The search is on for the rightful owner of the lucky German medal pierced by a bullet during the Battle of Mons in 1914.
The Story
The lucky German medal saved a German WWI soldier by the name of Gustav Litner during the Great War’s battle of the Mons which occurred the year the conflict broke out. The said two-inch thick silver German medal stopped a Lee-Enfield rifle bullet fired by a British soldier from burrowing itself into Litner’s chest; it just left it bruising.
According to the current owner of the German medal, its story goes like this.
The German medal was a a campaign decoration of honor every German soldier was given before they actually entered the First World War. Litner kept his in a neck purse.
When a British soldier took a shot at him with his 303 Lee-Enfield round, the bullet luckily hit the medal he had on his neck. It went through the purse and pierced the war decoration but the latter stopped it from going completely through. The lucky German medal saved Litner’s life and only gave him a severe bruise, said its current owner.
Shrouded in Mystery
Litner went on to wear his life-saving German medal along with the purse throughout the Great War as a reminder of his close-to-death encounter.
The German soldier went on to survive the rest of the conflict.
However, how the German medal ended up in Britain, in the hands of a British family, remains a mystery.
All they knew was that Gustav Litner gifted it to an unnamed British soldier at the end of WWII. Furthermore, apart from being a part of the 104th Saxonry regiment during the Great War, little is known about the German medal’s original owner, Gustav Litner.
The Search is On
Nonetheless, the present owner of the German medal, a relative of the British soldier whom Litner gifted the hardware to during the Second World War, wants to return it to its rightful owner.
The owner had approach BBC’s Antiques Roadshow in a bid to locate the Litner family or any relations of the German WWI soldier Gustav Litner. The episode was shown last Sunday, January 11.
As for Roadshow presenter Fiona Bruce, she believes that the current owner’s sentiments are very noble and hopes that the lucky German medal will really find its way back home.