Julius Poppel's Knights Cross Award Grouping

German WWII > Awards and Medals > Iron Cross Series > Knights Cross

Your chance to purchase a RK grouping that will be featured in an upcoming reference!
We have here a five piece Julius P?ppel grouping. It consists of an early photo of him, his Soldbuch, a Silver Tank Destruction Strip, his knights cross preliminary award document and finally a Knights Cross by K&Q!
Julius P?ppel of the German Army was a Platoon Leader (Wachtmeister Zugführer) in the 5th Company (5. Kompanie) of the 26 Panzer-Grenadier-Division (Panzergrenadier-Regiment 26, 24). He was awarded several awards including four Silver Tank Destruction Strips and the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross (on December 31st 1944). He was issued his Soldbuch on the 29th of August 1939. See pages 22 and 23 for his list of awards it includes Knights Cross, 2nd Class Iron Cross, 4 Silver Tank Destruction Strips (3 us Sherman tanks, 1 t34 Russian tank), Russian Front medal and 1st Class Iron Cross (http://en.ww2awards.com/person/39227).
The Knights Cross is Klein and Quenzer's second model. It is a die struck, three-piece construction (single piece, black painted iron (magnetic) core and two piece frosted silver frame). The obverse features a larger pattee style cross with a centrally placed embossed mobile swastika, above an embossed "1939" (Hitler's re-institution date) all in black with a patinaed, frosted, ribbed and flat border. The reverse is a mirror image of the obverse except with no swastika and an embossed "1813" (the original institution date) where the "1939" is, all within that same border. To the top of the cross is an integral ring. Just below the ring, to the reverse side, is the silver content designation "800". A suspension loop is attached to the ring and is also correctly marked with the Prasidialkanzlei (PZK) number, "65" (Klein and Quenzer) and again with the silver content designation "800". The frosted border of the cross has wonderfully aged and patinaed with time. The black matte finished paint looks excellent and is fully retained! The cross measures 48.72mm by 54.98mm and weighs 30.4 grams. It is a textbook example. For more information see pages 198-204 of Dietrich Maerz's book "The Knights Cross of the Iron Cross". The Knights cross comes with its preliminary award document that is dated 24.12.1944. It is in poor condition. P?ppel is listed here in the List of Knights Cross award recipients : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Knight%27s_Cross_of_the_Iron_Cross_recipients_(P)
P?ppel's Soldbuch has no photo and half of page 2 is missing. It has complete full of entries, some pages are slightly torn and soiled, showing age and extensive use (KC entered, page 21; also panzer destruction badge-noting 4 tanks destroyed, including one T-34). The Soldbuch in poor condition yet shows great quantity of information!
The tank destruction strip features a centrally placed, die stuck, steel based, blackend tank, that is secured by a plate and three prongs to a machine embroidered, silver bullion cloth. The cloth has two horizontal black cotton lines running through it. The wool to the back is missing. The tank is beautiful and elegantly displays lot of detail! Just look at all of the wheels and gears! The cloth is well worn. Nice piece all the same!
Also accompanying this grouping is an earlier 6 1/2 x 9 inch photo of P?ppel. With some further research I was also able to find this link shows a later photo of him: http://www.das-ritterkreuz.de/index_search_db.php4?modul=search_result_det&wert1=4860
Of course it's impossible to prove that this exact Knights Cross and Tank Destruction Strip were P?ppel's. The photo, soldbuch and knights cross preliminary award document were his. This grouping has been sold on emedals website, (still there on last look) and now offered at my pricing, and discussed on Wehrmacht Awards. It's an awesome set for someone looking to create an individual's grouping.
Note 8/18: We have been contacted by Daniel Luwenhamn who has requested pics of this cross as it will be freatured in his upcoming book on RK winners who received the tank destruction badge.