Iron Cross/Badge ratio questino

[Paul R]

Is it possible to have both classes of the Iron Cross without being qualified to wear a warfare badge(pilot, IAB, GAB, or ect)of some sort?

[Guest Rick Research]

Certainly:

General staff, field artillery, signals come to mind right away.

[Simon Orchard]

Remember what had to be done to qualify for the Heer and KM badges. It could take some time to do, whereas an EK or even RK for that matter took just one action in many cases. LW flying personnel are a little different as things like the pilots badge were more like trade qualification badges and the various levels of EK were often given for accumulated actionskills.

This should give you an idea of the ratios, at least for the early war period when the IAB was a new decoration and men had yet to fullfill the required 3 assaults.

For the roughly 2 month long Norwegian campaign in 1940 the 2 Gebirgs Division awarded the following.

24 EKI

3 EKI Spangen

347 EKII

3 EKII Spangen

42 IAB

[Bob Hunter]

That seems pretty stingey!