Feldgrau.net

My grandfather, who was fighting on the Eastern Front was wounded in the Dnjepr battles on 12/14/1943, and was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class for his involvement in the actions leading up to being wounded. From my understanding, he was a pioneer/machine gunner. He never talked about it. He recently passed away, and we only found out afterwards that he had received the EK2 (when cleaning up the house, we found some old letter correspondence with his wife-to-be during the war). Any suggestions what kind of action the EK2 was typically awarded in a battle like that? Also, we could not find the EK2 anywhere. Is there a way to objectively verify this (such as a Bundesstelle for ...)?

Thanks, much obliged.

The criteria for EK2 award...
outstanding service of combatant personnel and for bravery in the face of the enemy.

Almost 5 million EK2's were awarded between 1939 and 1945, so verification is easiest from Soldbuch entries.

WAS[t] records should show when the award was made. Damned inconvenient though as the records don't show the reason for the award.

- Hans