Why you should never consider eBay a source for detailed information on ribbon bars

[landsknechte]

For your consideration I have one World War 2 Issue Iron Cross and Air Force Medal Ribbons. The Air Force Medal also has the German Luftwaffe devise Indicating meritorious service, Bravery or completion of Military duties. Due to the lack of any Wound Badge ribbons and that the Iron Cross was awarded first. I would speculate the Devise is for meritorious service as this would be the natural progression of medal winning unless the airmen was injured, shot down or the War Ended. In any of these scenarios the airmen would most certainly have won the Iron Cross 1^st class, one of the wound badges or the Prisoner of War ribbon. Had the end of the war come they would have had no reason to award a citation for bravery or missions flown and the airmen would most certainly not accept it, not knowing how decorated soldiers would be treated.

This is why so many officers and decorated soldiers tried to hide their rank and lost their awards. (They just didn’t want to get caught with them). This was not the proudest moment for the soldiers but it has made it exceptional for the collector as the Badges and Ribbons keep being found in areas where they would be protected. Presumably so they could be reclaimed after the war by the soldier.

Due to the Unexplained Disappearance of German soldiers in <st1:country-region><st1 ="">Russia</st1> </st1:country-region>and long internments many of these men didn’t live long enough to get back to collect them. Thus these awards await some fortunate individual to find them these 65 plus years latter.

[Vadim K]

What, you mean to tell me you have never seen the elusive Prisoner of War ribbon??? Whatever demented source he got this information from, it was certainly very detailed..

[landsknechte]

What, you mean to tell me you have never seen the elusive Prisoner of War ribbon??? Whatever demented source he got this information from, it was certainly very detailed..

Almost looks to be the product of a bad Altavista translation or three, on top of everything else... Just love the Random Capitalizations.

Has anybody ever discovered any of these secret caches of ribbon bars?

[Mark S.]

sounds like someone needs to put down the crack pipe....

[Chris Taylor]

Why do all Bullsh*t Artists have to be so long winded?

[Tom Yanacek]

What an imagination! Most likely delusions induced by the use of some sort of hallucinogenic drug.

[Rick Research]

That IS the &quot;Twilight Zone&quot; theme music playing!!!





Although the technology for successful human cloning does not yet exist, I have put in for a spot next to Ted Williams.



Nice sales scan, BTW-- I'm glad the Hubbell Space Telescope worked out good for something!!!

[Bill D.]

"Twilight Zone" music playing ?

That explains it.

I wasn't at all interested in this thread.

My avatar was.

[landsknechte]

Nice sales scan, BTW-- I'm glad the Hubbell Space Telescope worked out good for something!!!

Obviously taken with the Hubble when it was having problems with it's optics a while back...