THE HISTORICALLY INTERESTING NAZI GERMANY WAR MERIT CROSS, 2nd CLASS, WITHOUT SWORDS, RETRIEVED BY CAPTAIN ARCHIBALD COOPER, ROYAL NAVY, FROM THE RUINS OF HITLER'S REICH CHANCELLERY IN BERLIN IN 1946, ALONG WITH A MANUSCRIPT LETTER OF PROVENANCE SIGNED BY CAPTAIN COOPER.
Nazi Germany, War Merit Cross, 2nd class, without swords (unnamed, as issued). With a replacement suspension ring and a length of modern ribbon, otherwise Good Very Fine.
The letter of provenance, ink on headed notepaper, written and signed by Captain Cooper and dated 16/12/1946, reads as follows:
"Dear Angus, here is the Iron Cross (sic) I picked up in the Chancellery in Berlin in 1946 for your collection. Happy Xmas. Yours sincerely, Archibald Cooper" .
NOTE: Captain Cooper mistakenly identifies this medal in his letter to "Angus" as an "Iron Cross", the medal enclosed with his letter in fact being a War Merit Cross.
Medal and letter accompanied by copied service record for the period 1903-1920, extract, "Who Was Who 1971-1980" and coped extracts London Gazettes and Navy Lists of the period.
Captain Archibald Frederick Cooper, C.B.E. (1885-1975) was the son of Major T.F. Cooper, Royal Artillery, Born 7th March 1885 and educated Brighton Grammar School, he entered the navy as an Assistant Clerk, 15/1/1903, was promoted Clerk, 3/4/1905, Assistant Paymaster, 8/4/906, Acting Paymaster, 27/10/1916, Paymaster, 19/4/1920, and Paymaster Commander, 7/3/1924.
Cooper was Secretary to the Naval Secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty, 1927-29 Secretary to the Commander in Chief, East Indies, 1929-32, Secretary to the Commander in Chief, Plymouth, 1932-35, Deputy Judge-Advocate of the Fleet, 1935-46, and retired from the Royal Navy with the rank of Captain in 1946.
In retirement Captain Cooper initially saw "Special Service" in Germany, October 1946 to May 1947 and was subsequently employed by the Ministry of Supply as a Principal Officer and Assistant Director, in 1947.
Captain Cooper died 13/4/1975. At the time of his death he was resident at Horns Hill Lodge, Westerham (the address on the signed letter of provenance that accompanies this medal)
Captain Cooper was appointed OBE, New Year's Honours List, 1/1/1919 "In recognition of valuable services rendered in connection with the war", and promoted CBE, New Year's Honours List, 1/1/1944.
Captain Cooper kept a diary during his period as Secretary to the Commander in Chief of the East Indies Station, 1929-32, which is currently housed in the Imperial War Museum's Department of Documents.
Some of Captain Cooper's orders and medals, his full size Order of the Crown of Belgium and British campaign medals only, along with a complete set of miniatures of all his orders and medals, are currently held by the National Maritime Museum.
During his career with the Royal Navy Captain Cooper was awarded the Naval General Service Medal 1909-1962 with Persian Gulf 1909-1914 clasp, 1914-15 Star trio, Order of the Crown of Belgium (Officer), 1918, Star of Ethiopia (3rd Class, 1930), the Jubilee Medal 1935, Coronation Medal 1937, France & Germany Star, 1939-45 War and Defence Medals.
The following obituary for Captain Cooper was published in The Mariners Mirror:
"We regret to record the death of Captain Archibald Frederick Cooper, C.B.E., R.N., on 13 April 1975. Born in 1885, he became Secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty in 1927 and was Deputy Judge Advocate of the Fleet from 1935 to 1936".
Given Captain Cooper's legal training with regard to military matters, his "Special Service" in Germany during the period October 1946 to May 1947, during which period he retreived this War Merit Cross from the ruins of Hitler's Reich Chancellery, Captain Cooper may perhaps have been posted to Germany in order to assist in the hunt for and prosecution of Nazi war criminals. His activities in Germany thus perhaps worthy of investigation in this regard.
The Reich Chancellery in Berlin was Adolph Hitlers headquarters from 1933 to 1945. The complex of buildings included the bunker, the Fuhrerbunker, where Hitler committed suicide in May 1945, which was accessed directly from the garden of the Reich Chancellery.
By the end of the Second World War the complex of buildings that made up the Reich Chancellery, which had been built by Albert Speer to a design proposed by Adolph Hitler, and which included underground air raid shelters and the underground bunker, the Fuhrer Bunker, were seriously damaged by allied bombing, and almost completely destroyed during the Battle of Berlin in 1945. The remaining, above-ground ruins were subsequently demolished, but some corridors of the Chancellery's subterranean bunkers still exist, though they are currently sealed off from the public.
Provenance: Woolley and Wallis, Salisbury, 20/4/2011, lot 817.
Medal accompanied by printed copy of auctioneer's description and catalogue illustration.
When sold in 2011 this medal was lacking its suspension ring and ribbon. It now has a replacement suspension ring and a length of the correct pattern of ribbon attached.
