JimZ

Nah not too hard. I stopped giving hints to my questions and only encourage the right answers when one is on track, Makes it more interesting to find the right answers - even if it takes a while. Jim

Well done Ed! Yup Yup Yup! Correct answer - Link and all I somehow thought she was obscure enough to avoid detection for a little bit longer. That places the ball in your court! Jim

She could be olga Chekova .... but she isn't! But lets agree that she is indeed a soviet spy.... Jim

No Christophe. She was a beautiful Russian ... with a mission. Jim

Sure... here's a clue: She was a Russian beauty, however living outside Russia ..... Jim

Which brings about an interesting question..... whereas it is a dead cert that some helmets were done up locally, were these also being painted and shipped over with malta cammo? As for heaps of helmets, I remember a nissan hut in a local scrap yard with heaps of helmets when I was a kid. I of course wanted to get myself a nice perfect brown one and In doing so I missed rarer firer fighting and ARP and medic helmets in the process. Alas that scrap yard is closed, the owners untraceable as hard as I tried and I know, that inside, still lie these rusting goodies!! Jim

Hi Steve, From the provenance of the helmet, I never had reasons to doubt if this could have been painted after the war. Whereas I would not judge the originality of the helmet by its condition, as I have come across several mint British and German helmets in private collections, the question that you raise about the way the helmet is rusting is indeed interesting as it would seem to evidence that the helmet may have been exposed prior to it being painted over. My suspicions were always that this was a regular tommy helmet issued in 1939 that was hand painted a couple of years later to the Maltese pattern during the war. These helmets are indeed rare, but they are still found in a number of private collections in Malta (which is where this helmet is). They are definitely rarer outside the island. Again - other comments are definitely welcome. Regards, Jim

Hi Antonio, A suggestion: Perhaps if the queries were posted on the forum by region as opposed to by conflict you may be able to get a slightly better feedback if members are browsing by geographical section as is usually the case. Regards, Jim

YOUR RECIPE FOR DISASTER: - Water + Iron = Rust (probably) - Ribbon +water = Stains (possibly) - Cleaning the silver frames = loss of aged patina (surely) Leave it alone! Banish any other thoughts! Jim

As far as I know.... yes! But it does looks much better in the pics then in real life The rust is a real rotter and there is little that one can do for it other than use a thin layer of gun oil (which also seems to help it retain its colour. Jim

Looks just like the typical Maltese rubble wall. Hard on the eyes as in hard to see?.... or unsightly? http://www.ravey.net/images/boforsaa.jpg Jim

Anyone got any other interesting tommy helmets? Jim

Impressive statistics Christophe!! Must admit Kholostyakov has an erm uncommon set of awards... To move on to the next question.... QUESTION: Who am I? What did I do? Who was the famous person now associated with me? Good luck! Jim

Booklet belongs to Vice Admiral G.N. Kholostyakov.

Christian, Whereas it is only good manners to wait for the person asking the question to revert back and to confirm the correct anser, I must congratulate you for finally answering the question. Regards Jim http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-3 К-3 was a project 627 "Кит" ("kit," meaning "whale"; NATO reporting name "November") submarine of the Soviet Navy's Northern Fleet, the first nuclear submarine of the Soviet Union. The vessel was prototyped in wood, with each of five segments scattered between five different locations about Leningrad, including the Astoria Hotel.[1] She was built in Molotovsk, launched on August 9, 1957, commissioned in July 1958, and homeported at Zapadnaya Litsa on the Kola Peninsula. K-3 was designed by Vladimir Peregoudov.[1] Her initial captain was Leonid Ossipenko, and the executive officer was Lev Zviltsov, who had the important task of assembling the first crew.[1] On June 17, 1962, by this time under the command of Zviltsov[1], К-3 reached the North Pole underwater, a feat performed nearly four years earlier by USS Nautilus. For this feat, she was awarded the name Leninsky Komsomol (Ленинский Комсомол) on October 9, 1962, and her crew, rather than training in military operations, began taking part in many congresses and conferences. This idle life continued until the summer of 1967 when a boat that had been scheduled for patrol in the Mediterranean Sea was unavailable. К-3 was tasked with that patrol. She was assigned a new commander, Captain Second Rank Stepanova, and her executive officer arrived aboard only two hours before she put to sea. Whatever the initial material condition of the boat, the crew was not ready for sea. By the time they reached the Mediterranean, the air regeneration system had failed and the temperature on board was 35?-40?C (95?-104?F). Once in the Mediterranean, К-3 was given the mission of following an American ballistic missile submarine, which she was unable to do. The boat was ordered to return to base. On September 8, 1967, while transiting the Norwegian Sea, a fire broke out in the submarine's hydraulic system, and crew members in the compartment when the fire broke out had to evacuate the compartment. The flames spread to other parts of the submarine. The automatic extinguishers were based on carbon dioxide gas, which killed the crew members who were in the first and second compartments foremost in the submarine. When the dividing door in the bulkhead from the third compartment was opened to see what had happened to the people in the second compartment, the gas spread, and more people lost consciousness. The foremost compartments were then completely sealed off, and the submarine surfaced. Four days later, К-3 returned to base. A total of 39 crew members died in the fire. The subsequent investigation determined that the most probable cause of the fire was ignition of an explosive concentration of hydraulic oil, and that the reactions of the crew were prompt and correct. Numerous rewards were recommended for the crew, including seven nominations for Hero of Soviet Union -- four of them posthumous. A later commission from Moscow, however, found a cigarette lighter in the torpedo compartment and found the position of a sailor's body suspicious. They ruled that the sailor's smoking had caused the fire and prohibited any award. In 1991 a memorial was erected in Zapadnaya Litsa to the men lost aboard К-3.

He he.... We got ourselves our own little "Hunt for the Red October"....... But not enough people shooting depth charges ... Is the question that hard or are we losing steam? Will this be the longest standing question? Jim

Ok..lets say its a submarine at this stage..... still not the K-11. Jim

Yes. I said more than half - 4, 5, and 6 are all more than half. Your assumptions as to the numbers and not my hint. (BUT) - you may also be right..... I'd say that if nominations for HSU were made but no award was granted, someone high up must have had serious thoughts about whether this even was really heroic or not. Jim

The question with some more hints thrown in: In post war Russia, one particular incident specifically between 1965-1970 resulted in seven people being proposed for the Hero of the Soviet Union title (more than half of them would have recieved it psothumously). However, following the results of investigations into the instances, they were circumstances that led to none of them not receiving the HSU. This was not a downgrade, the awards were not given. Specifically: What bound these people together? What was the incident that earned them this nomination? Why did they not receive the title? Keep trying guys. I am not going into specifics and I'll throw some more hints if I see we're getting stuck. Jim

Nope! Again an interesting try but nit the answer I am looking for Jim

Hi Frank, Interesting try - but wrong answer. Christian was closer to the answer than you are. Come on gentlemen, Jim

Ok here is a clue .... this was not a downgrade.... our comrades, did not recieve any award.... and some of our seven would have recieved their award/title posthumously. Jim

Dear all, Whereas I manage to make heads and tails of printed russian, I personally find it close to impossible to deciphering Russian handwriting. As a result, I have in past, and still ask, for assistance from a translator/interpreter to translate my research documents into English. I have asked the translator if she could take on more translations of research documents and I have recieved a positive reply. Therefore, should anyone require the translation of any of their russian research documents, you can either pm me so that I can fill you in, or alternatively, send an e-mail directly to researchtranslations@yahoo.com for the all the details of this service. Hopefully, as this has been useful to me, it will prove to be helpful to anyone struggling with their Russian research documents. Best regards, Jim

Thanks guys. I was expecting something a bit more impressive myself in the citation and was somewhat disappointed not to find any Red Stars or OGPWs! The 1950 award date does also indeed seem to be a bit late.... 5 years after the actual action took place! On the other hand this Nevsky is not missing any other orders (although that still does not impress me!) Can anyone throw any light on what his unit was doing during the war? Was it really sitting pretty on the far Eastern Front doing nothing until 1945? Paul, I gather that not too many Nevsky's have been awarded on this front. How frequently do orders awarded on this front crop up? Doc, catch up with those Nevsky's before the price is totally out of reach! Thanks for your comments! Jim

So our Senior Lieutenant has joined the red army in 1937, become an officer in 1939, and has received no awards other than a late war Nevsky for being one of the best company commanders. I do not fully get it where was he during the rest of the war and what was he doing. Sadly there seems to be no further research as I was half hoping to get more from his file. I would also tend to believe that he would have received medals for Victory over Japan and Victory over Germany. Other post war commemoration medals perhaps? Can anyone help unravel more about this Nevsky? Jim