Wehrmacht Long Service awards?

[Eric Gaumann]

Hi all,
What's the precedence or procedure for these awards? What I really want to know is why some 4-year awards have an eagle on the (medal bar, as opposed to the ribbon bar) ribbon and some don't. I have a single, mounted 4-year medal sans eagle but I can see the hole where the eagle once resided and I'd like to replace it. But I've also seen some medals without the eagle.
Does the eagle signify something specific? Or is it just a random decoration?
Also touch on gold vs. silver if you would be so kind.

Thanks,
Eric
(an Imperialite who occasionally crosses over to the dark side just to see what all the hubbub's about)

[Gary B]

Dear Eric,

The type of eagle used on the bar depends on which branch of service the soldier was in. A Luft eagle was attached to the LS ribbon for a Luft guy and the eagle with outstrethed wings (Heer eagle) was used for both Navy or Army.

Hope this helps.

Gary

[Eric Gaumann]

Thanks Gary.
Kriegsmariners got gold eagles, right? But still a silver medal (for 4 years)?

Any reason why some medals included the eagle on the ribbon and some didn't?

[Gary B]

Dear Eric,

There were 2 types of colored eagles. Gold and silver. The color of the eagle had nothing to do with the Service affiliation of the medal. The eagles reflected the color of the LS medal. Army and Navy eagles are the same. Luftwaffe eagles were the flying type.

There was a 4, 12, 18, 25 and 40 year LS award. The 4 year medal was silver, the 12 was gold, 18 was silver and the 25 was gold. The 40 year medal was a 25 year medal with a gold oakleaf attached to the ribbon. The color of eagle would coorespond to the color of the medal. Some of the medals were worn by themselves where as the higher grades were worn in combination with a lesser grade. This is where you will see gold and silver eagles on ribbon bars. For whatever reason sometimes the people who manufactured the bars sometimes did not attach the eagles to the medal bar. In other cases these fragile eagles fell off of the mounting (Look for small pinholes on the ribbon)

Hope this is not too confusing. If you go to the section of the forum where the articles on the badges are there are pictures that show what I have explained.

Gary B

[Eric Gaumann]

Thanks again Gary!

So this medal bar *should* have a silver eagle on it, either Luft or H/KM, correct?
I can see the pinholes where it once resided.

[Gary B]

Dear Eric,

Correct. You will be able to choose what type of eagle to attach to the bar (must be silver). You might want to check with Rick Versailles (Stogieman). He might have an extra eagle.

Gary B

[RickSqueri]

Long Service Medals

Great Post! Does anyone have a source for the eagle devices? I'm also looking for the sword devices.

Hoorido!
Rick

[Gary B]

Check with Stogieman.

Gary B

[Eric Gaumann]

Check with Stogieman.

Gary B

He's got some, if he hasn't PM'd you already.

[Tim Curley]

If you examine enough period photos you will occasionally find instances where the 4 Yr Long Service Medal is worn without an eagle. Why this is so, I do not know. It does not appear that the eagle simply fell off.

[Eric Gaumann]

I'd seen so many w/o the eagle I wondered if it was some sort of 'qualification' device or something like that. Evidently not.