Hi All,
I've attached some photos of the medal itself and the leather pouch it came in. We don't really have much provenance around it as it was given to my grandad by his late sister's husband.
Some of the family served in WW2 as British infantry. There was also a Nazi detention camp nearby to where they lived (in Enfield, London), and where some friends of family members worked.
I was wondering if from those details and the pictures anyone could provide any more information? Like the class of the cross and under what conditions it was issued, and the significance of the 1813 date on the back?
Hope this meets all the conditions of the sub - let me know if not.
Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/fVSQY0C
This appears to be an Iron Cross 2nd Class from 1939. They're not particularly rare as around 4.5m were awarded over the course of the war, so it's entirely possible one of your family picked one up off the battlefield but without any documentation or more information it's impossible to tell who it belonged to. They were generally awarded for acts of bravery in the field or for other exemplary service; Hitler himself was awarded both the Second and First Class Iron Cross during the First World War. The Iron Cross was first awarded by Friedrich Wilhelm III in 1813 which is where the date comes from.