Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A German Second World War Luftwaffe Pilot Observer’s Badge with Diamonds Citation to Oberst Hermann Graf

The Citation for the Luftwaffe Pilot Observer’s Badge in Diamonds to Oberst Hermann Graf. The citation is loose within its highly attractive folder, the folder is then placed inside a very nicely constructed presentation case, the outer case covered in a cream semi hard card simulated leather covering, which has the raised impression of the Luftwaffe eagle to the centre, the Luftwaffe impressed covering is then placed upon a box-like construction covered in a fawn coloured fibre material, the box itself constructed in a heavy hard card, the box is closed by two attractive bone closure pins. The interior removable folder highly attractive, again in a fawn leather over hard card, gilded twisted decoration edging with the central large form of the Goering Reich Marshall eagle in heavy gilt. The citation itself, which sits inside the folder exactly is constructed in vellum with the raised impression of the Luftwaffe eagle at the top, with a facsimile of the outer folder Reich Marshal eagle in raised relief to the lower part of the citation. In gold leaf it reads that this is a presentation of the Luftwaffe Pilots and Observer Badge in Gold with Diamonds, presented by the Reich Minister for the Luftwaffe and Commander-in-Chief. In dark printed lettering further information with the date left blank for the headquarters and the printed words of Reich Marshal above where a signature would normally occur. The construction of these elaborate documents during the Third Reich period were normally constructed by a number of artisans and sometimes involved separate companies. We firmly believe that this outer box and the folder for the citation have been constructed by one company and thus the interior covers of both the box and the cover are unfinished. The vellum document would be produced by a separate artisan within itself, then delivered to the box makers for completion and presentation, good condition and an extremely rare award citation of the Third Reich £3,000-£4,000

Oberst Hermann Graf was born in Baden, Germany, in 1912 and served during the Second World War as a Luftwaffe Pilot. He received the Knights Cross to the Iron Cross on the 27 December 1941 following his 42nd victory in combat. By May the following year his score of 104 enemy aircraft resulted in the award of the Oak Leaves to the Knights Cross on the 14 May 1942, followed immediately after by the Swords to the Oak Leaves of the Knights Cross. At that time he was only the 11th member of the German Armed Forces to have received the award at that level. By 16 September 1942 he was an Oberleutnant and Commander of the 5th Staffel Kapitan of the famous Jagdgeschwader 52 and by now with 172 victories, at the end of that month he achieved his 200th victory, the first Luftwaffe pilot to achieve this, gaining the nickname ‘The Hunter of Stalingrad’’, having destroyed 76 Soviet aircraft in only 4 weeks when he was flying from Pitonnik Airfield. On 29 March 1944 Graf rammed a U.S. fighter resulting in him being wounded and ceasing combat flying. On 17 May 1945 he led the remains of his unit into American captivity, who promptly handed him over to the Soviets, and he finally returned to Germany in December 1949. He made a total of 830 combat flights during the Second World War, shooting down 212 enemy aircraft, which included 10 western ones, 6 of those being four engine bombers and one a De Havilland Mosquito. He died in Rastatt, Baden, in 1988.

The Pilot Observer’s Badge with Diamonds is said to have been awarded only 27 times, including gifts to important military personalities such as Hermann Goering, Benito Mussolini, Admiral Donitz, Otto Skorzeny, and Field Marshals Rommel and Von Manstein. All of the famous aces received it including Molders, Galland, Wick, Rudel, Hartmann and Oesau. Graf is not listed as a recipient, but he would fit into the aces group and a number of photographs exist showing him wearing what appears to be the Pilot Observers Badge with Diamonds on his left breast pocket of his tunic above the Iron Cross First Class. Towards the end of hostilities many awards and awardees of many levels of all types never received their award documents and we believe that the award to Hermann Graf was a very late award, and was never completed and presented.

The only other award document known to exist to a German recipient of the Observer’s Badge with Diamonds was the one given to Robert Ritter Von Greim, dated 17 April 1945, his citation first appearing for sale at Phillips, London in the early 1970s, and further appearing for sale through Andreas Thies. It was also photographed on page 109 of Formans guide to Third Reich Documents and their values, Volume 2.