The fate of the Diamonds.

[Sepp45]

A photo of GFM Walter Model wearing a set of diamonds, Jan. 1945

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[Sepp45]

A postwar edition but an example worth of showing in this thread: Sepp Dietrich, 1959.

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[Sepp45]

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[markus]

The "sparkle" the original pieces have is just beyond what photos can show.

Lovely pieces of history!

[Sepp45]

GFM Albert Kesselring during his surrender in Italy, 1945, wearing a nice set of diamonds!

According to Adrian Forman, his Type A 2nd form Diamonds set resides in a private collection. A photo of them are shown on page 179 of his book.

Two more pictures from different angles

[Sepp45]

GFM Ferdinand Schörner wearing his set of diamonds, Feb. 1945

[Sepp45]

In his book "The Me 262 Stormbird", Colin D. Heaton states the following story about Nowotny's diamonds from an interview with Adolf Galland after finding the plane crash:

"After sifting through the wreckage, the only salvageable things found were his left hand and pieces of his Knights Cross, Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds decorations. He had simply disintegrated.

So, the remaining awards where handed over to the family? Where the damaged Silver set buried with him?

A video still from his funeral shows the awards on the Funeral Pillow, but now we now THOSE are not his, because most of the original medals were burned during the crash.

FINALLY, after many hours of searching this past year, I found a high quality footage of Nowotny's funeral pillow.

The mystery remains... are those diamonds his alternative set? Or someone else added them, along with the other medals?

[EvaB1945]

Impressive!

Very impressive Diamonds! How many diamonds are still with families?

Forget about Diamonds being a girls best friend, they were a boys best friend!

[chen]

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The funeral may display his other set of diamond (A piece) .
How many diamonds( 1st pattern or 2nd pattern, A or B) still existed with family, collector, museum...etc ?- Not many.

[Sepp45]

The funeral may display his other set of diamond (A piece)

Most likely, yes...

So, Galland made a point in saying that the few pieces left of the B-piece were buried with Nowotny?

[chen]

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[Sepp45]

14 - Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring: awarded the Diamonds July 19th 1944. Whereabouts of them are believed to be with a collector.

Kesselring's preliminary award document!

(Photo send by a friend, thanks Björn!)

[Ludwig]

Two more of Rommel´s diamonds

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[Ludwig]

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[Sepp45]

Thanks Ludwig!!!