Ferdinand

Lower half:

Award sheet, upper half:

Here is his wartime record card. Because he died in combat, no other record card was written up after the war. Translation: Record card Last name: Mamoshin First name: Ivan Patronymic: Ivanovich Rank: Senior Lieutenant Duty position and unit: Deputy battalion commander in the 69th Mechanized Brigade Awarded: - Order of the Red Banner - By Order nr. 066/N of 29 April 1944 - For combat with the German invaders Home address: 3rd Guards Tank Army, 1st Ukrainian Front Personal particulars 1. Year of birth: 1913 2. Place of birth: 3. Party membership and period: Not a member 4. Nationality: Russian 5. Period of service in the Red Army: 6. Awarding data is located in file nr.: Awards presented: - Order of the Red Banner - Nr. 107213 - Temporary certificate nr. V-046946 The rest after dinner. :cheers:

This very nice Red Banner (S/N 107213) was originally on a 5-sided suspension, but has been converted to screwback. It was awarded on 29 April 1944 to Senior Lieutenant Ivan Ivanovich Mamoshin. I'm guessing the conversion was done by the recipient, perhaps to match his other screwback awards, or maybe he did not want to wear his (only) order dangling from a piece of cloth. The modification is pretty obvious, so I don't think it was done by a seller to deceive, and I doubt it increases the value much. In any case, it is pretty neatly done. Sr. Lt. Mamoshin went MIA (propal bez vesti) on 4 February 1945 and was declared dead on 25 March 1945 (I think, because one of his service records gives this date as "pogib v boyu"). Mamoshin also received a Red Star on 31 August 1944 and a Nevsky on 9 March 1945 (so posthumously). http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_01_2010/post-2048-1264180488.jpghttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_01_2010/post-2048-12641804934.jpg

I gave you the link to the Soviet Awards forum, not the main site. There are several experts on that forum that unfortunately don't visit this forum...

This is a great thing about research: the research confirms that the order booklet is OK, that the Red Star S/N is 1241011, and that his Red Banner simply was a delayed award... The actual handing out of the Red Banner took probably place at the same time as his Red Star, July 1944, the right time for a Red Star with such a S/N... Great. :cheers:

It looks good, but I have to admit I'm not a real expert. You should try http://www.soviet-awards.com/forum/index.php, there are several very knowledgable there in this field.

Yes, it is indeed a postwar, unnumbered medal with fake serial number. Nr. 2529 would have been a 1939 / 1940 award.

"Died in September" and "Nr. 2 Pugachev Street, apartment 11". Also "Nr. 2 Pugachev Street, apartment 11". Yes, so it seems!

I will be busy for the following couple of days, so I suggest that Paul asks the next question.

All right then; - His Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky should be 2nd Class, not 1st Class. - Brezhnev never received the Medal for Distinguished Service in Guarding the State Border of the USSR. - The ribbons for his Medals for Valiant Labor in the GPW, Medal for Restoration of the Black Metallurgical Enterprises, 250 years Leningrad, and 1500 years Kiev are missing. And don't get me started on the foreign awards... ;)

I found several mistakes I don't know if I'm allowed to answer the question, but the class of a certain award is wrong, the order of precedence is incorrect and a couple of awards are missing.

Well, it does have Stalin's and Molotov's signatures... But even then 12.5k is a bit steep.

Of course that is 100% correct! Congratulations on your 50th 'victory', Christophe! Your turn, once again. :beer:

There were four more Bulgarian HSU's. What were their names, when were they awarded the title, and why? The first member to answer all questions correctly, wins. :cheers:

Who am I ? Georgi Ivanov Ivanov (Kakalov). What did I do of famous ? You were the first Bulgarian in space. Why did I change my name ? As soon as you entered the Soviet International Space Programme Intercosmos in 1978, you had to change your surname to Ivanov, because Kakalov occasionally had negative connotations in Russian. Which most prestigious Soviet award did I get, and when ? You became a Hero of the Soviet Union on 13 April 1979.

Judging by the different types and sizes of ribbons, I'd say that both are made up. The combination of awards on both bars - and especially the first - is also very unusual.

I came across a Red Banner on eBay, very similar to mine. Same mint, slightly higher serial number, and also nicely conversed to screwback: - http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180436245824 It sold for $380, a slightly higher price than what normal Red Banners in this serial number range are selling for.

It's really hard to make an accurate estimate of the serial numbers of the other awards. Echoes of War is our only lead, which doesn't contain awards to Mongolians, and I have not yet seen research on a Red Banner or so to a Mongolian. We could try to make a guess for the serial number range for the year 1971, but you would end up with a range spanning about 10,000 numbers. These Combat Merit Medals aren't serial numbered by the way.

These are two of the best known female Soviet aviators... Come on gentlemen, this one isn't difficult.

I like it.

The suspension is new, as well as the ribbon. I don't see anything unusual on the medal, but then again, I can't see much at all.

100% correct! Over to you Rick.

Thank you Ilja. Come on guys, this question isn't that hard. Or do we simply have a lack of participants?

I think this one shouldn't be too difficult, but I will give the first hint tomorrow if nobody has solved the questions by then. :cheers: