Jump to content
News Ticker
  • I am now accepting the following payment methods: Card Payments, Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal
  • Latest News

    Wound Medal


    Riley1965

    Recommended Posts

    • Replies 63
    • Created
    • Last Reply

    Top Posters In This Topic

    Interesting bar.

    Unusual he didn't get a Hungarian or Austrian commemorative medal.

    Yes, I agree. It is unusual and even strange that he had no Austrian or/and Hungarian commemorative medals. Since this is an Austrian bar, perhaps he or the inheritors separated that/those medals from the bar for any reason, and by the time that/those got lost.

    cimbineus

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Let me show you an interesting Wound Medal. It is made of BRONZE and not the well known zinc alloy "Kriegsmetal". Here it is:

    The bar has been put together way after the Great War (at least not until 1934), so it may be possible this medal in bronce is a later replacement. Or were those officially given out, too? When they started to award those I think they did use zinc only, I'd guess.

    I used to have another one, quite interresting I think: made from Aluminium!

    Edited by saschaw
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    I have been doing some research on what medals to put on my Hungarian WWII generals tunic over the past few months. Mostly buying the medals to put on the tunic. Last night, while reviewing my selection of medals as a result of my most recent purchase for the tunic, I came across the ribbon bar shown below. It is the field ribbon bar of a major general and shows the five wounds ribbon in wear. This is a big help for me as that is what I wanted to put on my generals tunic but wanted some proof that this would be a reasonable thing to do. I think this fits in rather well with this wound badge thread.

    The picture is from the book "Die ungarischen Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes" by Attila ?ttot Kov?cs.

    Regards,

    Gordon

    Edited by Gordon Craig
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Riley1965,

    The easiest way to answer your question about what the medals are in the ribbon bar is to post the pages from the same book which list his awards. The ribbons, when read from your left to right, from top to bottom, seem to follow the printed list of awards well until you get to the last row. I am not an expert by any means on Austro-Hungarian ODMs and am not sure about the last row.

    Cheers,

    Gordon

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Guest Rick Research

    That is an absolutely ASTONISHING array of awards. He had an extraordinary--literally-- WW1 career as he passed through the brief cadet phase in becoming an officer-- THREE bravery Medals including the nothing higher GOLD class.

    He had to have been virtually indestructible-- wounded at least 5 times in the First war (and decorated 8 times!!!), survived TWO sets of imprisonment under the Communists... and still made it until 1967 as an abused, friendless manual laborer.

    Amazing.

    Simply amazing.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Riley1965,

    Here are the first five;

    1-Hungarian Order of Merit, Commander's Cross on War Ribbon, with Swords

    2-Hungarian Order of Merit, Officers Cross with War Decoration and Swords

    3-Imperial Austrian Order of the Iron Crown, 3rd Class with War Decoration and Swords

    I didn't notice the difference when I said earlier that the list of awards seems to follow the ribbon bar. It does up to here then things get a bit messy.

    4-Hungarian Order of Merit, Knights Cross on War Ribbon - this order isn't in the list of awards but I think this is what the ribbon on the bar stands for. Another picture in the book suggests that this award was presented with swords as well. I thnk the miniature indicating this is probably missing from the ribbon.

    5-Hungarian Order of Merit, Knights Cross-the ribbon here would have been green and though the one on the bar is faded that is what the original colour probably was.

    I hope that I have this correct. As I said before, not an expert by any means. If there is a mistake hopefully someone will correct it.

    Regards,

    Gordon

    Edited by Gordon Craig
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    VJK,

    Very interesting picture. Sz?gyi appears to be wearing the rank of Leutnant in this photograph. Since he was promted to Leutnant (der Reserve) in 24.07.1915 and promoted to Captain in 01.11.1917 he would have only worn that rank for that period. We can narrow the date of the photo even more as he is wearing the wound medal for five would and he was in the hospital from 02.12.1915 until 01.04.1916. So the photo was probably taken sometime between 01.04.1916 and 01.11.1917..

    Regards,

    Gordon

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Hi,

    Is not the officer in the photo (vez?rőrnagy (Major General) Vit?z Zolt?n Sz?gyi ?) wearing a Hungarian regency period (1920-1945) uniform?

    Regards,

    Ian

    Edited by Ian
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Ian,

    I am putting my previous post here;

    VJK,

    Very interesting picture. Sz?gyi appears to be wearing the rank of Leutnant in this photograph. Since he was promted to Leutnant (der Reserve) in 24.07.1915 and promoted to Captain in 01.11.1917 he would have only worn that rank for that period. We can narrow the date of the photo even more as he is wearing the wound medal for five would and he was in the hospital from 02.12.1915 until 01.04.1916. So the photo was probably taken sometime between 01.04.1916 and 01.11.1917..

    I am not an expert in uniforms from this period but from the rank of the collar this is unlikely to have been taken in the Horthy era. Uniforms like the one pictured were worn in both periods. Here are two pictures from the book ?A Haz??rt 2004 - A MAGYAR HONV?DS?G M?LTJA JELENE? showing similar uniforms in wear from both 1918 and the Horthy era.

    Note what I said above was a mistake that I made when transcribing from my reference book to this thread. Sz?gyi was promoted to Leutnant, one star on the collar, on 01.05.1915 and to Oberleutnant, two stars on the collar, on 01.11.1917. Therefore, the photo had to have been taken prior to 01.11.1917 and he could not possibly have been wearing a Horthy uniform.

    Regards,

    Gordon

    Edited by Gordon Craig
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Gordon,

    You may well be correct and I hasten to add that I am not an expert on the uniforms of the Horthy era either, but I offer up this comment. The last ribbon depicted on the uniform looks very much like the Austrian 'ERINNERUNGSMEDAILLE fur WELTKRIEGSTEILNEHMER 1914 - 1918' and as I understand it this medal was not issued until the very late 1920's/early 1930's.

    Also the devices worn on the other ribbons are not something that I have seen worn on war time ribbon bars. The order of precedence seems to indicate Hungarian as opposed to Austro-Hungarian.

    Regards,

    Ian

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Good Morning Gordon,

    Thank You VERY much my friend!!! Every bit helps me learn more as I step into the "Imperial ring".

    :beer: Doc

    Doc,

    I am afraid I am going to be busy for the next litle while and won't have time to post pictures of the medals as I said that I would. I suggest that you go to this URL and I am sure you will find all of the info that you need to start your study of Imperial awards.

    http://www.akm.externet.hu/rendjel/index_en.htm

    Regards,

    Gordon

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Create an account or sign in to comment

    You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

    Create an account

    Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

    Register a new account

    Sign in

    Already have an account? Sign in here.

    Sign In Now



    ×
    ×
    • Create New...

    Important Information

    We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.