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Thoughts on this medal please

This one looks OK

I think I would leave that one.

Hi John, war time Souvals had a wire type retaining catch, as far as I know this is the only way to tell for sure as Souval continued to make these crosses into the 1970's. I think it's impossible to tell on the flat type retaining catch which you have posted whither it's war time or not, but the consensus seems to be the flat type retaining catches are post war until proven otherwise. Here is the wire type retaining catch which is accepted as wartime.

Here's an A.R.P. Illustrated Practical Guide booklet, I've scanned a few pages you may find of interest. The chapter on Domestic Surface Shelters I can relate to personally. When we moved to Skegness we bought a Semi-Detached house build in the late 1930s, this was in 2002 which still had one of these shelters still standing in the rear garden build of brick and had a concrete roof of at least 5 inches thick, it was a type F as depicted in this booklet and stood about 8 feet away from the house. Next door had demolished their half of it and as far as I know was the only one left standing on the street, there was not much room in side them you could get two people sitting down or four people standing. they were about the size of a small tool shed and that's what I used it for. How practical they would have been during the war I don't know, but if the house had been hit with a 500lb bomb I think the blast would have took the shelter with it. As far as I know it's still there.it was in 2010 when we moved up North.

Hi guys, I have a Luftschutz Medal award document awarded to a D.R.K. Hauptfuhrer for services to the Luftschutz dated 1941. I'm trying to find out what rank a Hauptfuhrer was - ie was he a Captain or of higher rank, not having much luck.................anybody know. Here's a photo of a group of D.R.K. members.

Cheers Kenny.

Hi Colin, Hauptfuhrer would be the equivalent to Hauptmann which is a Captain

Thanks Mr B. I know he would have worn a shoulder board with 2 pips, so i'm thinking Captain ?.

A SS Hauptscharfuhrer is the rank of the British Coy Sgt-Major, and a SS Hauptsturmfuhrer is that of a Captain. Hope this helps.