Veteran badges: Wear of WW1 Awards in WW2?

[Karl Preuss]

Are there any medals, awards, badges that a WW1 vet could have worn on his WW2 uniform?

[Dez H]

Hello Karl

I am surprised no one else has jumped in here to help you out. The simple answer to your question is yes, all “official” world war one awards could be worn during the ww2 period.
If you look at wartime photos you will see soldiers wearing 1914 EK1’s, Gallipoli stars, ww1 wound badges etc. Imperial decorations were normally worn on a ribbon bar, during parades they would be worn on a medal bar. The only awards off the top of my head that I can think of that were not allowed to be worn are the private purchase ww1 veterans medals and awards. These were replaced by the Hindenburg cross of honor.

[David S]

Karl,


Check out the Ribbon Bar article by our very own Ricky.

You will find that until 1935 any number of unofficial 'been there' awards, medals too. A ribbon bar of a EK II and four or five was knocked down to a EKII and a Hindenburg Cross when the HK was introduced in 1934/35.

[Rick Research]

Ah, it was the original thread title-- thought it was Stahlhelmbund or something

The ribbon bar article is

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/ribbons/index.htm

Check out the 1930s and WW2 sections, as well as the photo galleries section.

If you type in a search on "medal bars" or "medal bar" or "ribbon bar(s)" you will be overwhelmed at how many threads there are here, in Individual Research, Imperial, and in Collections forums...

because all the really nice stuff was Imperial, of course.

Just an example of early in WW2, about 1940 or maybe spring 1941, an officer who went on to win a German Cross in Gold later:

[Rick Research]

That early in the war, he only had a Spange to his Iron Cross 2nd Class-- the 1st Class is from WW1--

[Rick Research]

If it was official, it could still be worn

[Rick Research]

Just a random sample of Third Reich ribbon bars with WW1 and earlier awards