Luftwaffe Help with ribbon bar

[Igor Starikow]

Hi all,

Please, help me to identify this ribbon bar of LW-Offizier.

1 - 1914 EK II

2 - Ehrenkreuz f?r Frontk?mpfer 1914/1918

3 - ?

4 - ?

5 - ?

6 - ?

Best regards

Igor

[Ulsterman]

Easy-

4= Austrian World War One Commemorative medal

5= Hungarian World War One Commemorative

6=Bulgarian World War One Commemorative medal

Somebody was recalled in @ 1939 and "padded out" his First World War Service.

[Guest Rick Research]

Yes--

3) Luftwaffe 4 Years Service Medal

= a typical 1939 Hauptmann (E) or Major (E) bar.

[Igor Starikow]

Thank you very much, Ulsterman and Rick!

Best wishes

Igor

[Scott]

Yes--

3) Luftwaffe 4 Years Service Medal

= a typical 1939 Hauptmann (E) or Major (E) bar.

Just curious why '1939' ... isn't the LW service the latest on the bar with an issue date in 1936?

[Guest Rick Research]

Yes, but we always tend to assume--not ALWAYS correctly as Imperial tucked-away-in-cufflinks-drawers survivors sometimes show-- the LATEST period a bar was awarded and then put aside.

This fellow might have taken this off in 1937 or 1938 to add a Wehrmacht 12. Or in 1939 to add "flowers campaign" medal ribbons. Or in 1941/43 to add a KVK2X and Ostmedaille.

But when the war started, those ranks were the most commonly held by (E) officers with a 4 but no 12. Depending on branch of service-- and frontline or not status-- would have made Oberstleutnant about 1942 or so.

But as a "static" snapshot-in-time, this is a classic 1939 for a Hauptmann (E) or Major (E) in the Luftwaffe. Chances are, if the wearer did not have an Anschluss of Sudeten Medal, he would indeed have worn this same ribbon bar from 1936 (the Austrian WWI Commemorative Medal in "foreign" precedence was often not remounted right away after 1938) to 1942...

so 1939 is also a Happy Statistical Medium of that time span.

(I could write sociological dissertations on most ribbon bars. Yes, it even scares me! )

[Scott]

I see your logic now - thanks Rick.