Bar for your thoughts

[Guest WAR LORD]

A bar to an Austrian.

[Paul R]

A bar to an Austrian.

Can you please post a pic of the back ?

[Stogieman]

I'd like to see a close-up of the SS mounting, and a full, close photo of the back please!

[Guest WAR LORD]

I will try and do this in the next little time.

[Stogieman]

My gut is telling me this bar will prove to be quite allright... An Austrian "other ranks" who went into the SS very early and received his 8-year LS Medal before things were really cranked up for WW2.

[Guest Rick Research]

He's the Evil But Optimistic Twin.

As the Good But Pessimistic Twin, I'd say this 1918 buck private/most junior of NCOs ex-draftee was an NCO level civil servant like a mailman or railways employee, and some "sharpie" pulled out a boring old Third Reich 25 Years Civil Service Cross and jammed in the exotic SS piece.

[Guest WAR LORD]

Thanks for the evaluation. I was also thinking along the lines of Rick. But close inspection dose seem to give the impresion that these have been together for the period. Another point was this bar was purchased in the late 50's. But the other and I think most important feture is the SS medal.

Edited October 15, 2005 by WAR LORD

[Stogieman]

Hi Chris, no.... the more important thing is seeing the mounting and reverse, at least for the bar collector. I'm not goint to debate the SS medal itself. I'm interested in trying to determine if it is in fact original to the bar itself. Then I'll worry about whether the medal itself is real, or not. (and with respects to that we would need a much better photo! ;>)

[Scowen]

Resized & posted for Warlord. If you need the full size image I can crop it in half & post it in 2 sections.

Cheers

Don

[Stogieman]

Hi Chris, well, I'd bet a buck that if you slipped a 25- year cross in there the bottom of the medals would line up again......... I think the thing that gives away that the bar has been altered is the height of the SS medal as compared to the line of the others. It should be level with them, not raised up. Lay it down and pull all the medals tight and you'll see what I mean.

[Guest WAR LORD]

When you lay the bar down and place a straight edge accross the mounting, the eylets of the first 4 are in line with the 8 year medal. The last two are mounted slightly lower. I placed a 40 year cross on the same mounting position to that employed by the 8 year SS and it was considerably lower than the others on the bar. Having said that I am no expert on the mounting of bars. For me the great find is that the 8 year SS medal is the first pattern. The history of the group is that it has been in the collection since the mid 50's. Thank you for the help. Any other thoughts would be welcome. I have three other bars that are in the same collection. I will if I can master the art try and post them for your comments. One has the Danzig cross 2nd class on it.

[Stogieman]

Hi Chris, well, if the cross is lower that makes the argument for it being right stronger. I'm assuming these are clip-in style mounting clips tucked inside the ribbons??

I'm quite sure we would all LOVE to see that Danzig Kreuze 2. Klasse Bitte!