Egorka

Hello Nik

You mean both both Bogdan Khmelnitsky orders are fake?

So the Ushakov is a good one? 

Hello,

The OPWII 52344 was awarded 29 July 1944. The citation is on the way.

Please meet, Lt. Ivan Ivanovich STEPANOV who by June 1941 was serving as a Company Commander in 44 Tank Regiment (tanks T-26) of 22 Tank Division, 14 Mechanised Corps, 4 Army. 
Severely wounded by a bullet in the leg in April 1942. After that on less active service positions. Still by 1956 he got his long service Lenin order.

The 22 TD (143 and 44 tank regiments, 22 Motorized Infantry Regiment) was located in Brest fortress on 22 June 1941 and was hit heavily by artillery barrage during the first hours of German offensive. The division lost most of it's tanks, fuel supplies, and ammunition. The remnants of the division had several heavy engagements in the following days. But by 28 June 1941 it lost practically all tanks and most of the personnel and was disbanded. 

So Lt. STEPANOV must had been MIA from June 1941. The formal decree formalised the MIA status on 16 Feb 1942. It was formally cancelled in 1952. 
But he was back in service by the beginning of 1942 or even earlier, I think. He was awarded medal for Combat Service (a big deal by at that time) in March 1942 for the action on 08/Feb/1942. He served in 143 (a different 143rd, I think) Tank Regiment of 2 Gu. Motorised Rifle Division (earlier 107 Motorised Rifle Division)

Here is the decree stating that Lt. STEPANOV is declared MIA. The hand written text is cancellation dated 08/May/1952. 

22 TD was in action for 6 days. 
On 22 June 1941 it had 235 tanks, 34 cannons, and 8800 personnel. 
As follows from the 4 Army report issued on 28 June @21:00, the division had only 450 people, zero tanks, 45 trucks, and 85 officers left...
The personnel loss was about 90% in 6 days. 
Not all of them were killed, but some were imprisoned.

11 hours ago, slava1stclass said:

Gents,

  One correction.  All told, there were 2,656 Full Cavaliers of the Order of Glory.

Regards, slava1stclass

Point taken! Thank you for correction!

Hello,

OGIII # 173482 bestowed on private BACHURA Stepan Dmitrievich, (25.05.1917 - 25.01.1993). One of the 2678 full cavaliers of Order of Glory. 

Private BACHURA was engineer and explosives specialist serving at the time of recommendation in 358 Engineering Battalion. He was awarded OGIII on 14.08.1944, OGII on 17.02.1945, and OGI on 15.05.1946 (post war).  

The OGIII 173482 was the action in the spring 1944, and particularly for actions on 11-13 May 1944. Citation reads:

"Comrade BACHURA is courageous, disciplined soldier, a master in mine- laying. Always executing his orders perfectly, he conducted multiple complex engineering tasks on our first line in spite of difficult circumstances. He is awarded with the badge “Excellent miner” for excellent mine-laying and mine clearing. Comrade BACHURA presented examples of selflessness during the forced crossing of the Southern Bug river while building a ferry crossing. He built two piers under heavy enemy fire, which allowed for quick infantry crossing and timely resupply of our advancing troops on the right river bank.

Comrade BACHURA didn't stop working under bitter enemy artillery barrages and airstrikes while building urgently needed Commander post for 28 Gu. Rifle Corps on 11-12-13 May. Thanks to comrade’s BACHURA selfless work and fearless conduct the task was finished 5 hours ahead of time, which provided the Corps headquarters with proper cover facilities and allowed them to conduct effective units control in the defence of the bridgehead on the right bank of Dnestr river.

Comrade BACHURA is worthy of order “Glory III class.

Commander of 358 Engineer Battalion Major signature. 16.05.1944"

The Cavalier in his later years.

Thank you! 

A-ha! The era is Showa, but the silverfish lettering indicates it is the war period (material economy). Am I right?

But that is the box. What can be said about the order it self?

Hello! I have been lately feeling romantic and after having read some haiku I decided to indulge in expanding my Japanese collection.

So I am looking for opinion and dating on this order of Rising Sun 5th class. I think it is around 1970s.

13 hours ago, Tate said:

Hello I am looking for a Family member who was a recipient of Cross of Saint George, His Name is Seraphim Pavlovich.

Below is all the information I know about him.  Any information on him or places to look would be greatly appreciated. 

 Seraphim Pavlovich  was in the white army, twice decorated war hero, bearing the Cross of Saint George, the highest decoration for courage! He was in Admiral Kolchak's unit. He survived Sachsenhausen after his arrest during WWII.  

Hello!

Was "Pavlovich" his surname or middle-name?

I suspect the person of interest is Seraphim Pavlovich Rozhdestvensky (1903 - 1992). If this is the case, there is a ton of information on him on the net. On the photo he is in the center in black suite next to the priest.

Hello. I checked out the Russian magazine "Niva" for 1914. In the issue #32 from 9 August 1914 there is an article about emerging aerial warfare. In the article there is a photograph of Roland Garros and information that he rammed Zeppelin and died in the attack. 

Later in another August issue there is a lithograph of the attack (the one recognised from postcard). The author of the lithograph was Aleksander Andreevich CHIKIN (1865 - 1924), who was quite a fellow: travelled many wild places, was an optician working in astronomy. 

As you see from the dates, the rumours about alleged ramming by Garros spread quickly. 

Andreas, I might be interested in this painting. I would like to return it to the land of origin - Denmark. If possible, let you friend know again.

Nick, do you know if there is any chance to trace the number and find the recipient?

4 hours ago, nickstrenk said:

Many thanks!!!Do you think my ORS belongs or is connected with a Stalingrad defence?

RS 147438 - March 1943. Caucasus front.

RS 147804 - December 1942. Caucasus front.

Note, smaller number was awarded 4 months later. 147556 is still possible to be from Stalingrad battle. But needs to be researched in archive.

Hello. 10 years have passed... Is there any information on the status of these awards?

This is a addendum page to the issue#24 of "Bessarabian Gubernia News" newspaper from 4 (17) March 1917. It contains abdication of Nicholas II (top part) and Grand Duke Michael abdication (lower part).

Text is English is here: http://www.histdoc.net/history/abdic.html

Here is a very interesting page describing BA-64 restoration project. Very informative!

And here is some information in English. Also quite good.

Mishkin was commanding armoured car BA-64. 
It has a crew of two people, one of which was Mishkin himself. 
The car commander was also the radio operator. In facts of his award citations describes him as "car commander and radio operator".

On 7/3/2016 at 20:20, Gerd Becker said:

Lets start with what i think is a double Red Banner of Labor and a meritious Labor in GPW medal:

I think the first two ribbons are Bravery Medals.

1 hour ago, Igor Ostapenko said:

Mikulas, great awards and memory !!! 

I have this ribbonsbar  

To a Marshal?

Hat off for the master! Very inspirational!

Hello, 

This is an interesting front line award. it is also a little illustration of the subject covered in the thread "Paperwork discrepancies".

Please, meet Guards Master Sergeant MISHKIN NILKOLAJ EMILYANOVICH, Ukrainian born 1922 in the village Pokrovsky of Artemovsk district, Stalingrad region. VKP(b) member since April 1943, secondary school, in service 1940-1945. Service position: 1 Gu. Mechanised Red Banner Brigade, Head of Radio Station. He was working in a coal mining enterprise as head of electricians team after the war (April 1946). Lived in the town Lisichansk.

So in the award register card written in in 1946 at the local Military commissariate he is called a "head of radio station". Do you have mental picture what he did? Well, lets see.

The citation will help (Red Star # 293568 awarded 14.10.1943). It is written closer to the events and by the people actually involved (in this case). MISHKIN's position is described as "Car Commander of Reconnaissance Company 1 Gu. Mechanised Brigade". It is somewhat different to "head of radio station". 

RS 293568 citation: "During liberation of town Druzhkovka, comrade Mishkin's crew rushed into town centre and discovered 3 enemy firing position, two of which were destroyed and 10 hitlerites killed by his machine-gun fire. The left tire was hit by fire. Despite the damage, the vehicles was safely evacuated from the battle field.

During liberation of town Nikolaevka comrade MISHKIN's crew was ordered to rush into Nikolaevka and draw enemy fire for revealing enemy positions. The crew reached Nikolaevka  and was subjected to enemy artillery, mortar and tank fire. Despite the hail of enemy fire, comrade MISHKIN after 30 minutes long barrage returned to the company position with valuable documents."

Here are Druzhkovka and Nikolaevka marked on German map of 1941.

to be continued...

Bad one.

Hej,

Just for the record. No medals found... Asked a local antique dealer. He indicated presence of a local collector. But when I came back a few days later, the dealer told me that the collector was not willing to sell anything. Who can blame him!

So for now all the medals remain on Madeira... 

N.B: Local Poncha is as refreshing as always! I can recommend a couple for breakfast. 

Cheers! 

Hello!

I am looking for a little help here. Is it possible to find the recipient of this GCVO star # 245 ?

Tried to search on our forum and found so far that it is not very easy. There is a reference about GCVO #272 which was awarded to a Danish General in 1908.

Any tips are welcome! Thank you!

And I wonder where the cross is?

Thank you for sharing!

Respect!