressed up in the boyfriends? kit. The list does not include Party awards lower than national level.

Blutorden

Ehrenkreuz des Weltkriegs 1914/1918 f?r Kriegsteilnehmer

Ehrenkreuz des Weltkriegs 1914/1918 f?r Hinterbliebene

Deutsches Olympia-Ehrenzeichen

Deutsche Olympia-Erinnerungsmedaille

Ehrenzeichen des Deutschen Roten Kreuzes 1937-39 (Frauenkreuz) (also to non-German women)

Erinnerungsmedaille f?r Rettung aus Gefahr (non-portable)

Treudienst-Ehrenzeichen 2. Stufe

Treudiest-Ehrenzeichen 1. Stufe (references to award documents for women noted but not yet seen)

Treudiest-Ehrenzeichen Sonderstufe

Dienstauszeichnung f?r den Reichsarbeitsdienst f?r Frauen 3. Klasse (references to award documents for 1st and 2nd class noted but not yet seen)

Dienstauszeichnung f?r den Reichsarbeitsdienst f?r Frauen 4. Klasse

Luftschutz-Ehrenzeichen 2. Stufe

Ehrenkreuz der Deutschen Mutter

Dienstauszeichnung der NSDAP 1. Klasse (references to award documents noted but not yet seen)

Dienstauszeichnung der NSDAP 2. Klasse (references to award documents noted but not yet seen)

Dienstauszeichnung der NSDAP 3. Klasse

Ehrenkreuz f?r Hinterbliebene deutscher Spanienk?mpfer

Ehrenzeichen f?r deutsche Volkspflege Sonderstufe (also to non-German women)

Ehrenzeichen f?r deutsche Volkspflege 2. Stufe

Ehrenzeichen f?r deutsche Volkspflege 3. Stufe

Medaille f?r Deutsche Volkspflege (also to non-German women)

Deutsches Schutzwall-Ehrenzeichen

Eisernes Kreuz 1. Klasse

Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse (also to non-German women)

Kriegsverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse mit Schwertern

Kriegsverdienstkreuz 2. Klasse mit Schwertern (also to non-German women)

Kriegsverdienstkreuz 2. Klasse ohne Schwerter

Kriegsverdiensmedaille

Errinerungsmedaille f?r den italienisch- deutschen Feldzug in Afrika

Medaille Winterschlacht im Osten 1941/42 (Ostmedaille)

?rmelband Afrika

Verwundetenabzeichen in Silber

Verwundetenabzeichen in Schwarz

Goldenes Parteiabzeichen

Reichssiegerabzeichen im Reichsberufswettkampf

Gausiegerabzeichen im Reichsberufswettkampf

Kreissiegerabzeichen im Reichsberufswettkampf

DRA Sportabzeichen

DRL Sportabzeichen

Non-Germans only:

Verdienst Orden vom Deutschen Adler (various grades up to and including the 1st Class neck-decoration)

Verdienst-Auszeichnung f?r Angeh?rige der Ostv?lker, 2nd Class in Bronze

That is a great one, Henry. Anyone know her specific deeds? I would love to hear some acts performed by EK2 winning women!

In his book Auszeichnungen des Deutschen Reiches , Dr. Klietmann describes DRK-Schwester Magda Droste as the third female recipient of the EKII and states that she was wounded during a British air raid on Wilhelmshaven while tending to the wounded in a naval hospital.

Klietmann lists a number of further female recipients. With the exception of Flugkapit?nin Hanna Reitsch, Flugkapit?nin Gr?fin Schenk von Stauffenberg (both decorated for their achievements as test pilots) and the Nowegian nurse Anne Gunhild Moxness (all mentioned in the course of this thread), all the confirmed female recipients he accounts for were members of the DRK. Of these, all were DRK-Schwester apart from one who was a DRK-Hauptf?hrerin.

Details are not given for all recipients, but the descriptions, which seem to be from wartime sources, account for at least 27 confirmed female recipients of the EKII. In the limited number of cases where accounts are given of actions resulting in the award, they relate to tending the wounded while under enemy fire (including engagements with infantry and tanks, air attacks and artillery bombardment). Actions are noted in Germany, North Africa, Norway and Russia between 1941 and 1944.

Klietmann also details a number of unconfirmed awards in Germany during 1945 including a further eight Red Cross personnel; a messengers/runner who stirred the men into action during the heat of battle by passing an order to the front line under fire after three previous messengers had been killed; a Stabshelferin who carried weapons and ammunition during front line actions and helped search suspicious locations; two Wehrmachthelferinnen who enabled their commander to communicate with his troops by continuing to run the telephone switchboard until ordered to evacuate; three F?hrerinnen der RADwJ; and a Belgian nurse (the only other non-German mentioned) who continued to tend the wounded in the front line after her three sons had been killed.

Klietmann describes Hanna Reitsch as the only female recipient of the EKI. There is a single newspaper report from January 1945 that refers to an EK1 award to a DRK-Schwester on "Westfront" but there appears to be no further information to confirm this.

Ah - so clear now that you've told me what it is! I don't think his pen was working properly.

I really wanted the number to be a Feldpost Nr. but even allowing for everything else I can't see that the first letter is an F...

Can anyone help with the number written on the back of a German WW2 airforce photograph? I think it's Tp. but I've never come across that before. Does anyone know what it means? Also, can anyone tell me what the second name is?

Thanks!

Interesting picture - thanks Alexander

Gebietstreffen der Fr?nkischen Hitlerjugend 1939

Marked: Richard Sieper und S?hne, L?denscheid RZM M9/25

White plastic. Pin assembly melted on.

Marine Bundestreffen L?beck 1934

Unmarked. Pressed metal, pin removed or broken off. Holes drilled for sewing onto cloth.

Altmark 16. u. 17.10.1937

Unmarked. Relic condition, pressed tin, pin removed or broken off, partially repainted.

Neither is the case....

Mine is not quite mint....

This is a match for my unmarked non-ferrous centred EK1, identified as being W&L. The catch on mine is soldered on in such a way that I can see how it might easily break off.

When he landed at Kitzingen he had stolen his Log Book with everyone of his 2530 operational flights listed, the Urkunde for the Diamond Pilots badge, The high level Hungarian award and some other items he does not list.

Taken from "Stuka Pilot" pg 233

The "high level Hungarian award" was the Hungarian Officer's Gold Medal for Bravery (A Magyar Tiszti Arany Vit?zs?gi ?rem). Rudel was one of only three German recipients. (source: "Vit?zs?gert" by P?ter Ill?sfalvi, Vilmos Kov?cs and Roland Marusz, Budapest, 2001)

Detail showing Korn?l wearing the award, above the Iron Cross 2nd Class at his buttonhole.

This article, reproduced for a display in the Hungarian Military Historical Museum in Budapest, is entitled ?New Knight of the Order of Maria Theresa?. It relates to vit?z Oszl?nyi Korn?l being made a Knight (lovag) of the Order of Maria Theresa on 24 January 1944. The date is from another source ? it is not mentioned in the text, which seems mainly to be about his service record. The two smaller blocks of text simply seem to describe what is in the pictures.

I think the top picture relates to Field Marshal Archduke vit?z J?zsef being made a Grand Master (nagymester) of the Order of Maria Theresa.

The article is attributed to the Royal Hungarian Army war correspondence section.

I thought this might be of interest

Yes you are quite right. If you read his biography, I think called "Stuka Pilot" he says (From Memory) That as he landed to surrender, an american GI grabbed hold of his RK as he sat in his plane and removed iT, he subsequently complained to the station commander about the theft and it was actually retrieved and returned to him. several other decorations, hungarian etc were however not recovered. Paul Raymond did own some of his decs, but I believe that they were the erkunde documents, rarther than the actual pieces, I could however be wrong on this point as I am once again, working from memory.

Alex

I remember the story and it was about documents rather than awards. One of the award documents was auctioned to Paul Raymond who already had some of Rudel's other documents. Rudel's widow went to court to try to stop the auction. It was her view that the document in question could not be legally sold as it was stolen because she was the rightful owner. I don't ever remember hearing what the outcome was and I don't know what happened to Raymond's collection.

I had to look up the third medal to find out that it was the Treuekreuz der Schwarzen Garde of the Freikorps v. Neuville. It is evidently the 2nd version of the award in blackened iron, while the first form was an enamelled pin-backed badge. Does anyone have any more information? This particular group was worn by an SS officer (a photo was included in the auction).

Noticed this go on E-Bay recently and thought it looked interesting.

Miniature ribbon bar devices for the 1st and 2nd Class Luftschutz awards are shown in the Otto Schickle catalogue posted under the Third Reich: General Awards & Militaria forum.