Carol I

I do not want to spoil Kevin's original thread on the walk in Timisoara this spring, so I decided to post this again here. I've taken a look on List of Zeppelins in Wikipedia and have found two LZ-86s, none of them downed near Timisoara. Production number: LZ56 Tactical numbering: LZ86 First flight: October 10, 1915 Remarks: 7 attacks dropping 14,800 kg bombs along the Eastern and South-Eastern front; crashed on September 3, 1916 when the fore and aft nacelle broke away from the ships hull after a raid. Production number: LZ86 Tactical numbering: L 39 First flight: December 11, 1916 Remarks: two reconnaissance missions around the North Sea; one attack on England dropping 300 kg bombs, and on return destroyed by French flak fire near Compi?gne on March 17, 1917. Can someone shed some light onto this?

There is a Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art, but it has quite different insignia (see the image below from www.ordensmuseum.de).

It's the Medal for the 5th Anniversary of the Romanian People's Republic.

That's correct. President Ion Gheorghe Maurer and Secretary Gheorghe Stoica.

One of them was posted in the threads 1870 EK2 Bars and Romanian Question.

As far as I know, the Medal of Labour was not a prerequisite for the Order of Labour third class.

The Faithful Service Medal was established in April 1878.

I do not know if it was really a clarification. To muddy the waters I would add that it happened that high ranking militia (police) officers were also officers of the State Security Department. Furthermore, State Security Troops were a military corps that took over the duties of the gendarmerie (the military police) of the older times.

The first masters of the State Mint were the same that produced the WWII orders, so the high quality of the early orders is not surprising.

I am not into communist awards, but I would not bet on this. I heard that fakes are rather frequently being produced with the original dies. If you read Romanian some (read "little") information can be found in S. Catone, N. Şerbănescu, D. Bedivan: Rom?nia - Decoraţii 1859-1991 [Romania - Decorations 1859-1991] Bucharest 1992.

RSR Order of Labour (third class)

They differed in the metal of the rays and wreath: 1st class - Gold rays, silver wreath 2nd class - Silver rays, gold wreath 3rd class - Bronze rays, bronze wreath

The full name (in later years) was Departamentul Securităţii Statului (Department of State Security) and it was the secret police. It had little to do with the regular police (I would not call it civil police as it was quite militarised). The full relations between the two were not quite clear due to the secrecy that characterised the regime and especially the activities of the former, but much had been written on this in recent years.

It has been suggested that the officer is General Gustav Smekal. Can anyone confirm it?

I have checked my sources and there were indeed some German officers decorated in the Independence War. Most of them were medical doctors, probably part of a medical mission in the war. The source gives only the awardees of the Order of the Star of Romania, but this does not mean that there were no other awards in the same period. Anyhow, here are the names of the German officers that were decorated on the 3rd of January 1878. Dr. Bussenius of the 4th Thuringian Regiment Dr. Camnerer of the 9th Prussian Army Corps Dr. Gaehde of the Magdeburg Garrison Dr. Hahn of the 1st Guards Grenadier Regiment Dr. Peiper of the 3rd Eastern Prussia Cuirassier Regiment Scheven, Attach? of the Royal Prussian War Ministry Dr. Stricker of the 1st Guards Grenadier Regiment Dr. Vahl of the Guards Sappers Battalion

Romanian decorations were awarded to foreigners ever since 1877 when Romania declared independence and exercised the sovereign right to issue and award orders and medals. However, the frequency of the presence of Romanian awards on foreign bars depends on the links that existed at the time of the award between Romania and other countries. Thus, I think that most of the awards in the late 1870s were to Russians participating in the war against the Ottomans. However, at that time there were also some German councillors for the Romanian Army, so I would not be surprised if they received awards as well. Then, with the subsequent diplomatic relations and Carol's travels or his honorary appointments to foreign regiments, more and more foreigners might have received Romanian medals. On the other hand it is true that an increase in the awards to foreigners happens in times of war to strengthen the alliance. So since Romania was not involved in any war between 1878 and 1913 probably Romanian awards to foreigners in this period are not that frequent in comparison to WWI or WWII.

After reading the note above I remembered seeing this thing some time ago.

I did not understand what you meant by "this early"?

I took a chance glance in the Journal of King Carol I and in the very beginning I have found the following note.

Is this the bar in question? Then, the Romanian medal is the Faithful Service Medal.

There was no medal with this name. With the exception of the Order of Michael the Brave, nothing has been published on lists of Romanian awards. However, I guess that the awards were recorded and the lists theoretically should exist, but the important questions are in which archive and whether they are accessible to the public. Carol being of German origin, there were plenty of links to German military. He was even made Marshal of the German Army in 1909. However, I do not know of the existence of a list of his honorary commands with dates of appointment.

I know of an even stranger case. On the other side of the Danube, in Romania, an army colonel was arrested in 1934 for planning an attempt to kill the king. He was demoted and sentenced to 10 years hard labour. He was freed after the abdication of the king in 1940 and as far as I know he disappears only to reappear as a General de Brigadă (Brigadier General) in 1945 after a communist government was instated in Romania. He was then appointed chief of the army department for political education and propaganda, largely considered responsible for the purge from the army of the old educated officer core. He resigned a couple of years after the abdication of the king and disappeared again from the light. His name was Victor Precup ... quite an interesting character even before these episodes.

It seems you have not one set, but three different pieces. The badge is that of the Order of the Star of the Socialist Republic of Romania 5th class, while the case is for a 3rd class badge. And then there is the ribbon that belongs to an Order of Labour 3rd class.

I think that is the ribbon of the Order of Labour.

It could very well be, Kim. Anyhow, thanks for the suggestions.