Regarding the knights cross and above: There were two types of documents. One, the actual document as posted above, the other the "vorläufiges Besitzzeugnis", a document signed by the unit commander, which was valid until the Ritterkreuz was officially awarded in a ceremony. This was mainly done in the case of the Heer when there was no opportunity for such a ceremony (After all, one could not stop fighting just to sent an officer to Berlin to get a medal).
Since this is not the case in the Kriegsmarine, one should probably disregard that. But just to post an example of such a Heer document (I cannot vouch for the authenticity):
