BACKGROUND: The Kuban Campaign Shield was instituted by Adolf Hitler on September 21ST 1943, as the last official campaign shield to see production and issue during the war. The shield was designed for award to personnel, in all branches of service, who had served in the defensive battles in the Crimean peninsula from February 1943 onward. Criteria for award of the shield dictated that personnel had to have been involved in at least one major engagement, served two months in the theatre or had been wounded in battle. The shields were bestowed by Knight’s Cross, Oak-leaves and Swords winner, Generalfeldmarschall Ewald von Kliest as the commanding officer of Army Group South Ukraine.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Die stamped, magnetic construction shield with a bronze wash featuring an embossed, stylized, national eagle with out-stretched wings, clutching a wreathed, canted, swastika in its talons, to the top center, with the swastika flanked by the embossed date, "1943". The eagle sits atop a horizontal bar with the embossed script, "Kuban". The bottom portion of the shield features an embossed serrated defensive line with the impressed, named, locations of the major engagements, "Lagunen, Krymskaja", and "Nuworo-ssijsk". Backing wool, prongs and plate all complete.