Germany, Wehrmacht. A War Merit Cross I Class with Swords and Case, by Kerbach & Oesterhelt United Republic of aluminum alloy

aluminum alloy

with a barrel hinge and horizontal banjo-style pinback meeting a round wire catch

in silver with a silver support plate

circumscribed with DEUTSCHES ROTES KREUZ HELFERIN in German Gothic script

on the rim

Germany, Wehrmacht. A War Merit Cross I Class with Swords and Case, by Kerbach & Oesterhelt United Republic of aluminum alloy(Kriegsverdienstkreuz I. Klasse mit Schwertern und Etui). Constructed of silvered tombak, the obverse consisting of a Maltese Cross with pebbled arms and with crossed swords piercing the centrepiece, the latter consisting of a wreathed mobile swastika, the reverse with a raised barrel hinge and early issue flattened vertical pinback meeting a flat wire catch, unmarked but demonstrating the characteristics of manufacture by Kerbach & Oesterhelt,