kimj

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.

AWARD CITATION

First, middle and last name: ARTAMONOV NIKOLAY PORFIRYEVICH

Rank: Guards Junior Lieutenant

Position, unit: Pilot of the 106-th Guards fighter aviation Vislensky regiment of the 11-th Guards fighter aviation Dneptopetrovsk holding order of the Red Banner division

Is recommended for the order of Red Banner

1. Year of birth: June 1, 1920

2. Nationality: Byelorussian

3. In the Red Army since: 1940

4. Party membership: CPSU(b) candidate since 1943

5. Participation in battles: Participant of the Great Patriotic War since June 1943, at

South-Western, 3-rd and 1-st Ukrainian fronts

6. Wound or contusions: None

7. Previous awards: Order of the Patriotic War, 1st cl., order to 1st GSAK

No 08/N of August 10, 1944 for 35 successful operational flights

8. Drafted by what military Orshansky district military commissatiat, Vitebsk region

9. Permanent home address: Vitebsk region, Mekhovsky district, Belki village.

Sister: Artamonova Maria Porfiryevna

1. BRIEF, CONCRETE DESCRIPTION OF PERSONAL FEAT OR MERITS

Comrade ARTAMONOV during the period of his front work in Guards fighter aviation regiment since June 1943 until January 1, 1945 showed himself as a brave and courageous fighter-pilot, during the specified period he had 76 successful operational flights; flying hours - 77 hours 35 minutes, executed 6 air fights in which he personally brought down 1 enemy aircraft of ?FV-190? type, executed 18 assaults and 3 bombing. For 35 successful operational flights he was awarded with the order of Patriotic War, 1st cl.. After being awarded comrade ARTAMONOV executed next 41 successful operational flights without a single flight accident due to his fault, among them: reconnaissance of the enemy land forces ? 38 flights, accompanying of ?IL-2? ? 2 flights and blocking of crossings ? 1 flight. During execution of the combat missions he carried out 8 assaults and 3 bombings and as a result put out of operation 1 steam locomotive and killed up to 20 enemy soldiers. Executed 2 air fights and brought down 1 enemy aircraft. He is brave and courageous in air fights. Pilotage technique is good. All military missions fullfils excellently.

For 41 successful flights, among them 38 reconnaissance flights, for courage and bravery displayed in air fights, deserves the government award, order of the Red Banner.

Commander of 106-th Guards fighter aviation regiment.

Hero of the Soviet Union, Guards Lieutenant Colonel (KUZNETZOV)

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

Gentlemen, I'll try to get to the library this week. If I make it I'll post what I find later. If I don't make it I'll be there next week.

/Kim

Here is what I found on Frans Emil Karlsson:

Profession: Worker

Year of Birth: 1871

Application date: 1921-04-18

Awarder: Church council in Lid congregation, [close to the city of Nyk?ping/my comment] estate owner Erik Weinberg, Kappsta [Name of the farm/my comment]

Years of Service: 23

Medal: Small size

Cost of Medal: 15

Worker is most likely a farmhand as most people worked with farming at the time.

The double names at line of awarder are first an official/government level organisation, in your case the Church. The second name, E. Weinberg, is the owner of the farm Frans worked at.

Hope you have some use for it.

/Kim

Easy is relative in this case. There is a data base with the awarded people for those years on line. But there is also a fee for useing it and I'm not paying for it. On the other hand the same data base is free when I use the computer at the library. So I have go there to get the info. If you can wait a few days I can get it as I'm going there anyway.

Searching the data base is free and there is only one F.E. Karlsson who got the medal in 1921. So I guess that's your guy.

/Kim

Nice pic!

Here is more info from http://runeberg.org .

?Well known naval painter and Commander of the Royal navy Herman Gustaf af Sill?n died suddenly 29 December, 51 y.o..

A person who was an extremely hard working man, thorough in his work and had many different fields of interest. S. was without a doubt a victim of overstrain.

[My comment: This last sentence is a euphemism for his suicide, not a thing society discussed openly.]

Born 1857, commissioned 1876, Commander 2nd class 1891 and 1st class ten years later. 1900 promoted to head of military drill and NCO schools at the naval base Karlskrona.

His last year was spent in Stockholm and he did much non-profit work. His naval paintings, done with great love, had gotten popular. As a recognition of his artistic work he was awarded ?Litteris et artibus?. Worth noticing is also that S. was the man who brought the question of a maritime museum to a, at least temporary, solution after many difficulties.?

The same site lists some of his paintings. One of the paintings ?Stockholms str?m? (the body of water in central Stockholm) was made for the King of Romania. So he probably got that order for a painting well done.

/Kim

Very nice 2nd class Peter!!

/Kim

So the right English name would be Order of the Sword Merit Cross or even Order of the Sword Silver Merit Cross? Funny how things gets lost or added in an other language.

Peter?s explanation is probably part of the answer. But the order system had been under attack from various groups before it was changed. How the debate about it went I don?t know. But the coalition parties of the right have been in power a couple of times since and haven?t re-established the award system yet. So it?s not only a question about one party?s politics.

And yes Swedes still can get medals. But as a collector of awards.... Where is the enamel???

That may have been the influence, but the fact is that the Dannebrog Silver Merit Cross ("Dannebrogsm?ndenes H?derstegn" in Danish or "Dannebrogstecknet" in Swedish) was never used - and was never intended to be used - as a long service award for NCOs and lower ranks.

Mike: Perhaps my sources meant the idea of a silver award in an existing order. Thanks for the name correction. When all my sources are in Swedish I have problems with the right name. Mange tak!

The orders you lucky foreigners can get are Order of the Polar Star and if you?re part of any Royal family or a head of state Order of the Seraphim. The Polar Star is a looker too.

/Kim

Veteran: Balls on the tips of the cross arms became obligatory in 1856. So I guess some time before that year.

Christophe: Sure there are rolls with awarded foreigners. But are you sure the ribbon is Swedish? A crown and swords is not typical for this order's ribbon. It could also be a Sign of the sword an award for NCOs and that roll would be harder to get as it's not published.

/Kim

Reverse.

Close up.

Here is a nice example of the Sign of the Sword or Sword Sign, not sure how to translate "Sv?rdstecknet" correctly. I found it at an auction last week and it came with a nice original box too.

Perhaps I should tell the history of it for those not familiar with Swedish orders/medals. The officers of the Swedish army had the Order of the Sword to look forward too when they had put in enough years. But soldiers and NCOs had nothing award vise. To help the situation the Sign of the Sword and the Sword Medal (for privates and lower ranks) was established 23 February 1850. The main influence is believed to have been Denmark?s Dannebrogstecknet. To get the Sign of the Sword you had to put in 16 years of faithful service, of which at least six had to be as an NCO. When the soldier died the family had to return the award. It was not like the orders were the recipient?s relatives could pay to keep it. Returning the sign was praxis until 1897 when the rules changed and it could be ?bought? by the family to keep. The Sign of the Sword was awarded until 1974 when all Swedish orders became unavailable for Swedes. All different types of the Order of the Sword stopped being awarded then.

This auction find is probably from 1900-1920ties. There is no study done, that I know of, so it?s just a guess. As it?s ?court mounted? I can?t show the reverse of this one, so a stand-in had to provide that pic.

Interesting pics Ed! But the cap star Are these available for a reasonable price or are they sukhbator rare?

Here are some more guys in the pointy hat. Notice the trio of political officers.

/Kim

As usual when you get information from strange sources it isn?t that reliable. The ?soldatinstruktion? were outdated, not uncommon. The new (current) version of the badge was established in 1901, according to ?Svensk Uppslagsbok? (Swedish Encyclopaedia). It was also established in 1890, forget the other info that came from the society's web page.

I don?t think there is a gold version of the army badge. The encyclopaedia has a rather good article on this subject and it only mentions the bronze and silver class. It?s printed in 1963.

I can only concur with Peter on the year and value of your badge Hendrik.

/Kim

The badges came in different classes, steel, bronze, silver and gold (1941). Depending of what points (counted from hits on the target) the shooter could qualify for the next level. Starting from steel, if he passed the requirements, and moving up from there.

As you know Peter information on Swedish badges are not that great. But from a couple of ?soldatinstruktion? I found one of your badges. The books were issued in 1904 and 1909. So sometime between those years the badge changed. Notice the army version to the left, with an extra crown.

/Kim

It?s the ?skyttem?rke? (badge for shooting) for the volunteer marksman society, it was established in 1893. If you look at the back you can see a bunch of stamps. If you can find a letter/number combination, like i.e. E8, I can tell you when it was made. They are still given out by the society today.

/Kim

Here's a small bit to the puzzle:

The Swedish awards.

Knight of the Order of the Sword in 1906.

Commander of 2nd Class Order of Vasa in 1912. Coincidentally the same year he was attending a manouver in Sweden

/Kim

Too bad. Years over early 1941 needs a visit to the archive in Stockholm to find out more about the awardee. A lot more work. Still, it's a nice medal.

/Kim

This is a medal given out by the society ?Kongliga Patriotiska S?llskapet?/Royal Patriotic Society. It is (yes, still) awarded for long and faithful service (as the text say in Swedish: F?r L?ngvarig Trogen Tj?nst) in different fields. It comes in silver or gold in four classes:

Large

Small

Jeton

Emmery

People who considered someone worthy of the medal nominated him or her to the society. If the society approved the nomination the people could then buy the medal for the nominated. Sometimes the cost for the medal was more than they wanted to pay and there was a problem to solve.

If it?s awarded between 1900-1941 I can check who the guy was rather easily. You find the year it was made on the rim. Usually it says SILVER 1923 (or an other year).

/Kim

I think this is a case of the Czar can do what he feels like and museum curators too. What I mean is that in the pic I have posted Alexander is wearing his bar with the top of all crosses covered. Maybe the crown on the order of the Sword made the ribbons look wrinkled. Solution: remove the crown. Later some ambitious museum curator wanted it to look nice. So he restored it with what he had available...

Notice also on the pic that the czar is wearing the rare Swedish sign of the grand cross, the sword looking thingy below the other awards.

Here are some nice links on the subject:

http://arnell.cc/

http://www.ordersandmedals.net/

/Kim

There seems to some missunderstanding. The link Dave posted is just my badge question "over there". So there was no "censorship" needed. The badge seb16trs is refering to is in Paris, off-line. If you could get some scans or pics seb16trs we would be happy.

But, would it be possible to tell us the cotation of such a piece please?

I do not know what you meant with this. How many made? or What the statues were? From some Russian collector forum I saw a guess on 1000 made. But I doubt he had any hard evidence for that.

I'll try to get some more info on the high quality fakes Marc, on SAF, was writing about. But that will take some time. Stay tuned to this thread for more to come....

/Kim