Home > Reviews > Germany WWII > Elite 123: Knight’s Cross and Oak-Leaves Recipients 1941–45 |
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Here are the stories of 23 winners of this award, only one of them for successful high command with all the other being genuine battle honours. Some are Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine, but most are Heer (no Waffen-SS here I’m glad to say).
The book begins with a description of the Oak-Leave themselves and the award documentation, then give potted biographies of each Eichenlaubtraeger with details of their winning fights.
Among them are two anti-tank gunners, two Panzer officers and one NCO, one armoured reconnaissance officer, one Panzergrenadier officer, and three Fallschirmjaeger officers including a medical officer who led his unit in battle. Fighter pilots and U-boat commanders feature heavily as well, and though the ten mentioned will probably be the most interesting to Missing Links readers the others deserve attention too.
Each gets at least one photograph or contemporary sketch, and the plates show typical actions. All the illustrations and plates have good captions, and though none of the photos show the men in battle they still show some useful uniform details.
Recommended to anyone interested in the Oak-Leaves.
John Prigent
More
details from Osprey Publishing
Read
an extract at Osprey Publishing
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