In real life some medals were rarely given to ordinary crew. For instance, the Knights Cross was only awarded a few times to petty officers and for incredible bravery. To receive the Knights Cross you already had to be given the Iron Cross 1ste and 2de class and the German Cross in Gold (after 1941 of course). Even the German Cross in Gold was rare to see on anything below the rank of officer. Iron Crosses 2de class were more common as they could be awarded to an entire crew at once after a particularly successful patrol.
in many cases the captain had to write a letter of recommendation to the office of the BDU in order to get the medal. Sometimes the BDU told the captain that he may hand out a certain number of medals and that he had to decide who got them depending on his own judgment. I can imagine that this might have lead to asslicking and favoritism.
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