Mondvor

The only reason why I was so full of emotions is because we have already discussed exactly same problems with screwback BHs some time ago. I posted many pictures, explained how original mintmark shood look, but it seems that people did not pay attention. Here is a topic http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=7777&st=0 and my explanation started from post # 57. It would be enough just to compare mintmark configuration.

Sorry, maybe I was too strict and rude. Emotions Just want to add that KILKA is a well known member on Russian forums. I think that on previous posts he gave enough evidences and illustrated them with graphical examples with detailed description.

Ed, what are you talking about? What other evidences do you need? I posted two pictures that explained how those fakes were made. Is that not enough???

This one is for BH. Just compare the mintmark. Half year ago I posted several pictures on this forum explaining HOW the mintmark on screwback BH should look like.

I really do not understand why some respected members of this forum prefer to ask PMD instead of using their own power of brains. Both RD and BH are converted from suspension variations and it is so obvious that even a beginner should see that. RB was made out of this variation (check below). Mintmark is the same. It also has totally replaced enamel and nice fake patina around screwpost.

Actually, this is the second book of Durov and Strekalov. The first one was about Order of Lenin and was higly proffessional issue as well. http://www.mirnagrad.ru/cgi-bin/exinform.c...=27&ppage=1 http://www.mirnagrad.ru/cgi-bin/exinform.c...=27&ppage=2 http://www.mirnagrad.ru/cgi-bin/exinform.c...=27&ppage=3 http://www.mirnagrad.ru/cgi-bin/exinform.c...=27&ppage=4 http://www.mirnagrad.ru/cgi-bin/exinform.c...=27&ppage=5 Another book is about to be published. Should be available in summer. It is about Badge of Honor by Oleg Derevyanko.

Here it is, sorry for the delay... Name: Aleksandr ?. (Erased) Rank: Captain of Quartermasters Service Position: The Head of Financial Department of 98th Independent Red Banner Tank Regiment Born: 1913 Nationality: Russian Party membership: None Participation in the war: Since June 26, 1941 on Western Front and Leningrad Front Wounds: Heavily wounded on July 24, 1941 Previous awards: Medal ?For the defense of Leningrad? During his two-year term of his service within the unit, comrade XXX spent lots of time and personal energy to organize the financial work in the Regiment in a best possible way. For his good organizational efforts he was granted with money awards several times. For his great results in the overfulfilment of the financial plan and his achievements in the depository plan he was granted with wrist watches. During the period of battles in January 1944 assault operations and battles on Karelian peninsula comrade XXX carefully monitored the human losses of the regimental personnel and did all paperwork about this issue on time. He promptly sent the notification letters to the families of dead heroes, so they can immediately started to receive their pensions (payments). Many times he personally came to the front lines to regulate financial issues with military personnel. He deserves the state award of the Red Star order. Commander of the 98th Independent Red Banner Tank Regiment Lt. Colonel Barilov. August 13, 1944

Sorry, my bad. I'll provide the complete translation very soon.

Belaruski, it is not only for "financial business". In citation it has mentioned that he was also in charge of sending official regret letters to the families of soldiers killed in action

Another very funny citation for Red Star.

Thanks for additional pictures

Forgot to tell that after the war he was the Deputy (Assistant) of the Head of collective-Farm "8th of March" in Leningrad Region.

Hello Andrew, Arhipov Pavel Mihajlovich. Born in 1911 in the village of M. Konezarye (Luga subregion, Leningrad region). Nationality - Russian. Non-party member. Education level - elementary. Military rank - Private. In Red Army from March 1944 till September 1945. Rank and position at the time of being awarded - Private, rifleman of 14th Rifle Regiment, 72nd "Pavlovsk" Red Banner Rifle Division. On June 10, 1944 during the breakthrough of a heavily fortified enemy defence line near the station of Beloostrov, comrade Arhipov with his machine-gun personally destroyed two enemy firing positions with their crew. During the forced crossing of the river Sestra he was the first to reach enemy trenches, where he personally killed up to platoon of Finnish soldiers. His action provided an opportunity for our advanced infantry units to move forvard with minimal losses. Signed by the commander of 14th Rifle Regiment Major Korolev. Just want to say that it is a really cool citation. The real hero he was. If you can, post the back of his award card as well.

IMHO, this book is original and problems-free document. First several awards listed in the book has been entered with the same handwriting, because it was made by the same person. Frolov received his war-time awards together with temporary certificates, which was a common practice during GPW. Only when the war was over, those certificates were exchanged for the orderbooks. Most of the exchanges happened during 1945-47. Normally the officer gave all his temporary certificates to the military clerk of his unit (or to the military clerk in local VOENKOMAT in case he was already retired from military service). This clerk transferred all award numbers from certificates to the orderbook, that's why handwriting is the same. At the same time this clerk filled out the Award Card. If you compare the handwriting on award cards and orderbooks you can find them to be the same in many cases. About the "Service to the Motherland" order... Well, if you open the book about HSUs and find Frolow there, you can see that he was awarded with this order. If the number is original we can tell only after his award card would come.

Ed, I think we have already discussed this BH and the document some time ago. I even placed several images to compare. Unfortunately I could not see them now. What happened to them?

Hello Ferdinand, Thanks for showing the numbers. GPW 44030 was made at Krasnokamsk Mint in a period from August to October 1943. GPW 296650 was produced by Leningrad Mint at July - November 1944, however most of them were bestowed only in 1945.

I found another Glory citation that in my opinion is unappropriate for this award. It is currently on EBay. Awarded to Sr. Sergeant who was a personal driver of the commander of 52nd Guards Rifle Division. I should say he was highly decorated driver - Red Star, Glory, Bravery Medal and Military Merit medal.

I see your position. I should say that "Sotheby's effect" was possible only because of the great value of the orders displayed there. All together they worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Your GPWs are cheap staff and nobody would bother to track them down. However it is your right not to show the numbers to the other forum members.

I can tell you when those GPWs were produced, however I'd like to see the serial number. Is it any reason to cover it? As far as I know people on this forum always display the numbers.

In Red Army the situation with food was really bad. In many memoirs has been described that very often soldiers didn't receive any food for the whole day. Even if they got some food, it was not enough to overcome the demand for calories, so the soldiers were always hungry. Because of that, the regular delivering of fresh hot food to the trenches was extremely important. Hungry soldier is not a warrior. When Russian soldier had an empty stomach, he didn't have a desire to fight. So a cook or a person in charge of food supply were important figures. Their good work was in a close connection with soldier's "high spirit".

Christian, because this case is interesting, I sent the images of Gnitienko's medals and documents to my friend and co-author Igor Pak. He didn't find anything wrong with this group, except the number. He agreed that most likely it is a clerk's mistake. However, he said that he would ask Georgy Grishko (the creator of the book with Glory numbers) about Gnitienko's case. Maybe he would be able to find something explaining this situation with a different 1st class numbers.

Unfortunately, on the images of the order that you posted earlier serial number is also invisible. That's why I asked. Thanks for the answer.

Order of Victory, in the award card it looks like the first Red Banner has s/n 35411. Maybe it is just my wrong impression because of not very sharp image. Can you tell what is in the document - 35411 or 36411? Thanks!

From this Gnitienko group there is only one question, but it does not directly interact with the group's autenticity. This question is about the wrong number in the book issued in 2005 with the list of the full cavalier's orders of Glory numbers. However, if you check at the same book the number of Gnitienko's first class order, you can see that this position is blank. Why does it happened? First of all I have to say that several mistakes in this book have been found already (as well as in the previously issued book with Gold Star numbers). It is normal. The source of the information for this book were record cards (you can see this wrong number in his record card too). But it is possible that clerk made a mistake while filling out the record card. I have seen several award cards and order books having the wrong numbers. How could it happened in Gnitienko's case? Just one possible version (I'm not pretending it to be true, just a theory). His initial award card was filled right after the war, most likely from 1946 to 1948. Of course at this time he didn't have his first class Glory. Instead he had two 2nd class orders. And I bet those two second classes were listed in his initial award card. If you take a look at his documents, you can see that second Glory 2nd class was issued on September 1944. It could be a 4-digit number. What if this mysterious 3646 is a number of his additional 2nd class Glory? It was listed in his original award card and clerk found this old card and copied the information to record card without noticing that it was 2nd class, not 1st class. Later, in 1980, the new award card was issued. At this time it was rewritten and probably contained correct information. So the solution would be to find Gnitienlo's award cards (both if possible). The orderbook of the full Glory cavalier is original in every respect. I do not see any traces of corrections or erasures. The 1st class number matches with order number. So everything is OK here. I do not think that somebody could find unissued 1st class Glory # 1965, also find unissued orderbook and make such group. It is very unlikely. BTW, if you check the numbers around 1965 you can see that many of them were issued in 1970-80th.

Chrisitan, thanks for sharing this group with us. I think this is an excellent, problem-free set. I didn't find any suspicious details. Just can say that it is a great addition to any collection, my congratulations!