Bunch o ribbon bars to be examined

[Hauptmann109]

What do you guys think?

[Tom Yanacek]

Hello,

From a construction-wise and parts-wise standpoint the bars look okay. I have no issues with the two, two-placers. However, IMO the two, three-placers are postwar put-togethers using original surplus ribbons and mounting components.

The first three-placer with the 1939 EK2, Lifsaving Medal, and 25-Year Faithful Service Cross is a very strange combination that sets off the alarm bells. The combination does not seem at all logical. This guy would be at least in his mid-forties during WW2. (Had to be at least 43 years of age to get that 25-Year Faithful Service Decoration), provided that his military and/or civil service began at the age of eighteen and there was no breaks in his service time. It is also very strange that this guy (at least in his mid-forties during WW2) had no prior military service in WW1, either as a combatant or as a war participant. He has no energy or motivation in his youth to even take part in WW1 yet gets decorated for valor in WW2 as a middle-ager. And since there were <3000 living recipients of the Lifesaving Medal at the outbreak of WW2 (and that number includes those of all Imperial German States, as well as Weimar and the Third Reich Period) I find it very difficult to believe that this bar is one of less than 3000, especially given the other peculiarities of this bar.

The other three-placer also sends up the red flags for me. IMO it is too good to be true. There were only 253 Second Class Danzig Crosses awarded and I seriously doubt that this is one of those. It does not appear to be the bar of a Nazi Party official/member, decorated for merit in the takeover of Danzig. I would expect to see something NSDAP, Police, SS, or even Wehrmacht long service-related on this bar. Sorry, but a bar with the Danzig Cross needs to scream real and this one just does not do it for me.

Best regards,
Tom