1947 WWII Victory Cross

[streptile]

The Amazon show Man In The High Castle takes place in 1962 after the Axis won the war and occupied the USA.

To their credit they dressed their Nazi characters with new orders and decorations in addition to wartime ones.

The most prominent is this one (below) which is dated 1947 and is seen in the show as a Knights Cross neck order and a 1. Class breast badge. Presumably there is a 2. Class indicated by the ribbon in the button hole.

1947 Siegkreuz.jpg

I've only seen one episode but I suppose 1947 is the year the war was won, and that this is a WWII Victory Cross.

They incorporated a number of different designs -- the swords are obviously from the KVKX, and the wreath is reminiscent of the Hindenburg Cross. The shape of the cross is very Iron Cross, and the eagle atop the cross is sort of like the EK1 Spange or the so-called "Order of the Dead":



I find the design not too bad.

What do you all think?

[Tom B]

I don't suppose we'll be seeing fakes of this medal......

[streptile]

I don't suppose we'll be seeing fakes of this medal......

In this hobby? You never know...

[Tony T-S]

Its a clever design, but I couldn't see a RKT wearing it over his RK. Top marks for the effort though. Someone clearly thought this through. I think the thing that lets it down is that there is no enameling. Should be black enamel rather than the simple paint

[streptile]

Its a clever design, but I couldn't see a RKT wearing it over his RK. Top marks for the effort though.

I agree, but in 1962 some guys might be too young to have won the RK. So this might be a postwar victory decoration, or perhaps something for younger guys who fought in the USA.

I think the thing that lets it down is that there is no enameling. Should be black enamel rather than the simple paint

Totally agree.

[Dietrich Maerz]

The Obergruppenführer and (at least) one of his Sturmbannführers wears what is either a Kuban Shield or a Krim Shield on the "wrong"upper arm.
But as far as I could research it this is based on the Führer decree of the new Ordensgesetz of 1957 which regulates to attach the shield on the right arm to leave room for the newly introduced arm sleeve with the American stripes and the swastica. That sleeve band has to be worn every day with the uniform? However, the shield could also be the 1946 Virginia Shield.

Dietrich

PS: One of the young helpers wears a Anti-Partisan Badge in Bronze. He must have earned it while fighting some Banditen in New Jersey or in the Bronx. Antonio missed that in his book ...

[streptile]

...to leave room for the newly introduced arm sleeve with the American stripes and the swastica.

Yeah, it seems the rules changed a bit

[hkusp40]

Nice medal - a "A" for effort/effects and a solid "B+" for results. Great series so far, too bad that it is not available on DVD or Blue Ray. -Ger

[von ropen]

I think that they created clever awards from the existing one. As this historical never happens and story take place in USA thy have some artistic license. To me is okay, but more non German fighters won IC they should wear IC instead War merit crosses. Also as Dietrich points shields could be arrecian ones

[Rick C]

Old thread but I was pondering the award configuration because a friend works on the franchise ~ The issuance of the EK design is dated for the kicking off of a war, yes? 1939 for, essentially, WW2, previous issuances for previous wars/conflicts that Germany found itself embroiled in.

Wouldn't it make sense then that this award, dated 1947 would've reflected Germany embarking on the war for the American continent presumably after the Eurasian region was subdued. Rather than a victory award, I would imagine its configuration would've been a replacement of the 1939 EK series.

[streptile]

Cool picture of the award cased.

[Kecon]

And I presume these are being marketed on Ebay. Would collectors of real
wartime EK's really want one of these? I should think not.

[Rick C]

The Obergruppenführer and (at least) one of his Sturmbannführers wears what is either a Kuban Shield or a Krim Shield on the "wrong"upper arm.

Dietrich, what you thought might be a Kuban/Krim shield was what the designer envisioned as the “Amerika” battle shield. I was told it was the first unique badge that they made for MITHC and Obergruppenführer Smith always wore one. While I can’t quite imagine being awarded a battle shield commemorating the nuking of your capital and actually having no participation in the act, Hollywood gets to take license in a lot of ways… Below is the one Smith /Sewell wore throughout the four seasons:

[Rick C]

Now that the last season has played out I thought I would put an addendum to Streptile’s thread. I should admit that I enjoyed the heck out of the series.

I’ve always found the ‘what if(s)’ rather intriguing. “What if” something was done differently? “What if” some particular individual died earlier in history. “What if” we turned left out of the bar rather than turning right? It’s what makes alternate history novels real interesting ~ at least to me.

That “what if” question posted by Philip Dick’s Man In The High Castle was what if the Germans exploited their 1938/39 breakthrough, achieved by Hahn & Strassmann at Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft in Berlin rather than history playing out for Enrico Fermi’s reaction, three years later in Chicago in 1942. The Germans would’ve then had the bomb before us and the world today might be a very different and terrible place as envisioned by Dick’s alternative history.

As we know, the series (it’s consulting staff) envisioned and conceptualized Awards to go along with Dick’s premise of a victorious Reich and a conquered US, incorporated into the German Reich/tyranny. While Amazon (due to current PC standards of fearing symbols) ordered everyone to destroy anything having a swastika or related to ‘nazis’ that was produced/used for the series (https://forward.com/culture/435023/s...troying-props/
https://www.truthorfiction.com/what-...wastika-props/), as Moltke once said “No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.”

I had opportunity to acquire some of the series’ props that Amazon’s aforementioned book burning, prop destroying, PC censorship ‘nazis’, who would’ve seen ‘everything’ disappeared, weren’t successful in getting to. As such, I thought I would share some photos of some of these props used in the filming that I was fortunate enough to snag in spite of Amazon’s order and, while the purists in our hobby, might scoff that these aren’t “real”, I believe they do pose a certain correlation that I found as intriguing as the storyline. The first shot is some things worn by the character, played by Rufus Sewell, ‘John Smith' ~ the second miscellaneous MITHC related items.

[Rick C]

Anyone who watched the series noticed the Iron Cross ‘wannabes’ worn by the co-opted American authorities and some German characters alike. This iconic “Victory Cross” perhaps referred to as the Sieg Kreuz, came in grades much like the German EK. In the end, there was a Grand Cross Stern, the Knight’s Cross of the German Order of Victory, the German Order of Victory 1st Class, the German Order of Victory 2nd Class and a lower grade ~ the German Order of Victory ‘medal’. The RK of the Victory Cross as well as the 1st Class award (below) were worn by Smith during the filming while the 2nd Class and lower grade were not. The designer did a well thought out/efficient means of closure to the RK ribbon.

Images include the crosses I have here, Smith's ribbon closure, the initial ‘concept drawing’ of the Victory Cross series and the final ‘production’ imagery page