Preliminary Knight's Cross Document

[Bob Hritz]

I have had this forsome years.I can trace it back to the early 1970's to Mohawk Arms.

Measurements are 10 7/8 inches by 8 3/8 inches.

Bergdorf signature (?) shows the blue ink bleeding through the reverse of the paper.

Is it authentic?

Bob Hritz

[Bob Hritz]

Signature(?)

[Bob Hritz]

Bergdorf signature enlarged

[Bob Hritz]

Stamp

[Denis]

Hello Bob,

This is unfortunately a fake.

- The certificate itself does not match with any usually encountered patterns (whatever the branch of service and especially the Heer in this case),
- The typewritten font is not consistent with either the Führerschreibmaschine (ie the Typewriter usually used to type these documents) or the other typewriters found throughtout the war,
- The signature is in my opinion a crude attempt to forge Wihelm Burgdorf's signature which does not change troughout the war
- The rubber stamp is quite fuzzy but it doesn't match with the rubber stamp from the HPA (Army Personal Office).
Best regards
Denis

[Denis]

I have forgotten to mention the recipient's unit. Although it is correct (Bachmann belonged to the Pz. Gre. Rgt. 7 when he was awarded the KC), the spelling/abbreviation form is wrong (ie should a German clerk type this document, he would have never used this abbreviation to refer to the Panzer Grenadier Regiment 7).

[necker]

HQ on a german document?

[Simon O.]

HQu stands for HauptQuartier