ORDEN ZA HRABROST (ORDER FOR BRAVERY)
The Bulgarian Military Order for Bravery, known in Bulgarian as Военен орден „За храброст“, was established on 1 January 1880 by decree of Prince Alexander of Battenberg as the first national order of the Principality of Bulgaria under Article 59 of the Tarnovo Constitution, which permitted decorations solely for battlefield valor. Modeled on the Order of Military Merit of the Grand Duchy of Hesse, it was designed exclusively for military personnel to reward exceptional courage and heroism in combat and was first conferred on 17 April 1880 to thirty-three veterans of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. The badge takes the form of a white- or red-enamelled Maltese cross with crossed swords between the arms, a central medallion bearing a crowned lion or the founder’s cypher, and the inscription „За храброст“, suspended from a sky-blue ribbon edged with silver stripes. Originally structured in four classes for officers and generals together with lower Soldier’s Crosses for non-commissioned officers and enlisted men, the order was refined in 1886 by the creation of a Grand Cross reserved for the ruling monarch as Grand Master and the division of the first class into two grades, with further wartime classes added in 1915. It was awarded extensively during the Serbo-Bulgarian War of 1885, the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, the First World War, and the Second World War, recognizing both Bulgarian and foreign recipients for deeds performed under fire. After the abolition of the monarchy the order ceased to exist on 15 September 1946, yet it was revived by the 39th National Assembly on 29 May 2003 and promulgated in 2004 as a state decoration of the Republic of Bulgaria. In its modern form the order comprises three degrees, awarded with swords to military personnel and without swords to civilians for acts of bravery and heroism benefiting Bulgarian society and the state, and is conferred by the President. Throughout its history the Military Order for Bravery has remained the pre-eminent symbol of martial honor in Bulgaria, embodying the nation’s tradition of recognizing selfless courage on the field of battle.
Oberst Dr. jur. Ernst Kupfer (1907-1943) was born on 2 July 1907 in Coburg, where he attended the Ernestium secondary school before completing a banking apprenticeship; after a period of unemployment he finished his Abitur and studied jurisprudence for several semesters at the University of Heidelberg, earning his Dr. jur. degree on 4 March 1937. On 1 October 1928 he entered military service with the 5. Eskadron of the 17. Bayerisches Reiterregiment of the Reichswehr, rising through the ranks of the Heer to Rittmeister before transferring to the Luftwaffe in 1939 and undergoing training as a Stuka pilot. Assigned in September 1940 to Sturzkampfgeschwader 2 „Immelmann“, he soon became Staffelkapitän of the 7. Staffel (nicknamed 7. Schwadron in reference to his cavalry background) and flew his first combat sorties during Unternehmen Merkur over Crete. On 22 May 1941 he contributed decisively to the sinking of the British cruiser HMS Gloucester with a direct hit; later, during attacks on the Soviet Baltic Fleet at Kronstadt in September 1941, he claimed a cruiser and scored a 1 000 kg bomb hit on the battleship Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya, yet was himself shot down three times by ground fire, the final crash leaving him with multiple skull-base fractures, other broken bones and severe concussion. While still in hospital he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 23 November 1941 as Hauptmann and Staffelkapitän 7./StG 2 „Immelmann“ after approximately 260 sorties. Recovered, he assumed command of II. Gruppe / StG 2 on 1 April 1942 as Major, once landing under fire beside a downed crew to rescue them; for his bold leadership of the Staffeln against the factory districts of Stalingrad and for completing his 500th combat mission he received the Eichenlaub on 8 January 1943. Promoted to Geschwaderkommodore of StG 2 in March 1943, he directed the unit through the Kuban battles and Operation Citadel at Kursk, temporarily commanding the ad-hoc Gefechtsverband „Kupfer“. In September 1943 he was appointed General der Schlachtflieger and Oberstleutnant, advocating the replacement of the Ju 87 and Hs 123 by the Fw 190. After 636 combat missions he was killed on 6 November 1943 when the Heinkel He 111 in which he was returning from an inspection flight crashed in bad weather in the Belasiza mountains roughly 60 km north of Thessaloniki; posthumously promoted to Oberst, he was awarded the Schwerter on 11 April 1944 for his personal and command successes over the Kuban, Kursk and the Orel salient.
SS-Obersturmbannführer Max Wünsche (1914-1995) was born on 20 April 1914 in Kittlitz and joined the SS in July 1933, graduating from the SS-Junkerschule at Bad Tölz in 1935 as SS-Untersturmführer before serving as a platoon leader in the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. In October 1938 he became an orderly officer in the Führerbegleitkommando, then in January 1940 rejoined the LSSAH as platoon commander in the 15. Kradschützen-Kompanie under Kurt Meyer during the Western Campaign, earning both classes of the Iron Cross and promotion to SS-Hauptsturmführer. As adjutant to Sepp Dietrich he took part in the Balkan and Barbarossa campaigns, later commanding the SS-Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 1 and, after staff training, the I. Abteilung of SS-Panzer-Regiment 1 as SS-Sturmbannführer. During the Third Battle of Kharkov in February 1943 his battalion broke through to Alexejewka to relieve Kurt Meyer’s encircled force and, on 25 February, on his own initiative launched an enveloping armoured attack near Jeremejewka against a strong Soviet column of the 350th Rifle Division, destroying 24 long 7.62 cm guns, 13 short 7.62 cm guns, 10 4.5 cm anti-tank guns, six 12.2 cm guns, one 10.5 cm gun, 300–400 sleds and numerous other weapons while inflicting 800–900 enemy dead for only five dead and fourteen wounded of his own, actions for which he received the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold that same day and the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes three days later as Kommandeur of the I./SS-Panzer-Regiment 1. In June 1943 he was appointed Kommandeur of the newly forming SS-Panzer-Regiment 12 of the 12. SS-Panzer-Division Hitlerjugend, promoted to SS-Obersturmbannführer in January 1944, and led the regiment from its first combat near Authie after the Allied landings, destroying 219 enemy tanks west of Caen by early July and preventing an Orne bridgehead at Amayé-sur-Seulles and Saint-André-sur-Orne on 28–29 June, for which he was awarded the Eichenlaub on 11 August 1944. Wounded while attempting to break out of the Falaise Pocket, he was captured by British forces on 24 August 1944, held in Camp 165 at Caithness until 1948, then returned to Germany, worked as an industrial manager in Wuppertal, and died in Munich on 17 April 1995.
Source :
https://alifrafikkhan.blogspot.com/2013/03/album-foto-tokoh-third-reich-peraih.html
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