Germany, Third Reich. The War Merit Cross, by Gordon Williamson and Josef Charita

Hardcover, entitled "The War Merit Cross" by Gordon Williamson and Josef Charita, First Edition, copyrighted by Gordon Williamson in 2005, published by R. James Bender Publishing of San Jose, California, printed in China, ISBN 1-932970-06-1. It chronicles in great detail the history of the War Merit Cross through the extensive use of detailed text and photographs. As stated on the back cover: "The War Merit Cross awards have always been seen as somewhat of a "poor relation" to the Iron Cross. While the lower grades of the War Merit Cross series were indeed issued in large numbers, the range of recipients and reasons for which the award was bestowed make a fascinating subject for study. The First Class without Swords, being issued some 91,239 times, is in fact  a scarcer award than the Iron Cross First Class, and the Knight's Cross, bestowed less than 300 times is far G62420rarer than its Iron Cross equivalent. This book provides a full-color and in-depth coverage of the awards themselves, with detailed studies of original examples and variants from a wide range of manufacturers. The reader is also given a full listing - in most cases with accompanying biographical details - of all known recipients of the Knight's Cross of the War Merit Cross. This is the most accurate listing published to date (2005), and is the result of many years of research." It begins with a Table of Contents, followed by an Acknowledgements, an Introduction and an Historical Perspective. The book is divided into nine chapters: 1. The War Merit Cross 1939; 2. The War Merit Medal; 3. The War Merit Cross Second Class; 4. The War Merit Cross First Class; 5. The German Cross in Silver; 6. The Knight's Cross of the War Merit Cross (The Golden Knight's Cross of the War Merit Cross); 7. The 1957 "Ordens Gesetz" War Merit Crosses; 8. Holders of the Knight's Cross of the War Merit Cross with Swords (biographies of 267 recipients); 9. Holders of the Knight's Cross of the War Merit Cross without Swords (biographies of 58 recipients). The book contains 458 pages of text in English, printed in four-color inks, on a coated paper stock, with images printed on the front and back covers in colour, measuring 157 mm (w) x 233 mm (h) x 33 mm (d). It exhibits a slight dent on the bottom of the front cover where it butts the spine, however, the pages within remain pristine. Near extremely fine.