kimj

noor. We have some people namned Johannes here in Sweden too (8804 to be exact, altough some could be Estonian by birth. ) I wrote POW because then you can't lie about where you served, even if it was in the Wehrmacht. So that would end up in your ID. Also if you deserted to the Red Army it would be a plus, in their book. If all Estonian males born 1904-23 were in the German army 1944 then you will have some work ahead if you wanted to send them all to Siberia. I am not familiar with soviet practice. But I would think that you would need some sort of paper to show that you have done your mandatory military service or good reason why not. If you could post some pics from other pages like those with no.1-8, with rank, speciality etc. no.22; no.23-24 it would be interesting to see if 24 is filled in. That is the award section. I?m sure that would get us closer to see what he did after/during the war. Here is one of my books. You can see some of the stuff you can learn from it. No1-8 tells us lots of stuff what he did as a soldier. The book holding the reserve ID in place is the same guys ww2 ID. /Kim

Nice book noor! I don't think he was german at all. Most ethnic germans living in Estonia had been "resettled" back to Germany in 1939-41. So this guy is most likely Estonian. Being Estonian he was called up in the 1944 mobilisation in Estonia. All men born 1904-1923 were called in to the defence force, by order of 31 january 1944. In late september fighting in Estonia was almost over. Perhaps he desided to end the war as a POW... Any other interesting notes in the book?

As the seller of this bar I hope it turns up something nice in research for you Ed. But I still believe what I wrote when selling it: It is perhaps a 20% chance (or less) that it belonged to one guy. Not impossible though and that?s what fun with the bar. Before the research answer comes... who knows? Another thing that doesn?t really show on Ed?s excellent scan is the difference in wear on the partisan medal vs. the rest of the medals. Were as the partisan is almost polished out on the obverse the others are in almost mint condition. Here a pic of a guaranteed ?real? partisan?s bar. Although this one is a little bit better... /Kim

I posted my navy ones on the other forum. But here is a couple of merchant marine. Same but diffrent.. /Kim

The pics are not that bad Takc. Better a bad one than none at all.. And the helmet looks very nice! Here is a coal miner wearing a similar helmet, if not the same model. Not the Best pic as it was photographed from the book... Said to be from 1939. /Kim

Anybody know if the Kurdish part of Iraq has any unofficial medals? By the way, Ed your PM box is full. /Kim

Gerd: Yes, I still have the bar. I doubt the screw did much good mounted with the other awards. My guess is that it was remade to be worn as a single screwback order. Later perhaps mounted with the others. Why? Who knows... it's just a guess. Dave: I like the way you make the bar plausible. I know that it's somewhat of a long shot that it's "real" but then again stranger thing have happened. Regulation and soviet style award-wearing are not always what you would expect. Ohh, I almost forgot. I have ordered reserch for the first RB. Now it's just the loooooong wait for results to come in. Is it or ...... But I promise that I will post what comes from it. /Kim

The metal part of the ribbon looks like: al-Jamhūrīyah al-`Arabīyah al-Yamanīyah (At least my wife thinks it looks like that... ) The medal text is too blurry for chances. Possibly Medal for ...(Victory???) But nothing for sure. A better pic would help. Not much but something. /Kim

Thanks for the pic Belaruski! Now to find one.... Iteressting badge Brian. What size is it? I agree with Richie that it looks a bit like an air force-something. But the hammer/monkey wrench is the same shape as the railroad used. The enamel star is a common army as Richie pointed out. So what could it be???? /Kim

Black light will show if your enamel is hot/baked, in other words glass, or was replaced with paint/plastic or other strange things. Replaced parts will glow white under the black light. Original enamel will stay the same. Could Belaruski's cap badge be a -68 made example? Sometimes hammer/plow badges sell as made in -68 for the parade. But I haven't seen one with 100%-sure-it-was-in-Red-squere-in-November-guarantee. /Kim

Thanks Richie! I never saw gem jars before. Guess I never had that many gems and a storing problem to know they existed. When I get some extra collection-spending cash I'll get me a couple of those. Too bad the shipping is just as much as the box to Sweden. At least for the sellers I found on Ebay that were willing to ship to Sweden... /Kim

Now that's collecting!! What's that thingy you store them in.. gem jars??? /Kim

No problem Christian. Information shared etc etc. The book is a translation of a Russian original. So that book is probably the real original work. /Kim

The two part stars are the early ones=good ones. Doc there are hundreds of different types of stars. These are just the tip of the iceberg. Not to mention that they are just as pretty as awards and in many (most) cases cheaper... /Kim

There is a book in English about Jewish HSU. Under Fire: The Stories of Jewish Heroes of the Soviet Union Summary This book is a collection of 150 biographies and descriptions of the heroic deeds of Jews who were awarded the distinction of ''Hero of the Soviet Union'' during the war between Germany and the Soviet Union in 1941-1945. 646 pp., hard cover, 16X23 cm. Printed in 1988. I guess that is why there are some HSU missing. I don't have it myself. Too many books to buy, too thin wallet. /Kim

Anyone collecting cap stars? I have a small collection myself. Here is a pic of a few bigger ones, for budenovka or higher officers. /Kim

Great news!! Big thanks for doing this. Now I don't have to wonder what babelfish/PROMT is abusing the original into... /Kim

Thank you for your input Jaybo. I'm not into czarist awards at all, so the diffrent ribbon fact was new to me. I guess a cheap way of awarding two categories of people. As for the ribbon I do know that it's not regulation. But civilians could get away with a lot. I'm not saying it's 100% OK as I don't know this stuff. Although it would make more sense to me if the ribbon had been just pushed through the loop. I mean since it is sewn anyway. Also the seller sold this as "Military medals?". So I don't think he knew what it was. Before that... who knows. /Kim

I got this medal together with some other (non-russian) stuff in an auction. The medal looks nice with patina and good detail. What I am more curious about is the ribbon. From what I understand this is a ribbon that is ok for the medal of Zeal. But why is it attached with a hole made in the ribbon? Is this common or... /Kim

You are correct Christian! Congrats! Otto Yulievich Schmidt is his name and he is a, in his days the most famous, polar explorer. Although he planed more than walked the ice. Later he was outmanouvered for his position by Papanin another famous polar explorer and double HSU. More on Schmidt: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Schmidt When I looked for him I learnt that the Chelyuskin has been found. This year! I guess it's true what they say: you learn something new everyday. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5368448.stm Anyway now it's your turn. /Kim

Not a bad guess Christian. He is a scientist but it?s not Kurchatov. Perhaps it?s time for some clues.... Our man is a HSU and a ?cool headed? dude when is out doing his thing. He also has a direct connection with the very first men who got the title Hero of the Soviet Union. That should get you going in the right direction. /Kim

Not too easy this time I hope... Questions: Who is this man? What was he famous for? /Kim

It's the monument in Vienna dedicated to the liberating red army soldiers. Known on the streets as "Denkmal des unbekannten Pl?nderers" (roughly Monument to the unkown plunderer). I guess liberation is all a question of point of view... Here is a photo of the plaque: /Kim *edit* Forgot to mention date. As the plaque says 19 August 1945. *end edit*

Very nice pic Dave!!! Here is one with him and his buddies. From left to right: Anton?n Sochor (16.7.1914-16.8.1950) Josef Bur??k (11.9.1911-30.6.2002) Richard Tesař?k (3.12.1915-27.3.1967) I posted this pic on the soviet award forum when we put the list of foriegn heroes together.

Well, I posted the list on the other forum. So I?ll ?defend" my list. The names of German HSU comes from a list of foreign awardees of the title Hero of the Soviet Union. It is a list of people who did not have soviet citizenship and were made HSU. It?s not a list of ethnic groups so Sorge doesn?t fit the criteria. Why? Because Sorge was not a German citizen when he got his, posthumous, title he had been a soviet citizen since 1925. Illegally? Yes, because you couldn?t have double citizenship back then. But being a spy means going outside the law. Erich Honecker was made HSU 25 August 1982. I don?t have the Prikaz so I can say why he got it. But the day is the same as his birthday...(Happy 70th birthday Erich! Here?s a little something from the guys in the Poliburo.) Political ?heroes? were in fashion then. Zhivkov and Husak got one each roughly the same time. Ed, there is a list of foreign HSU in Shishkov page 28-29, 2nd volume. Not complete but close. /Kim