Gordon Craig

Charles, Number 1094 please. Cheers, Gordon

Picture number 3

Picture number 2

Gents, I've had some time to spend analysing the silver Order of War Merit of Hungarian Freedom that Charles posted and I have come to the conclusion that the medal is a fake. The picture comparison between the one Charles posted and the ones Richard posted indicate this but not conclusively. I don't have an authentic medal like Richard does for comparison purposes with the one Charles posted but I do own the medal that seems to have been the basis for the design which is the Magyar Szabadsag Erdemrend. When you compare these two medals, and Richards posted medals, it is easy to see where the one Charles posted does not measure up. I should tell you at this point that I now own the medal Charles posted. Charles did not sell it to me or anyone else. I'll let him tell you what he did with it. There are three pictures of what from now on I will refer to as the fake shown below. Here the major things I find wrong with it, aside from the differences in measurements noted in an earlier post; 1-the detail of the front of the medal is not as sharp as the original posted by Richard or my comparison piece next to it; 2-Richard's medal seems to have the same type of ring on the medal as the bronze one in my picture. Look at the large clumsy looking ring on the fake; 3-the ray at the bottom of the fake is missing the cetral ray projecting from the centre portion. In inspecting it I would say there never was a projecting piece from this ray; 4-the green painted wreath on the fake goes all the way around without any breaks in it. On my bronze comparison medal and the one Richard posted the green enamel is not present on the crossed ribbon pieces on the four sides of the medal. All that being said, I am glad that I now own this piece as it gives me, and I hope the viewers, a reliable way to identify a fake from a real one should you ever come across one of these medals.

Richard, Would you please post a picture of the Silver medal you have which is the same as the one Charles posted. Soecifically how the ribbon is attached to the medal back. They appear to be different and I would like to be able to compare them. Regards, Gordon

William, The only book I am aware of on Yugslav badges is "Yugoslavia Army Insignia & Deorations 1918-1990 by Brian Furlan and Henad Bjeols. My copy was printed in 1991 and was published by Militaria House, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The ISBN is 0-929757-43-2. It is a photocopy type of book so there are no colour shots of anything except the cover. There is also a book called "Insignia of the Army of Yugoslavia". This book was published in 1997 in Belgrade and only 6500 copies were made. It covers the insignia adopted from 1994 to 1997 and shows uniforms and unit shoulder patches. The ISBN is 86-335-0027-2. This book is in Serbian and English Regards, Gordon

Grant, I'll post the General's ribbon bar as soon as I find the time. It belonged to the General that wore the tunic. I'm sure Dudley will do a post on his early cammo uniform so I will only say that there are a few different models of jacket and that although it resembles the Russian WWII omeaba pattern these uniforms were designed and made in Germany. East German forestry tunics are not common but like most things some are more common than others. Early tunics and uniforms for women are rare. Uniforms for the NVA Forestry Service are super rare. I'll post pictures of some of my DDR Forestry stuff when I get a chance. Regards, Gordon

Ulsterman, Sounds like the badge I saw. The PPSHs were very bright and the lettering on the back was in the correct place but not as crisp as on other badges I have seen. Can you post a picture of both sides of the badge? Regards, Gordon

Grant, There may be some association between the Pestalozzi-Medaille and the FDJ (Frei Deutsche Jugend)but I can not say for sure. I will do some more checking with some friends and get back to you. Regards, Gordon

To add to the interest, at least I hope so, here is a poster on the Reichsbahn from the same period. Celebrating May Day. The carnations worn in the poster were given out as a symbol of May Day by the government.

Paul, Reichsbahn soviet style boards are rare but do turn up on ebay.de from time to time. Bidding on these baords reminds me of a shark frenzy! Original uniforms with these boards rarely come up for sale and this is the only complete and matching set I have ever seen. Here is a picture of the top coat that completes the set. There were pants with the tunic. Regards, Gordon

Grant, The Pestalozzi-Medaille was given for good conduct and long service in education which would indicate teachers to me. One woudn't expect to award children a medal for being in scholl a long time!!!! Regards, Gordon

The only marking in the breeches are on the underside of the rear pocket. One stamp is an inspectors stamp and all that can be made out is the number 9 in the centre and the letters M E O at the bottom of the stamp. The other stamp is the standar marking for this period with two leters in the upper section a lower section divided into two with a legible date of 1952 in the right hand side of the rectangular marking.

The rear of the pants.

The next set of pants are the wool type breeches worn with the everyday service uniform. The interesting thing about hese pants is that they are virtually identical to those worn during WWII. The buttons are made of the same bakelite material. They have two slash front pockets, a watch pocket and one rear pocket on the right side. The watch pocket and the rear pocket are closed by a button and a tab. Regards, Gordon

Here is the markings in these trousers. A little blurry but hard to hold a digital camera still with one hand. The pants are dated 1953.

The rear of the padded trousers.

Gents, One of the hardest parts of a uniform for a collector to acquire are the pants to go with the tunic. Particularly ones with similar wear colour etc. While Charles concentrated on tunics this past show I concentrated on trousers. The first pair up are the heavy winter padded trousers. These pants are very thick and bound to keep you warm but would certainly restrict your movements once you added the jacket. They have two front slash pockets and a watch pocket on the right side. There are no rear pockets. The pants are tapered to fit inside the boots and there is a slit at the bottom to help get the pants on. This slit is not buttoned but is tied closed by two straps, which wrap around the leg, that are sewn into the outside leg seam. If anyone has a tunic to go with these panst please pm me. Regards, Gordon

Charles, Nice tunic. I should have paid more attention to it on Saturday! Cheers, Gordon

Grant, The Pestalozzi-Medaille fur true Dienste was introduced on 15.11.1956. They came in Gold for 40 years service (30 years after 1971) Silver for 30 years service (20 years after 1966) and Bronze for 10 years service. Apparently they were 32mm in diametre except from 1966-1973 when they measured 32.4mm. Sources vary on the type of material used to make the medals but they were probably made from nickle until some time in 1986 when they started to make them from iron until the end of the DDR in 1990. Ref: Bartells "DDR-Spezialkatalog 1049-1990" and "Deutsche Ordern und Ehrenzeichen" Regards, Gordon

Charles, I sent an email to the Military Museum asking about the numbering of the late issue badges and the answer was "I'll need to do some research but too busy right now. Will get back to you later." In the meantime, any information that can be collected from th Partisan Association will be very welcome. Puting it all together will take some time. Regards, Gordon

Charles, Thanks for adding your specs for your medal. Considerable weigth difference. Be nice to be able to weigh them on the same set of scales. Also, the hieght difference is noticeable but I think I only noticed that the day you bought the medal because we had only left the museum a few minutes prior to the sale. Because I noticed a hieght difference I thnk that Richard was probably correct in his measurement. Be nice to put them side-by-side. Perhaps the enxt time we visit the numismatics section of the military museum. Regards, Godon

Gents, Well I finally had time to go back to look at the Partisan badge that I thought was a fake. I think now that it could be as Hunyadi has suggested and that it is actually the last type issued. It is in mint condition and appears to be unnumbered. SO this raises a question. Were the 1966 issue badges numbered? And if not, why not? Were the badges numbered all at once and then awarded as the need arose. This seems to be a logical conclusion considering the award documents Charles and I have studied at the National Museum. Were some of the last Partisan badges produced not awarded and or not numbered and then some how found their way into the collectors field? Questions, questions, questions. The more your study something the more questions you come up with! Cheers, Gordon

Filip, Thanks for the response. I suspected the vendor was asking too much for the award. His prices are normally high. Now I know for sure. Regards, Gordon

Richard, Thanks for posting these other awards. Interesting that your awards came in a box the vendor said was aspecimin box for the army. What Charles and I saw at the museum was a red box of medals with the war medals plus some others that were regular issue types. It would be great if you would post a picture of interior of the box with all of the medals in place. I would very much like to add a box of medals like we saw at the museum to my collection. It would be the centrepiece of my Hungarian collection. Regards, Gordon