Hi, Ive been looking at pictures on google, and the WW1 iron cross ribbon on WW2 German uniforms seems to have a 1939 clasp thingy on it. Ive done some googling about it but nothing showed up. Any info on this??
thanks
Hi there bud,
You are referring to the Spange. This was awarded to ww1 Iron Cross holders. Not being able to be be awarded the Iron Cross again they would be awarded the Spange. The Eagle holding the 1939 banner.
Hope this helps bud
Regards
Peter
Forgot to say, there was also a Iron Cross first class version of the Spange. This was larger than the ribbon pin and would sit directly above the WW1 Iron Cross First Class.
Ah nice, thanks. So if someone had the WW1 Iron cross 2nd class, could they be awarded the WW2 First clas??
Well, in theory yes. But a Great War veteran would be in his '40s so a lot less likely to be undertaking the three or four "acts of conspicuous courage" needed to get an EK1.
Although to put a spanner in the works, Fallschirmjäger Martin Pöppel won his EKI in Holland with just one act of conspicuous bravery.
You've got nothing to ein, zwei, drei, vier
..and he was in his early 20s 
Here's a picture of a fellow with Spange for both EK1 AND EK2, which he was awarded whilst a General at the age of 50 
[link]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Friessner[/link]
One of my beefs with people wearing a ton of tin of their chests and pointing to a photo as justification is the guy in the photo was very different from a bog-standard soldier - which is why the photographer wanted a snap of them in the first place. I'll point you to the incredibly well written article on awards [link]http://www.ww2airsoft.org.uk/medals-and-awards/[/link]
Only one soldier out of 45 was awarded an EK1. If you narrow it down to soldiers over 40 years old it must be one out of hundreds - limit it further to those who also had an EK1 from the 14-18 war it's probably one out of thousands.
Ok, Thanks alot for the Infomation guys 
BTW - The word Spange rhymes with Clanger, not Sponge