[Larry deZeng]

"Kr.O." = Kriegsoffizier.

Kriegsoffiziere (Kr.O.): Temporary Officers; ex-professional NCOs who were given temporary officer rank at the beginning of the war. The category was made permanent in 1942. From 1942 on to the end of the war, many NCOs and others were given temporary wartime commissions to the ranks of Leutnant, Oberleutnant and Hauptmann.