Show your Nordfront-Kreuz!

[Glenn66]

One of the recent additions to my collection is this Pohjoisrintamamerkki (Nordfront-Kreuz).

Research (mainly from German-Finnish Crosses) has brought me the understanding that there were three commemorative badges issued to Finnish and German military personnel who fought the Red Army in Karelia, Lapland and the Murmansk region in 1941-1944. Marshal Mannerheim of Finland ordered the badges to be handed out to Germans while the Finns had to purchase their own. In the case of Germany the badges had no official standing and thus no corresponding entry in Soldbuch and Wehrpass was provided.

Apparantly twelve variants of this series of badges existed. The Nordfront-Kreuz (North Front Cross), the Lapplandfront-Kreuz (Lapland Front Cross) and the Eismeerfront-Kreuz (Arctic Front Cross) )(there goes my hopes of collecting the entire set)

All the badges had the form of a dark blue enameled equilateral (35x35 mm) Teutonic cross that had silvered fragments of a Finnish short-armed swastika between its arms carrying the names of combat operation areas executed in capital letters.

A white or black enameled central round medallion embroidered by a golden oak leaves wreath was superimposed on a cross.

All badges were screw back and worn on the left breast pocket.

The North Front Cross medallion carried a red enameled shield with a stylized Finnish coat-of-arms, i.e. golden rampant lion and two national flags – Finnish and German above. Depending on a pattern two dates “1941-42” or “1941-43” were situated between flagstaffs. The name of a badge in golden capital letters was placed at the bottom and run in a semicircle: “Pohjoisrintama – Die Nordfront”.

The arms of the Finnish swastika carried names of four military campaigns: Salla, Kiestinki, Uhtua and Petsamo.







IMO the North Front Cross is the most common, the Lapland and the Arctic Cross less so, but I'd like to see other members examples to see if between us we can present examples of all 12 variants.

Don't be shy gents, show your crosses!

Cheers,

Glenn

[Adrian]

Good idea for a thread Glenn, I hope we can get the full set shown here!

[Dean]

Nice one, Glenn! as for others,I know Karell Gott has some!

[Adrian Stevenson]

I first saw one of these around 1980. My dealer friend rated it highly and wanted £65 back then. This was when most war badges were about £16 each.....Sadly I never bought it.

Cheers, Ade.

[TrondK]

Nice and decorative badge. I like the way it looks.

[Glenn66]

No-one else has any variants of this award?

[Adrian]

Looks like you're own your own so far Glenn, best hit the dealer sites and dust off the credit card......

[Jan]

Every now and then there are crosses of these types for sale on this ver trustworthy Finnish militaria site!

Kunniamerkkejä ja militariaa

Best,


Jan

[Glenn66]

Cheers Jan, I was actually hoping someone else might have one or more of the variants already...I don't really want to have to collect them all myself!

[Jan]

I used to own one but sold it in the late 1980´s same maker as yours!

Best,

Jan