claudio2574

May be I can suggest my website, Italian only (sorry)... Mainly Italian medals and awards, most of them from my private collection, some from friends who gave me the pictures. http://www.faleristica.it

Ok, if some neurons are still active...

May be this new post can be of some interest. This is the Loyalty Medal, or Emigration Medal or Medal of the dissolved Este's Brigade. In 1859, after the Magenta battle, the Duke of Modena Francesco V run away. A few months later his duchy became part of the Sardinia kingdom. Three years later, 1863, the last loyal men of his brigade (158 officiers and 2564 troop) were left free by the Duke. Many of them (all the officiers but one and half of the troop) joined the Austrian army. In a ceremony the Duke gave this medal to all the brigade, delivering it personally to all the officers. The medal was struck in the Wien mint and is signed by Radniztky. The ribbon was white and pale blue (from Wikipedia) Here is the medal

I have it. And this is the picture of the cross:

Hello, I see this topic only now. The sentence in the medal can be translated as follows: "With greetings" (COI AUGURI. Not properly correct Italian, it should have been CON GLI AUGURI) "Col. N. Kain" "Military Attaché for the three armed forces of Israel" (ADDETTO [MILITARE] PER LE 3 FF.AA. [= FORZE ARMATE] D'ISRAELE" About the mark LP or LB of the first medal: I don't know it Greetings from Italy

Another one is this: http://www.museonazionalemorandi.it/home.aspx

For medals you can check here: http://www.anticopresidio.com/shop/index.php The seller is the author of the only book about Italian medals with the prices inside. Hope this can help. Claudio

Hello Jean-Michel both awards (interallied and commemorative) has the same date: 31/3/1925. I can't have an opinion about Belgian diplomas, they were the very first I've found. The price was low, anyway, a few euros only.

Here a belgian award. I have the diploma for the commemorative medal given to the same soldier, but probably it is not appropriate to post it in this topic.

According to the rules set by king Umberto I in 1885, there were limits to the number of decorations to be awarded every year (12 Knights of the Great Cross, 30 Great Officiers, 100 Commanders, 200 Officers, 1200 Knights). These limits, however, did not include the awards given by the King "motu proprio", neither include the foreign recipients. The law of 1930 did not change these rules. As far as I know, there was no official relationship between the military rank and the order degree. Here follows the original 1885 law

In Albania in 1940 was created the "Gioventu' Albanese del Littorio". The acronym was GLA, not to reply the GAL of "Gioventu' Araba del Littorio". Here are two very scarce crosses of GLA, not mine. They were introduced by an albanese collector, Zaim Qyteza, in the Italian forum MILES http://miles.forumcommunity.net/?t=37945726&st=15

Quite interesting, thanks!

Here are the two Italian diplomas, Army and Navy. As RobW wrote, the Navy one is quite scarcer than the Army model. However, the price is not so high. I introduce my French diploma also. Since I'm not an expert about it, I'm waiting for your comments about it.

Yes, it is the number of the register. Hope I can find something when I will go to the AUSSME (Archivio Ufficio Storico Stato Maggiore Esercito), which is here in Rome. I've been there several times for searching facts about my father's war. The only problem is to find time...

It should be, may I see your Brevetto?

Arrived today: a "congedo assoluto" (final farewell) from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, 1818: As for now, this one becomes the oldest document in my collection.

I will try to do some archive research. Not in a hurry...

Andreas, do you mean the Cina 1900 medal? I don't have it, but some infos are available from the Brambilla book. There are two models. The first one has the head and the name of king Vittorio Emanuele III on the front. The back has the laurel crown (similar to the Valore Militare medals, but closer to the rim) and the words CINA 1900-1901. The ribbon is blue/yellow (7 lines). It was instituted on june 1901 and 2325 medals were given (as far as I know to Italians only). 7 years later the silver bar CINA 1900-1901 was created. The "original" medal was made by the Royal Mint (F.Speranza), but there are at least three variants from Stefano Johnson, having the head of the king with different shapes. For the people being in China after Dec, 31 1901 and the Navy people who went to Seul (1903, protection of the embassy during the war between Russia and Japan), a new medal was instituted. Quite similar to the first one, the back had only the word CINA. Only the original model from the Royal Mint (F.Speranza) is known. Only 736 medals were assigned. According to the two Royal Decrees, Italian militar and civil personnel only were included into the list. Rather scarce. Royal mint medals were made in bronze, Johnson's ones in bronze and silvered bronze. Hope this was what you asked for.

Happy to see that there is some interest about Italian military. May be we could start different topics, since this one now contains a mix of very different things: bravery, orders, long service/command, international missions... Does anyone agree? Is there any preference?

The last badge created, for Lybia missions. It is an official one, created on nov.2012. Unfortunately I haven't seen it yet.

Hello, after some days of silence, I wish to add two other medals and one document. First the medallion created in 1837 for the new Civil Code given by Carlo Alberto. This huge medallion (72 mm diameter, 6 mm thickness, 185 g weight) seems more a weapon than a decoration... In april 1859, before the start of the second war of independence, the Grand Duke Leopold II ran away from Florence, leaving his State without a guide. A temporary government was instituted, and the Parliament voted for unifying the Tuscany to the Kingdom of Sardinia (august 1859), a few days after the end of the war. Here is another huge medallion celebrating the event. The temporary government was in charge for some months more. Here a document giving a charge to a physician in the Military Commission for Health, december 1859. It is signed by general Raffaele Cadorna, a Risorgimento hero, whose son Luigi would have been the Commander-in-Chief for the Italian Army during WW1, till the defeat of Caporetto (autumn 1917)

Hey! No, I did not considered this opportunity. It could be a great idea. For sure there are people with far more infos than me, at least in Italy. Probably we don't speak enough of our good things, usually we complain about everything and give everybody (including ourselves) a worst image of what we really are. I wish to bring your attention to one mission which is for sure unknown to many. In 1979 many people run away from Vietnam, using every possible way. Many boarded onto any floating vessel, trying to find a new country. Many were refused by the countries all around, simply leaving them on board and not allowing to land. While all other countries were talking about a Conference, a meeting of the Security Council of UN or other useless words, we DID something. The 8th ships group (cruisers "Veneto" and "Doria" and supply ship "Stromboli") went to them to give help, sailing for half world and having no political or economical target to reach. No oil, no power to gain. Just poor people to help. 895 people came to Italy with those ships, many of them are still here. Here is the unofficial medallion for that mission, we call it "boat people".

Yes, many are official, many are simple variants of the officials, some are unofficial but used very often and actually allowed. The web site of the Italian Army shows its official badges here: http://www.esercito.difesa.it/Equipaggiamenti/Militaria/Distintivi/IDistintivi/DistintiviRicordo/Pagine/default.aspx They are used by other Armed Forces too. There is not an equivalent page for the other Forces (Navy, Air Force, Carabinieri, Guardia di Finanza, Polizia di Stato). Several official badges, not listed in the page of the Army, were created for the Police forces (Carabinieri, Guardia di Finanza, Polizia), like the following (many are for international missions for ONU or EC or other multinational teams): Navy (Ship Groups 22 and 28, Albania): Collecting these badges has some advantages over the normal medals: they need a small space, they are generally nicer than the (ugly!) modern medals, their price is usually (but not always!) cheap. Furthermore, they are an occasion to know in how many places our Armed Forces are involved now and in the recent years. There are also patches. Actually, the patches are the ONLY allowed in mission, due to the danger coming from metal objects while flying with helycopters. Here is a very rare patch, for the Task Force 45 (Afghanistan, Herat and Farah). Officially speaking, the TF 45 DOES NOT exists. But it DOES exist and works well. Here a link to a web page describing the TF (Italian only, sorry...) http://www.colmoschin.it/task-force-45.html

Hello, There are three levels for the bravery medal (gold - silver - bronze). According to Sézanne, the gold medals given in the period 1833-1993 have been 2536. Among them, 81 (kingdom) + 114 (republic) were given to units and not single soldiers. Its ribbon is solid blue. Here a picture of a bronze medal of the kingdom (first World War). There is also the Chivalry order of military merit. Here a picture of the kingdom period (early XX century), knight level: Your first image shows the "labaro" (=unit flag) of the Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d'Italia (National Association of Italian Partisans) - section of Vicenza, having 10 gold medals. The second image does not show any bravery medal. The very first on the left is the long command medal. It also exists in gold (30 years), silver (20 years) and bronze (10 years). It was created in 1935. Here the pictures of the kingdom (bronze) and republic (silver) medals, both from the State Mint: Your second picture shows also several mission badges, which are by themselves an intriguing world. Actually the men wears too many of them, since the rules allow for three only. However, I see Lebanon, Iraq, Albania and can't recognize the two others. Here you can see my collection of mission badges: http://www.faleristica.it/collezione.php?id=100