125 - Document estate Schnelle Abteilung 223, West Wall Medal and Iron Cross

Document estate Schnelle Abteilung 223, West Wall Medal and Iron Cross Paper. Small estate of a soldier, four certificates of possession and award documents with portrait photograph: 1) Award document German West Wall Medal (Schutzwall-Ehrenzeichen), "für verdienstvolle Arbeit zum Schutze Deutschlands", Berlin, 30 January 1941, issued by the Minister of State and Head of the Presidential Chancellery, Fraktur print. 2) Award document Iron Cross 2nd Class for the lance corporal (Gefreiter) of Schnelle Abteilung 223, division command post, 13.2.1943, signed by the lieutenant general and divisional commander, official seal. 3) Certificate of possession Wound Badge in Black for the lance corporal of the 4th (cyclist squadron)/Schnelle Abteilung 223 after being wounded on 21 March 1943, Fraktur form completed in typescript. 4) Typewritten certificate of possession Infantry Assault Badge in Silver for the lance corporal of the 4th (reconnaissance squadron)/Schnelle Abteilung 223, "Im Felde", 29 April 1943, signed by the captain and detachment commander, official seal. With a half-length portrait of a soldier in field tunic with medal ribbon, ribbon bar and badges. Official seals with national eagle. Condition commensurate with age. The soldier's estate reaches from the West Wall Medal of 1941 into the war in the north of the Eastern Front. The German West Wall Medal, instituted on 2 August 1939, was awarded to workers of the Reich Labour Service, the Organisation Todt and soldiers for building the fortifications of the West Wall; by January 1941 it had been awarded more than 620,000 times, and the workers called the West Wall medal the "Lehmorden" (clay order). Schnelle Abteilung 223 emerged from Panzerjäger-Abteilung 223 of the 223rd Infantry Division, which had been raised in Wehrkreis IV Dresden in 1939; in 1941 the detachment received two cyclist squadrons and in August 1942 its new name. From November 1941 the 223rd Infantry Division fought with Army Group North at Schlüsselburg, on the Sinyavino Heights, at Mga and on the Volkhov, that is, in the siege ring around Leningrad; it was transferred to Ukraine in August 1943 and disbanded in November 1943. The Infantry Assault Badge in Silver required participation in three assaults on three different days of combat.