Carol I

I have to pass on this Kevin. Badges are outside my area of interest.

This is an image of the Order of 23 August, established in 1959 and awarded for activities that "led to the insurrection [of 23 August 1944] and the consolidation of power". The order was however not restricted to the participants of the 1944 events and was in fact one of the higher awards of the communist period.

The Crusade against Communism medal has been officially des-established (is there such a word?) in 1944, so formally there was no distinction for the early war years. As a matter of fact, the "pro-fascist" label for those first years was a communist propaganda thing to incriminate the efforts to liberate the Romanian territory occupied by the soviets following the provisions of the Ribbentrop-Molotov treaty. Anyhow, in the 1990s the Romanian authorities decided to remove the segregation of the communist period and establish the WWII Commemorative Cross (shown by Kevin) destined to all the Romanian combatants of WWII.

The text on the badge is typical for the distinction made by the communist authorities between the "true" veterans of the western front and the "brigands" who went to fight on the eastern front. Besides, the "dot" in the yellow field was supposed to mean the coat-of-arms present on the state flag between 1948 and 1989. These details indicate a communist-period badge.

Cold night in 1942, small unit, turning point... There was another question on such an event. See here the answer to that question. I hope it is not only a coincidence.

This is my impression too. In the end of the 19th century they realised that they do not have a military correspondent of the Order for Civil Merit, so they established the Order for Military Merit. Probably the 1891 date was supposed to strengthen the fact that the two orders were equally ranked, in spite of the fact that they were destined to two different categories of awardees.

It was actually an order, the Order of Queen Mary Cross. Established on 15 March 1917, the order came in three classes and it was destined primarily for the military and civilian personnel with distinguished sanitary activity in wartime. The 1st class badge was enamelled in white, the 2nd class badge was silvered and 3rd class badge was in brown metal.

I have just noticed that the Bulgarian Order for Military Merit bears on the reverse the founding date of the Bulgarian Order for Civil Merit (2 August 1891). While this detail confuses things instead of clearing them, the two Bulgarian orders appear to be referred to as two different awards rather than two divisions of the same award.

This model of the pilot badge and the similar observer badge (with coat-of-arms) were adopted just before the war, through the Royal High Decree no. 1540 of 26 May 1941.

This was the pilot badge in the first reign of King Michael, 1927-1930.

Thanks Dave. I never included the 6th class in my list. Scott, does your badge have traces of the wreath attachements (as if the wreath had come off)?

I see. The regulations seem quite complex. If I understood you right, all classes could be awarded with the laurel war decoration, the Grand Cross class as well as 1st to 3rd classes on the yellow-black-white ribbon, while 4th and 5th classes on the light blue ribbon of the Order for Bravery. Furthermore, all the badges with the war decoration sported the white ring. The 'regular' badge with green ring on the other hand could be awarded on the yellow-black-white ribbon for peacetime awards and on the light blue ribbon of the Order for Bravery for wartime awards (but the latter only for classes IV-VI). The question that remains is: Are there any badges with white rings, but without the laurel war wreath (like Scott's badge in post #1)? If yes, where do they come into the picture? No problem. It is good that we could eventually piece the truth.

It appears to be the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. Take a look in http://www.medals.org.uk/italy/republic/it...republic016.htm.

I do not think this is correct. Below is an image from one of Petrov's book on Bulgarian decorations showing badges with war decorations on the statute ribbon of the Order for Military Merit. I thought it was the other way around: all the classes could be awarded with the laurel war wreath (see image above), but only classes IV and V could be awarded with the light blue ribbon of the Order for Bravery (and only those with white ring and war laurel wreath). The type below is missing from your list.

This is an interesting award. I have always thought that only the wartime awards with white ring and war laurel wreath could be presented with the ribbon of the Order for Bravery.

Some more names of British awardees of the Medal for Valour and Faith (from the page of the Worcestershire Regiment): Clark, Henry Cook, C.Q.M.S. (A/C.S.M.) - 1st Class Hemming, Raymond, Sgt. (A/C.S.M.) - 2nd Class Smith, Alfred, Sgt. - 2nd Class

This appears to be the Officer's cross of the Order for Military Merit. The white ring indicates a wartime award, but in this case the badge should have also has a war decoration (see Bulgarian medals and ribbon bars).

This is Gen. Ioan Dicezare, a distinguished WWII fighter pilot.

Many of the Romanian WWII orders were made at the National Mint with rather good quality. So I guess it is not the place by iteself, but rather the people working the medals.

You're welcome, Blitz. Well, all is not lost. It is rumoured that there are some jewellers out there who can still make high quality badges and they mark them with original punches, making it rather difficult to tell them apart from the originals. Too bad that the State Mint does not use them for making the new awards.

I agree completely, Jacky. Too bad that even the current orders have a similar appearance. There are some people that say that the mint workers are too busy doing "unofficial reproductions" to pay enough attention to the real things, but I have no idea whether this is true or only gossip.

I see, Jacky, but then the same can be said about all the Romanian awards, not only the Medal for Valour and Faith. Besides, Romania is in no way a singular case with respect to its alliances along the years. Quite similar things can be said about Italy and Japan and their awards. Like Romania, both these countries fought on the side of the Entente in WWI and then in WWII they were allied with Germany. Furthermore, Italy changed sides towards the end of WWII, as did Romania.

Another one: Gen. Kamanin wearing the third class of the Order of Michael the Brave with swords and several badges of the Order for Aeronautical Virtue (from www.warheroes.ru).

No problem. It's not the Medal for Valour and Faith, but something much higher: Gen. Shumilov wearing the second class of the Order of Michael the Brave with swords in a most unusual way (from www.warheroes.ru).

Then it is the history that is unusual, not the medal. Up until 1947 the soviets received royal awards. The communist-style awards appeared only from 1948 on.