Luftwaffe Operation Gomorrah EK Citation & Explanation

[hucks216]

Here is a nice single citation awarded to a member of a flak unit based in the Hamburg area.

He was active during the massive RAF raids during late July/early August 1943 that were assigned the codename Operation Gomorrah and resulted in the firestorm that ravaged the city.

[hucks216]

What makes this citation alittle more interesting is that it seems to of been sent to a Frau Anni Czajerek (the LW soldier being Ewald Czajerek) and with the citation was a note with the reason why he won the award.

The translation of the note (thanks to Brian)...

1.) For the award of the EK II class:

Gefreiter Czajerek Ewald Clerk and K 1 (cannonneer)

at the alarm gun

Gefreiter Ewald Czajerek was deployed as K 1 at the alarm gun during the terror attack of 30 July 1943. As such he showed exemplary calm and a high degree conscientiousness in all phases during this exciting night of battle, whereby he contributed decisively so that the remainder of the crew carried out its duty at the gun. In spite of the nearly constant impacting of high explosive and incendiary bombs in the closest proximity he continued to fire unwaveringly and prevented the aimed targeting of bombs on the Horst-Wessel barracks and thereby prevented the possible destruction of many of the soldiers in the barracks.

[Chris Boonzaier]

That is nice.

A good citation usually (for me) makes an award doc XXX times more valuable. Unfortunately not a lot of people think that way and as a result prices are mostly not adjusted accordingly.

I once saw a gebirgsjaeger EK2 doc (I think for Kreta) with the citation typed on the back of the doc. That was pretty cool as well.

bet

Chris

[Ulsterman]

Very cool! Somewhere I have pictures of the aftermath of that raid. If I can locate them I'll post them.

[Brian R]

This is a great document - any citation that includes details as to how the award was earned is extra special. I'm a sucker for them, and this one related to Gomorrah is really great given that it is for actions within Germany.

Kevin gave me scans of this citation for my ongoing project and I had hoped to use it as an example of an award that was won as a result of one's death. It turns out there is no indication that the recipeint died during the actions surrounding this award. It pays to have a good translation! I was very fortunate to recently make a connection with someone who has selflessly provided me with translations of a number of pieces of period paperwork. It was his generosity, and not mine, that brought light to Kevin's document. First class all around!!

[Paul R]

I have never seen such a TR citation. Were these common?

[Brian R]

I have never seen such a TR citation. Were these common?

This is a "unit specific" example of a 1939 EK citation. Specifically, this one was printed for Luftgau XI and has the stamped signature of Ludwig Wolf. They are uncommon, but not rare.

[Eric JB]

Kevin,

It can't get any better than that, the man's EK.2 award document and the explanation / reason to it.

Best regards

Eric-Jan