kimj

This is what the Finnish chapter says that they do (My translation, original only in Swedish/Finnish): Source:http://www.amarant.fi/ It's not a ladies order. Both men and women can join if they are invited. As there are seven classes of the order I'm sure there are plenty more to find. Early ones are of course more rare to find. /Kim

The order has a link to the order of Amarante, but only by name. When Kristina went catholic and moved to Rome it never got awarded again. That was only one year after it was founded, 1654. Later the name got recycled as a Fraternal Order, founded 24 July 1760. So that's where your badge is from. The order still exist today. /Kim

It could be DZOT "derevo-zemlyanaya ognevaya tochka", trench with reinforcements made of wood(?). In Swedish they have added shrapnel protection to the translation. Maybe it lost something in translation but I hope I'm close. /Kim

No, there's no difference in commander neck badges. But it should have swords between the arms as well as on the top. I don't see that on your pic. Perhaps it's not a order of the Sword at all? Or a very liberal view on how to wear a knights order... The list I have right now is from 1936 and I suspect that it only lists those alive at the time. So he could have past away and not be on the list. Who knows. /Kim

Hmm.. it could be the order of the Sword Commander 1:st class around his neck. That would make sense because it was mainly for generals and higher ranks. But then he left his breast star at home. If it is I have these gentlemen as candidates: Fischer, Gustav Edler von Poturzyn Gen.-maj awarded in 1919 Straub, Eugen Gen.-maj 1916 Wiktorin, Mauritz Gen.-maj 1935 von Ellenberger, Franz Eduard Gen.-maj 1919 I can't promise that this is all the Austrians awarded, as I haven't got a complete list of awardees. But it narrows it down /Kim

The Red Army didn't have much bling-bling in late 30ties or early 40ties. So if you could get some you'd wear it. Officers were also more likely to be "excellent" in what they had as their profession than enlisted men. But I haven't got any statistics on who actually got it. Here is a pic of a artillery captain wearing the badge on the other/first side. The only one I have... Nice pics you found! /Kim

Bryan. I will try to dig it out of the box this weekend. But I can't make any promises. Our new baby and the two-year-old keeps me busy with other non-collecting related work. /Kim

This Friday I got a reply from the Sachsenhausen archive. Unfortunately most files and all the index cards of the prisoners were burnt by the SS. So no records about mr B?rner in what's left. Should be interesting to see if something can be found on mr B?rner elsewhere. I guess time will tell. /Kim

Here's mine Gordon. Slightly different from Uwe's. Uwe I'm not sure that the medal should be in the Ehrennadel-box. The boxes have small marks from the medals already there. Also the antifascist suspension pin doesn't fit the Ehrennadel-box. Did the committee award other medals? BR Kim

Hi Uwe. That's great info! Was the text the same from 1958 untill 1978? There must have been one printed in 1958 too. This sonderdruck must be hard to find. Have you seen any for sale? Otherwise I'll have to get me a xeroxed copy from the parlament's library, I think they have all the DDR gesetzblatt. /Kim

That's what I hope. I have requested research from the archive in Sachsenhausen. When/if it turns up anything I'll post it here. Hopefully I'll add to the history of it. Even if it takes a couple of months... /Kim

Thanks for the comments gentlemen! Rick: thanks for the regulations. I found a site in German that also has some info on the medal. It claims that the "Ehrengeld" was 500 each year. Probably a welcomed extra income. I still would like to see the source from where the website and your book got their info. I'll put that research on my to-do-list. Mr B?rner was active in SPD or KPD from 1919. I have his "ehrenurkunde" for 50 years of faithful party work, someone has written 1969 on it. The graffiti is not originally part of the text, but I'm glad it was added. It helps me sort out his chronology. Some time during 1933-45, I think, he was put in KZ Sachsenhausen. I'm 100% sure but will look into this possibility. Later in life he got a "ehrennadel der organe der rechtspflege", a pin from the justice department? My German needs a bit of work... Any way here are some closeups. The main document for the K?mpfer-medal and one from the committee of antifascist fighters. /Kim

Here's the latest addition to my collection, a small lot to a fighter against fascism. It started out as a single boxed K?mpfer gegen Faschismus medal on Ebay. I sent a mail and found out it came with a document. I sent a couple of more mails after I had won the auction and found that I had a group. Not bad, as I have had my eye on a "K?mpfer.." medal for a while but other stuff always sidetracked me. I like the size of the documents, very big compared to the soviet that I'm used to. Were do I find the DDR award regulations? All I have now is a Bartel catalogue and it doesn't help much beside ID-ing what the name of the medal actually is. Are there any books that have the actual regulation in it? I mean like the McDaniel/Schmidt book in soviet collecting. Do I have to find the Gesetzblatt myself? If so - fine..... but what year and numbers.... /Kim

My Russian-Swedish military abbreviation book suggests PUN as "Punkt upravleniya i navedeniya. This is a flight term and is translated as "ledningscentral" (swedish). English might be command center, but I'm not sure. How's your Swedish Rick... /Kim

Congratulations!!! Now there's only four to go.... /Kim

Too bad it didn't turn out to be what it claimed to be. But then again it turned out to be a pretty sweet citation to a man in what the Germans called Black Death, the soviet marines. Plus it's a "polar" group, which is rare. In fact I had two bars I was thinking of selling. One had the Polar defence medal so I decided to keep it just because of that. (WW2 action close to Sweden is one of my collecting interests.) Wouldn't that be ironic if that bar is a put-together bar to a guy fighting in southern Europe... Well, research will follow on that one. You also got some nice citations on the Glories. Congratulations! /Kim

Just found a dog sled reference and thought it would add to the information here. It's from James F.Gebhardt's paper on the Kirkenes-Petsamo operation, that's why it mentions reindeer I suppose. http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/download/csi...t/geb_intro.pdf /Kim

I could live with that research result Rick. But it's still at the end of the research line... Soviet: Thanks! The research was more than I could ever hope for. All I hoped for was that it was a group. A pilot was an unexpected, but pleasant, surprise. /Kim

So much to research and limited collecting budget doesn't add up. But I agree with you that it could be for something good. He was after all still an active military man, stationed in Latvia in 1955. When I get more on Artamonov I'll post it here, but don't hold your breath as this group is now last in the line for future research. Then again awarded 1957.... dare one think Hungary....? I wonder how the 15 years of service medal ended up on the bar..... /Kim

Here's the award card. No, I didn't ask for anything more than award card and citation for the first Red Banner. My main reason for researching this one was to see if it was a bar to one person. Now it turned out good and I think I got a good citation too. Now to find the missing orders I ordered the research in early 2007. But the wait sure feels like two years.... /Kim

It's right there Rick, in the quote. I don't have any scans of the actual documents. But perhaps could do that tomorrow. /Kim

After a loooooong wait results are in! I have in my hand the ?Nagradnoy list? of Red Banner no 201 954. Some of you might remember this thread, http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=2459...'t&st=0 . The big question, at least for me, was if my medal bar was put together or ?real?. When I had the papers I first planed to let you guess and in a couple of days post the answer. But then I figured that would be cruel. So here it is or at least the translation. Oh, I almost forgot.... The second Red Banner is documented on the award card! My bar is a 100% good! Not according to regulation, but from one recipient! Research is all it?s said to be and more!!! Dave?s guess was almost a 100% correct... Must be a really good crystal ball or a couple of hundred citation read.. /Kim

I had my medals out for a photo session and took this one. It shows the difference large/small/jetong size. /Kim

It was my pleasure. I enjoy the history of these medals just as much as the estetics of it. I hope I haven't started some trend that will cause a rise in prices for Swedish medals. /Kim

You were in luck! I could make the trip today and here are the results: John H. Ekvall Year of Birth: 1887 Application date: 1939-04-28 Awarder: Church council in Malm? St Petri congregation, Einar Hultman in the name of the board for the City of Malm? tramways, reward for work shop workers and repairmen. Years of Service: 25 Medal: Small size Cost of Medal: 19 Here is a link to the museum tramways in Malm?. The text to the left of the pictures are linked to pics of older models: http://www.mss.se/mss6.htm I have a medal for a driver of the tram in Malm?, awarded in 1921. Strange coincidence. Karl Vikt. Johannesson Profession: Mask. [Probably short for ?maskinist? machine operator/My comment] Year of Birth: 1885 Application date: 1921-05-11 Awarder: K.B. [Not sure what that is/My comm.] in ?lvsborg, director M.V. Halling, H?verud, H?frestr?ms joint stock company. [i have corrected some of the names as the data base was wrong. /my comment] Years of Service: 21 Medal: Jeton Cost of Medal: 15 The company H?frestr?m is still in buisnes today and still make paper. Here is the company?s page with the factory the way it looks today: http://www.arcticpaper.com/sv/sweden/The-g...roms-AB/Om-oss/ /Kim