Interesting 5-place ribbon bar

[luftkrieg]

Here is another ribbon bar from my collection.

-Dienstauszeichnung der Wehrmacht 4 Jahre - Heer
-Dienstauszeichnung
-Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 13. März 1938
-Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 1. Oktober 1938
-Deutsches Schutzwall-Ehrenzeichen

I find this an interesting one. The ribbon bar is extremely well made; stitching on the reverse is very well done, very thorough. There was once an eagle device on the first ribbon but the second service ribbon is blank- no sign of any kind of device ever being there. I am thinking that the second ribbon represents a pre-War RAD or Police long service decoration. This guy was then drafted into the Wehrmacht but decided to have both service decorations represented on his ribbon bar.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this.

Kind regards
Pierce

[Tom Yanacek]

Hi Pierce,

A very nice ribbon bar and I agree with your assessment. The RAD 4-Year LS or the Police 8-Year LS are the two most likely possibilities here. But the SS 4-Year or 8-Year LS would also be a possibility. All of these decorations could be worn adjacent to the Wehrmacht LS if the RAD staff member, policeman, or SS member was on active duty in the Wehrmacht. And, naturally, the military long service would take precedence over the civil long service.

Best regards,
Tom

[Peppe864]

Nice worn bar.

My guess would be:

Dienstauszeichnung der Wehrmacht 4 Jahre - Heer
-Dienstauszeichnung RAD
-Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 13. März 1938
-Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 1. Oktober 1938
-Deutsches Schutzwall-Ehrenzeichen

And that he did the RAD service let´s say pre-war 1935, then he entered the Heer maybe became an NCO along the way through the annexations 1938, then on to the first run of the West wall 1939-40 and by this time he had earned his 4 years long Service in the Heer. He seemed to manage to say away from the meat grinder on the Eastern front, maybe he stationed in France, could have gotten the West wall on the second run 1944.

[McCulloh]

Hypothetically, sort of possible, maybe-but really doubtful I reckon-...... VERY unlikely that this was an RAD LS. The RAD LS medals came out in 1938 and this chap must've been in the Wehrmacht by Jan. 1936 at the latest.
The NSDAP was refounded in mid 1925 and even if this guy had been one of the handful of permanent labor cadres that whose service eventually counted towards the RAD medals, I'd expect to see a bronze NSDAP medal as well-as almost all of the earlier Labour cadres were NSDAP members.
I think it was (statistically speaking) either a state service medal (trains/postmen/road engineers!) or (probably IMHO) police.
I think the RAD LS medals were suspended in 1941.

[Peppe864]

Hypothetically, sort of possible, maybe-but really doubtful I reckon-...... VERY unlikely that this was an RAD LS. The RAD LS medals came out in 1938 and this chap must've been in the Wehrmacht by Jan. 1936 at the latest.
The NSDAP was refounded in mid 1925 and even if this guy had been one of the handful of permanent labor cadres that whose service eventually counted towards the RAD medals, I'd expect to see a bronze NSDAP medal as well-as almost all of the earlier Labour cadres were NSDAP members.
I think it was (statistically speaking) either a state service medal (trains/postmen/road engineers!) or (probably IMHO) police.
I think the RAD LS medals were suspended in 1941.

Thanks for that info! I was just thinking out loud, didn´t have all the facts, but you live and you learn

[luftkrieg]

Thank you all for posting your thoughts!

Kind regards
Pierce