Ulsterman

That is GREAT!!!!! I love this forum.

...and the penny drops -"clink"-

You mean there are different CLASSES of these badges as well?????!!!!

From a friend's email ... a Sri Lankan air force NCO on training in 2003.

But what are his medals?

A "friendship" medal?

Issued by the Vietnamese backed Cambodian regime from @ 1981-89, these were commonly called "friendship" medals and given to Vietnamese advisers fighting the Khmer Rouge. However, i also suspect it may be the afore mentioned "Victory" (aka Liberation) medal, although it seems to come in only one class.The class of a medal seems to be denoted by the number of devices on the ribbon.

This one has been tinkered with and I have others that have the full ribbon. Straight from the markets of Saigon, where I suspect they are being sold to tourists right now.Almost certainly made in Saigon too, as the style and construction mirror other Vietnamese awards.

Brendan:

I'm sorry you got burned.

I admire and respect your integrity in pulling the auction.

I've been very pleased with the other items I got from you.

Is Treitschke the map guy?

1870-71 service. The HK was issued in 1934.

Well-now i have seen everything! Amazing.

You made my day.

Isn't that Feb. 1943 for that medal? GREAT book!

Darn!!

THAt is a most excellent medal Sir! You did really, really well there.

Dan! Nice medal bar.

Did you try torsten for the last one?

I would love to see it! I would have thought he's have received a Life saving medal-not a combat award, but odd things happen and this would be the oddest I have ever heard of (well, in terms of awards).

I'd try newspapers and the archives.

Actually, I have a number of these photos-including the (sadly) reprint above, of the Iron badge being worn. The VAST majority-if not all of the men are NCOs. There are a few I can't see ranks for, but it really has made me wonder about who actually got these.

Well,2 of the 3.

An eBay purchase:

well, I have large chunks of time here and there for the next three years or so, so i'd be happy to work on these.

Well, I ordered microfilms of the Hansa rolls. We shall see.

Right now I am indexing the Hohenzollern book-which actually isn't that difficult:type, type, type.

well, I am on the Iran MOD website-and zippo is there. Also, the Iran vets forum has zero. Apparently iran did not give awards fro bravery during its Iraq war, even though they had some amazing national heroes.

I got these off ebay though-police ribbons. Now if we can just find out what they are......

Go Charles!! You Rock!

I waited with baited breath all day yesterday -wondering what you were discovering!

I figured the Partisans were ultra-leftists since they were mentioned as a hard line organization (publicly siding with the Soviets in the 1956 Revolution, helping found the modern "Communist" party etc.).

The blank badges are later members then.

I am surprised at the 'fascist" story though. Even in "goulash" Hungary I would suppose the advent of some teen aged skinheads on street corners wouldn't merit this and indeed, I suspect it was a "pretext" story.

They probably wanted to allow loyalists into what was considered an elite party organization.

Still, I'll see what the Anti-Fascist League has on Hungary.

The book you showed below-does that have a membership # in it? Upper right corner?

Great News and great work! I am very excited.

I think its an RAD badge. NSDAPs were commonly worn by party members on RAD and NSKK/NSFK uniforms.

I think its an SA sports badge too.

Note lack of unit patch here (removed as on war service) and the NSDAP badge (yes, it is one-just the scan is poor), but you can see it in the clearer photo.

Yeah-I actually like your peice better Craig, it has more personality and history.

Still, I'd like one in a case-with a document of course!

Outstanding!!!!

That S.E. Asia GSM is beautiful!

I can not ever remember seeing a multiple bar named GSM with this clasp.

Really good group.

Nice photos! What great history. Rick will be able to translate those-easy. interesting that the advisors have no other awards, not even commemoratives.

Seriously, I would kill for that bar.

You are a lucky man.

If you ever want to trade for an imperial bar, I have few odd ones scattered about.

When was it founded?

I did a google search and found a writer or two who seem to been awarded with it.