Lapland Shield

The Lapland Shield (German: Lapplandschild) was a World War II German military decoration awarded to military personnel of General Franz Böhme’s 20th Mountain Army which fought a two-front campaign against advancing Finnish and Soviet Red Army forces in Lapland between November 1944 and the war’s end in May 1945.

[1][2] With the shield having been approved and designed shortly before the war's end, early recipients had the award noted in their military pay book in March 1945.

However, presentation of the shield only began in July 1945, after Germany's surrender,[2][3] with some awards recorded in pay books as late as August 1945.

[2] At the end of the war, while the disarmed German forces in Lapland were awaiting repatriation, they remained under the command of their own officers and had a functioning military bureaucracy.

[4] The Lapland Shield was not among those Nazi era military decorations authorized for official wear by the Federal Republic of Germany in 1957.