As Benten says an interesting detail is (what appears to be) niello upon the shanks, sometimes niello was also incorporated into the cartouche design, or upgraded with golden highlights. Agree with his assessment that it’s a ready made campaign blank with a niello set pattern that was ready made for the soldier with personalization. 1941 was the founding of the dak, nothing to do with campaign dates, but yes- 1942 was of course a fighting year and an occupation (at least part of the year) year for the dak in North Africa. I think it’s an interesting piece, my thought is it was a German soldier who had obviously not looked into the crystal ball too deeply as to what would come at the end of 1942 and 43,44 etc. Maybe just wanted it made with the date he was there, as campaign pieces tend to be. We know the official patterned and sold dak rings in catalogs had a classic design but of course a traditional dak 41 date with swas and often palm tree etc.