Why a Pioneer man would have been awarded the EKI

[Lt. Martin]

Why would a man in a pioneer btl. win the EKI/EKII?

What would he had to have done to get awarded this? I thought pioneers were engineers, so why would a man be awarded the EKI?

Many Thanks, Swayne

[hucks216]

Pioneers were also used in a variety of combat roles as specialised assault troops. A book that demonstrates this is Jason D Mark's Island Of Fire
http://www.leapinghorseman.com/prodd...75107631&cat=5

[Kondor]

Combat Engineers

Lt.

Combat Engineers go in before the infantry to clear minefields and obstacles to make it easier for the "Queen of Battle" to enter. They build the bridges, they destroy the bridges preventing the enemy from advancing. If any branch deserves awards for bravery under fire, they are the Combat Engineers! This coming from an artilleryman.

[Simon O.]

In addition to the other posts, the pionier (not pioneer, which is an english word for something quite different), were specialists in dealing with bunkers and fortified positions. For example the ground assault element of the famous Eben Emael operation was carried out by a pionier bataillon.

It's also worth mentioning that the pionier arm was large and included many different types of pionier units, like bau-pionier (construction engineers), eisenbahn-pionier (railway engineers), Brückenbau pionier (bridge building engineers) etc.

[pauke]

Pio EK 1.

A now deceased friend of mine who was the top sergeant in a Pionier company of Pz. A.A. 130 won the EK 1 by running out on a bridge to check a demolition charge that failed to detonate. Later as a POW he traded his award to an American for a loaf of bread. He always wondered where it might have ended up but had no regrets about the trade as he was starving.

[hucks216]

Probably the best way of showing an example is this brief report I have, typed onto the back of a September 1941 dated EK II citation to a member of St.Pi.Btl 43 (Sturm Pionier Btl) explaining why he was awarded the medal. He went on to serve in Pi.Btl Grossdeutschland.

[WJW]

Pionier

Even the landing party on Eben Emael itself contained Pioniere, not only FJ.

[JuanS]

The military tend to give names to specialized troops. Combat engineers were in the majority not real d engineers with a degree ( although manny officers were engineers with a degree).
Combat engineers were as mentioned before, specialized combat troops and at the end of the war, everyone was a infantry soldier.
I own the uniform of a combat engineer general that was involved with the construction of the Gustav line and was awarded the DKIS.

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ghlight=bessel

regards

Juan

[Ypenburg]

Even the landing party on Eben Emael itself contained Pioniere, not only FJ.

They were Fallschirm-pioniere, so both Pionier and Fallschirmjäger at the same time

[Ypenburg]

For example, Pionier-Bataillon 51, used to attack Eben-Emael in support of the FJ's crossing the Albert-Canal, was awarded:

6 x EK I
1 x Spange EK I
56 x EK II

Some of the brave:

[Waffenreich]

Here's another way Pioniers get Iron Crosses, they destroy three tanks. I was fortunate to get this group from the granddaughter of Oberleutnant Herbert Trautmann (Pi. Btl 655) shortly after he passed away in 2007. He was awarded three TDBs on the Russian front. One of the neatest things about this set (besides the TDBs of course) is that he scratched his rank, name and where he was from on the back of his Zimmermann EKI.

[Waffenreich]

Eki

[Waffenreich]

TDBs

[all1knew]

A now deceased friend of mine who was the top sergeant in a Pionier company of Pz. A.A. 130 won the EK 1 by running out on a bridge to check a demolition charge that failed to detonate. Later as a POW he traded his award to an American for a loaf of bread. He always wondered where it might have ended up but had no regrets about the trade as he was starving.

Very interesting story, thanks for sharing.

William Kramer

[turbopanzer]

hi

Hi
I have the uniform to an hauptmann of pioniers.
He get the Knight Cross ,shall take some picthure when i came back from work.

Best regads
Turbo