EK 1914 Award Process Mysteries....

[Chris Boonzaier]

Hi,

Wernitz cleared up a couple of the Mysteries that had been plaguing me for years and confirmed a theory or two that I had... but there are still some gaps I would like to fill.... including the following two....

When the German Army moved away from the fixed structure of the Armee Korps with "its" divisions, and divisions were instead transfered to the Armee Korps that needed them... there seems to be a change in the award process, at least for the EK2. In the early part of the war the awards seem to have been mostly made at Armee Korps level, then at about the time of the change, it seems to have been delegated to Divisional level. Maybe because of delays and it being difficult for a Corps to award medals to a division that had already moved on.... and for that reason the Divisional commanders took over the responsability?

2nd point... we know that after a couple of years in WW2 the order was given that a silver wound badge merited an EK2, for this reason Stellvertretender Commanders of a Wehrkreis could (almost) automatically award the EK2 to a soldier in a hospital in his Wehrkreis... In my groups I see a lot of soldiers wounded in the first couple of years of the war and invalided out... then awarded the EK in 1917... was this a precedent for the WW2 order, and was there an official order?

I know, a needle in a haystack... but just on the off chance anyone knows......

[Tony]

Chris,

I don't know if this helps or not, perhaps it's just confirming your 2nd point.

The attachments below refer to an order from WWII at unit/field hospital level and I wonder if something similar was carried out during WWI, an order from above allowing a lower ranking officer perhaps at unit level, to award the cross to a badly wounded, dead or dying soldier.

I’ve always wondered if a cross and certificate were forwarded to the next of kin at a later date.

Tony

[turtle]

On a german forum I´ve seen an award-recommendation-document from 1917 expecially for men heavily wounded in action in 1914 and 1916. So I would propose, there was, maybe from 1917 onwards, really the possibility to award the EK2 like it was done in WW2!

[Chris Boonzaier]

Tony! A Fantastic doc that details the process in WW2 to a degree I have not seen before!!