Depository for photos of Iron Cross I winners?

[Jeff G]

Hey gang,

Is there an official or semi-official keeper of photos of Iron Cross 1st class winners? While quickly perusing my photo albumn again last night, this jumped out at me. I have two other shots of this fellow.

Look what I see screwed to this lad's left breast pocket. There must be enough details in the other photos to glean this fella's unit. And, therefore probably his name. Should I be contacting anyone in particular about this?

I guess it's settled, I'll have to break down and buy a scanner. Again. I can probably recoup the cost by selling the albumn. Then, I'll probably have a scanner for sale too.



Jeff

[Bill H.]

Hey gang,

Is there an official or semi-official keeper of photos of Iron Cross 1st class winners? While quickly perusing my photo albumn again last night, this jumped out at me. I have two other shots of this fellow.

Look what I see screwed to this lad's left breast pocket. There must be enough details in the other photos to glean this fella's unit. And, therefore probably his name. Should I be contacting anyone in particular about this?

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

I wish there was a central repository for EK winners but there had to be hundreds of thousands who won that award. There may even be pretty good records as to who got one up till 1944 but to my knowledge this data has not yet come to light. A photo archive of EK1 winners? It would be great but it would be a lifelong quest for somebody (not me!). There are photos of KC winners we can't figure out yet. God help us trying to sort out everyone that won the EK1!

If you were to try to put a name to this particular man and had the regiment number you might be able to do it with a lot of archival work and some dear friends at the right regimental veteran's organization. If your lucky the photo is identified on the reverse. That would save you tons of time. Even with the full name and regiment your in for a lot of frustration trying to get records from the archives. Most of them won't even talk to you if you don't have full name and date of birth and having a family interest would be most helpful otherwise the archive folks don't have the time to fool with trying to guess which of several million files you might be looking for.

Wish I could shine a more optimistic light on it but I think your in for some serious research.

Cheers, Bill Huber

[Jeff G]

Thanks, Bill.

I've replaced the photo above with a decent scan from the new toy. A zoom on the chest medal reveals a very slim black area. Is this something else? The scanner also let me clean up the, I believe, 1939 Black Wound Badge underneath. Amazing the detail you can drag out with a high resolution scan you would never see with a magnifying glass. I can see why people collect them.



thanks,

Jeff

[Luftm40]

Those look like Imperial awards to me

[Rendsburg]

Hi Jeff,
I agree with Andy.
Cheers,
Otto

[Jeff G]

Thanks,boys.

I avoid taking these photos out of the albumn where possible. However, this one is dated 1940 on the rear. The soldier in the pic is no kid. So, it may be an older medal for sure.

cheers,

Jeff

[bratwurstdimsum]

Ummm....don't know if you realise or not but I am running a project on just that...recording ALL the ek1 trager....well that is my goal anyway. I currently have over 3500 names. Difference between this project and others, is this is a time capsule, the names come with ranks, units and other information EXACTLY when the award was made, so an RK Hauptmann winner's name would maybe be a leutnant when the EK was awarded.

This information will record also the accuracy of the data, whether its verified via sighting actual EK1 documents or papers, or endorsed via photos, or by default from higher awards

Check out my website, its listed on my signature. Its only in the beginning phases but I welcome and indeed am encouraging names to add to the list from the public which I will credit.

Jeff