Few years ago a polemic occured on WAF concerning von Thoma. Bill Stump (RIP) showed a document of the spanish cross with diamonds attributed to von Thoma and stated that he was awarded the diamonds as 28th recipients. The document looked odd to me. Moreover, there was no clear picture available showing von Thoma with the diamonds. The only picture showed was from Bender's book and was very blurry. At that time, I didn't agreed this opinion. that opinion was shared by others that will read these lines. Indeed, some books mention 28 recipients, other mention 27. In my opinion, only 27 soldiers were awarded the spanish cross with diamonds. All are from the Luftwaffe. During the ceremony which occured in Hamburg on May 31th, 1939, following the return of the LC troops in Germany, Hermann G?ring awarded crosses with diamonds and some gold crosses. At that time von Thoma received the gold cross, so did von Funck and another Army (Signal troops commander) officer. I finally found a period picture showing von Thoma during the June 3rd ceremony in D?beritz. This front pic shows him with his cross. I tryed to enlarge the pic and I do think it is a gold cross without diamonds. Diamonds are generally clearly visible, making a bright ring around the center circle. I think that this picture proves that von Thoma was not awarded the diamonds.