Hello, My grandfather passed recently and as my mother was going through his things we found my great grandfather's Purple Heart from WW2. In the case we found a few other items that we cannot identify and I would love if someone could assist us in figuring these out.
Obviously there are the people heart related items, though we aren't sure what the purple bar and small pin at the top are for. I assume used in uniform dress in some fashion.
In the bottom left we believe we have some kind of infantryman pin?
In the bottom right we have the piece of shrapnel pulled out of his back which is why he received the Purple Heart.
On the right hand side we have some bar of some type (closer photo included) that we have no idea what these signify.
On the left it seems we have an Iron Cross, I have included more pictures of this piece specifically. We have no idea what this Iron Cross means or where he would have gotten it from. Maybe something he took off of a German soldier or found during the war?
Any assistance with identifying these items would be greatly appreciated and would mean a lot to my mom and myself.
To the left of the Purple Heart is an iron cross marksman badge. It’s upside down in the picture and would have had another piece attached to it that has the name of the weapon the badge was earned with. (Rifle, pistol, etc.)
Bottom left is his infantry regimen crest.
Top is the Purple Heart uniform ribbon
Middle right is the army good conduct ribbon, I believe that would have been brown with white stripes. Probably yellow looking stripes now because of how old it is.
Could the bottom right ribbon be a legion of merit award?
And I believe the top right is one of the ww2 campaign ribbons with a bronze star device attached.
Those ribbons are definitely discolored with age. But still very cool to have.