Spanish Campaign Medal-lg.condor

[andrewb]

Closeup of the so called "Pineapple" and Maker Mark.

[Francisco V.]

Hello Andrew,
That Cruz Roja del Merito Militar with hinge in the crown it is not of the type given to Legion Condor but post war. Strange

Regards

[andrewb]

Hi Francisco,

Not necessarily post 1945. The fixed "castle" type are the eariler made ones from 1933-36 while the "hinged" ones are the later made type, 1936-75.

Posts 134 and 149 will explain this.

Regards,
AB.

[Gregorio Torres]

I was wondering who was the first one to say that crosses made by Egaña with fixed crowns was the only one model given to LC and Blue Div members?
I haven´t any problem about the spreading of this mistake. Since I understood that this is wrong I´ve bought a lot of original crosses awarded during the Spanish Civil War and WW2 for a very low price just because the crown were fixed and owners thought that they was made after 1945.

[Francisco V.]

Hi Gregorio,
I think all the LC decorations were given at the same time from the same Egaña batch. Does not make sense that that maker supplied two diferent models of the same medal, or not?
Egaña as winner of the contract faced the problem to furnish in little time thousands of medals to spaniards, germans and italians so the extra labour of making hinged crowns I think was out of question.
I may be wrong and more than willing to be educated on this interesting subject.

Saludos
Francisco

I was wondering who was the first one to say that crosses made by Egaña with fixed crowns was the only one model given to LC and Blue Div members?
I haven´t any problem about the spreading of this mistake. Since I understood that this is wrong I´ve bought a lot of original crosses awarded during the Spanish Civil War and WW2 for a very low price just because the crown were fixed and owners thought that they was made after 1945.

[Gregorio Torres]

Hi Francisco
I think Egaña wasn´t the only one maker to make the medals for LC. Obviously the spanish nationalist army had to have in common stores the orders and decoration for all the soldiers, without distinction of nacionality. As different models of crosses, made by different makers, were awarded to spanish... Why must be different for italians and germans?
On the other side... who said that all the crosses were given to the germans at the same time. LC soldiers had a time of service in Spain, and they came back to Germany when this time passed. The main part of soldiers who served in LC was in Germany when the Legion was disbanded when the Spanis war finished. Medals were given to them when the awards were won. I have in my file some document about awards given in 1938, and I´d bet about they do exist for 1937 too.
A lot of people think that all of these crosses were awarded at the end of the war, but obviously it´s wrong. In my opinion this maybe because germans are not allowed to show this decoration on german uniforms cause Hitler´s government was hidden the help to the spanish nationalist and a lot of pictures of LC soldiers do exists showing the spanish awards since the war ended, but not before.
As all the well known pictures taken in Leon and Madrid show to the last germans in Spain wearing Egaña crosses somebody thought that is almost a duty to give this medals to Germans, but in my oppinion this is just a chance, and valid just for the last contingents of LC in Spain.
The last picture shown in this thread have a non fixed crown for a german soldiers, and a lot of other pictures shown other than Egaña crosses and Breast Stars being worn by germans as early as 1939.
On the other way, fixed crown crosses are quite common in Spain before Egaña made them. This wasn´t a quick solution to made easier the job, but another way to produce them. If they had been looking for save time, they had made them with flat reverse too, and no enameled but laquered, as other makers do. Don´t you know?
It was the same rumour about Blue Division soldiers. Somebody spread the news about the Egaña red and war crosses were the only one model sent to Russia for spanish soldiers, although pictures in ceremonies indicate that other models were awarded.
If you have some other info to share about this topic, please tell us.

[Scott C.]

Wonderful set Andrew!

[andrewb]

Very Interesting Greg. Great info.

Wonderful set Andrew!

Thanks Scott.

Regards,
AB.

[Dan46]

Just picked up this medal bar at an estate sale.I was told to post it here.What's the opinion on this bar?I gave $250 for it.Did i do OK?
Dan46

[Dan46]

Pic#2

[Dan46]

Pic#3

[Dan46]

Pic#4

[Scott C.]

Nice bar Dan - thanks for posting it. I think the price was fair. I'll bet the iron cross has dropped a bit in it's hook, and the bottom of the cross was originally aligned with the bottom of the other medals on the bar. You might try gently coaxing the ring of the cross up a bit and it may pop back into place. I have a similar bar where all but the iron cross were aligned, and after some careful examination I discovered the cross had dropped out of alignment, and a light touch popped it back into place.

[dc9]

Thank you for this interesting thread
I known perhaps 10 types of this medal with marks distinctives
I have a PDF file (in spanih) with some pictures), but I dont cant post these

Type / Obverse / Reverse
1 / Ballon+EGAÑA vertical / Ballon no marks
2 / EGAÑA vertical / No marks
3 / AM under the neck del dragoon / INDUSTRIAS EGAÑA below the helmet
4a / AM under the claw del dragoon / INDUSTRIAS EGAÑA around the shield
4b / AM under the claw del dragoon / INDUSTRIAS EGAÑA around the shield + AM under the end del wing del eagle
4c / AM under the claw del dragoon / INDUSTRIAS EGAÑA around the shield + AM under the helmet
4d / AM under the claw del dragoon / INDUSTRIAS EGAÑA under the helmet. AM
around the shield
4e AM under the claw del dragoon / No marks
5 / No marks / INDUSTRIAS EGAÑA
6 / EGAÑA horizontal together to the tail del dragoon / No marks
7 / Lezos or Lizos horizontal together to the tail del dragoon / No marks
8 / No marks / No marks

Any correction, update and also good images of the medaillons are very welcome, specially for types 3, 4a, 4b, 5 and 8

More informations about the german firms are also welcome (Steinhauer & Luck, Schickle y Paul Meybauer) I believe

Hello All,

I read through all 15 pages of this thread and wanted to recapture some of the good reference information that has been posted.

I have added a couple examples from my collection and updated Antonio's chart as follows.

My first posting is a non-combatant version similar to Tim B.'s in posts #172-174. Note that the 'A.M.' on the obverse is above the Dragon's tail and on the reverse their is an 'A.M.' to the left of the eagle. 'INDUSTRIAS EGANA' also appears on the reverse under the helmet.

The second posting is a new example to this thread. It is a combatant version with 'EGAÑA' appearing above the tail of the dragon vertically along the 2nd ray of the sun from the right below the horizontal sword. Note, that the position of previous examples with a vertical 'EGAÑA' are along the 1st ray on the right.

Type / Obverse / Reverse
1 / Ballon+EGAÑA vertical / Ballon no marks
2 / EGAÑA vertical / No marks
3 / AM under the neck del dragoon / INDUSTRIAS EGAÑA below the helmet
4a / AM under the claw del dragoon / INDUSTRIAS EGAÑA around the shield
4b / AM under the claw del dragoon / INDUSTRIAS EGAÑA around the shield + AM under the end del wing del eagle
4c / AM under the claw del dragoon / INDUSTRIAS EGAÑA around the shield + AM under the helmet
4d / AM under the claw del dragoon / INDUSTRIAS EGAÑA under the helmet. AM
around the shield
4e AM under the claw del dragoon / No marks
5 / No marks / INDUSTRIAS EGAÑA
6 / EGAÑA horizontal together to the tail del dragoon / No marks
7 / Lezos or Lizos horizontal together to the tail del dragoon / No marks
8 / No marks / No marks

9 / AM above dragon tail / AM to left of eagle, INDUSTRIAS EGANA under the helmet
10 / EGAÑA vertical above dragon tail / No marks

Hope we can keep this discussion and reach a more definitive answer at some point on the various makers and which ones might be SCW, WWII and Post-War era.

Eric

[dc9]

Non Combatant

.