Luftwaffe LW service medal 18 year

[Jan Arne S]

Hi Guys !

In a PM I was ask about some pics of this medal , so I post here .

LW Service medal 18 Year . Only have scans of front at the moment .

Jan Arne

[J Temple-West]

And to compliment your 18 year...

[J Temple-West]

40 year with its mini.

[Gary B]

Hi Jan and John,

Beautiful pieces.

I do have a question that I hope one of you can answer. I have seen several single parade mounted 18, 25 and 40 year LS awards in the past few years. It is my understanding that the higher grade LS awards had to be worn in pairs with a lower LS award i.e. 12 year with 4 year. This was in accordance with the German regulations. So why would there be single parade mounted LS awards for 18/25/40 (not including the LS 4 which could be worn as a single)?? Additionally, wouldn't someone who had 18 or 25 years of service have more than just that award??

Were these single parade mounted awards for salesman display boards??

Gary B

[Bob Hunter]

Very nice pieces! Always nice to get a medal bar with a matching ribbon bar.

[Guest Rick Research]

12 was always worn with 4, 18 always worn with 4, and 25 always worn with 12, per regulations. The sole exceptions were in the limited cases where a former member of the Austrian 1st Republic Bundesheer who held an early 1930s "5" from then independent Austria got a 12 in 1938-39 and wore THOSE two together.

Since award of the Wehrmacht long service awards ceased with the beginning of WW2 "for the duration" (just as Prussia's and the Imperial German navy's had in the previous World War), there would have been only that brief period for such mix and match pairs.

F.W. Assmann's 1938 catalog certainly SHOWS Wehrmacht long service pairs with stock numbers for sale in impossible in the real world lone 25 & 12 pairs (no such service could have taken place without having served through the First World War and having held at the least a Hindenburg Cross) but they obviously figured FUTURE sales in the Thousand Year Reich wouldn't mean reprinting their pages ahead of demand!

[Bob Hunter]

[Gary B]

Dear Rick,

So based on your answer, why would there be single parade mounted LS awards for 25 and 40 years awards floating around. The ones I hgave seen look good, were they salesman samples or has the medal been switched from a LS 4 year award??

Gary B

[Guest Rick Research]

Switched by monkey fingers since or made as sales displays at the time... who can tell, now?

But not "right" and not "wearable" even if mounted in the 1930s. Many a 1930/40s sales catalog contains echings of sample medal bar mountings they could make... of completely impossible illustration-only combinations.