Service time award question

[Paul C]

I saw an imperial medal bar with a EM 15 year cross and a 25 year officer cross. The officer cross was first. There where other medals on the bar. I was unable to get a pic as it was at a show. Is this combination possible?

[Guest Rick Research]

No.

Yes.

[attachmentid=41176]

Wearing two Imperial REGULAR army/navy long service awards was never authorized. (One regular and one reserve is another issue, but don't want to confuse things with that).

So why do we see-- quite often-- two Imperial long services being worn, contrary to all regulations?

Like the medal bar above, those are what I call "October 1936" bars. That was when the NEW Wehrmacht long service awards were awarded for the first time, with their quite bizarre system of wearing awards above 4 years in PAIRS. The "Two Wehrmacht long services WILL be worn..." was quite often MISinterpreted by old veterans to mean that they could wear two from their OLD "Wehrmacht." They weren't supposed to, but they did.

The unnecessary "duo" system, reinforced by the NSDAP's "wear all three" of their own is also why we often find civil servants' medal and ribbon bars with BOTH the 1938-43 Treudienst crosses being worn, equally incorrectly.

On my scale of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, these are "Ugly" bars-- period mistakes.

[Bob Hunter]

...and that is not too shabby are bar. Love the Venezuela clasp. Ain't colonialism grand?

[CHRIS W]

Here's another one!

[Guest Rick Research]

Here's a nice photo in wear of a naughty ex-Imperial NCO, from Heiko:

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?s=&showtopic=8...indpost&p=84626

Since nobody was authorized to wear EITHER an XII or an IX with an XV, the former colonial NCO could have picked either-- BOTH being wrong "second choices."