IRON CROSS AWARD DOCUMENTS OF WORLD WAR II

If you you are a collector and interested in the German Iron Cross, this book is for you. Brian Razkauskas gives a quick history on the origins of the German Iron Cross award and then shows some examples of WWI German Iron Cross award documents, before really going into depth about the WWII German Iron Crosses first and second classes. He details the award criteria, examples of submissions for consideration, the approval process, the annotation of the award in a Soldier’s Wehrpass (ID booklet) and then goes into depth on numerous German Soldiers who were awarded an Iron Cross first or second class, the units they belonged to, and the reasons for them being awarded the Iron Cross. This is beautifully done using photographs of original Iron Cross award documents. Unlike the Allies where each medal awarded regardless of branch, unit, or rank comes with the exact same award document, the Germans during WWII conquered so many territories in such a quick time and were so spread out, that many units were not easily accessible on available roads/transportation for mail and paper supply distribution networks forcing units to design and print their own award documents for many medals and badges to include the Iron Cross. Brian shows over 45 different printed versions of just Iron Cross award documents and then another 50+ similar versions, each filled-in differently by machine, pen, pencil, calligraphy, etc. This is a well-researched, highly informative book with a balance of written material with accompanying photographs of period originals to keep the reader interested from beginning to end.