Ulsterman

I believe this is the medal the above was struck to replace: The Ethiopian campaign medal awarded to those who fought against the Italian invaders.

I have long suspected that the Ethiopian Derg regime, once the Marxists had eliminated their opposition on the "Council", reissued the nations' more popular medals, probably around 1980 or so. While my struggles with the Amharic dictionary are still epic, I have recently had a bit of a breakthrough with this medal. My imprecise translation is that the medal commemorates "Struggle against Fascist Aggression" with the dates, 1928-1933. Given the Ethiopians follow the old style Julian calender, this translates to 1935-1940, or the years of the Italian-Ethiopian war. Thus, I believe I can now (tentatively) identify this mysterious medal as a reissue, almost certainly made in the GDR (or Czechoslovakia), of the earlier Patriotic War Medal, which had featured the bust of the Emperor, Hale Selassie. There seems to have been also a reissue of the refugees' medal, which also had incorporated the Emperor's likeness and the Victory Star, as a medal. Note also that there are two "types" of this medal, with a slightly different inscription on the planchet. Also, what I presume to be a later version seems to be lighter in weight and made of a cupro-alloy, not (faux?) bronze (as here).

Actually-the higher classes of DRK award rolls may exist -somewhere. My guess is that pre-1933 they do, because secondary articles were written in the 1960s that had some very precise and idiosyncratic statistical information about who, where, when and how got what.

Well, I recognize Ho and Giap.

Whoa! Nice stuff there. Were Banners worn separately? How'd one get that as a border guard? I thought that was a labor decoration only. I always imagined someone with a spanner and overalls getting that medal-and apparatchiks too of course.

OH My Gosh! Amazing. I am green with envy:green. That last medal especially is magnificent. That's an article waiting to happen. What possible unit could that man have been in?

Nafziger has an AEF ORB somewhere. If you can find out which Division/Corps this unit was attached to, then we can find out much more -fast. Where was he from?

Still. Great find and worth collecting, indexing and adding to the Gnomish archives mayhap-

Nice! I would bet a Euro it was made in Austria and sold as an unofficial commemorative to allied units and a few turks. The Austrians loved those cap badge unit things.

BRAVO!!!!! Gentlemen! BRAVO!!!

Very cool!!

By the way, the badges in the bottom row of picture #4 are modern era. the star was adopted as a new symbol of the post Derg/Mengistu regime @ 1993-4 and placed upon the Ethiopian flag @ 1991.

Encore! Encore!

By the way, the medal apparently appears in the catalog of the French sculptor/artist Chaplain's work. (See Dict. of Medallists' Bio, 1909: Spink reedit). He was famous for doing coinage busts etc. and table medals, as well as bronzes of all types. Apparently the medal was also worn with a plain green ribbon.

A Major? How come? He has a mere bronze bravery medal. Whoops-never mind, my error. You are referring to #23.

Nice! I am jealous. :Cat-Scratch:

Congrats! I saw that somebody else got the Colonel with 8 medals though- $41-jeepers. Note they don't have bars, just individual medals.

An amazing medal. :Cat-Scratch:

The Captain's office. OK, not a mural, but nostalgic :

VCP:

Mon Repose. Best fried egg and cheese sandwiches in the world were found here:

stopping for a flake 99 in the Loyalist area:

another Hunger Strike wall:

A PIRA memorial wall:

Bobby Sands, Lenin and Che. The wall above and directly over ones' left shoulder as one looks at this mural was a wall where snipers liked to take shots. I was always very nervous about an RPG coming down from there: