Carol I

I think the key stands in the "for presentation to persons not eligible for the "service orders" of the Sword and the Polar Star". Another description I have found mentioned that it was awarded for agriculture, mining, art, manufacture, technical progress, commerce, education and the free arts (pretty much everything). Thus, I guess Order of Vasa has been the solution to award some people a Swedish order, without the prestige of the military Order of the Sword or the civilian Order of the Polar Star. None that I know of, but maybe some information exists in the Swedish State Calendars.

The information comes from the site of the Swedish Monarchy, the Orders section.

Are the awards of Marshals Malinovsky or Tolbukhin on display?

Apparently they all served with the Austro-Hungarian Army. Dumnezeu să-i ierte!

You're welcome Kevin. I've read the older posts and in the one below I would translate sinistrat as "hard-hit by a calamity". What could have happened on 17 September 1944 to be described as a calamity?

The text reads: "As a sign of thank to God for the creation of the Greater Romania and for the remembrance of the soldiers from Căstău who died in the 1914-1919 war".

One more note: the full name of this order was Ordinul Steaua Republicii Socialiste Rom?nia (The Order of the Star of the Socialist Republic of Romania).

I'm glad that I was able to help you because communist awards are outside my area of interest and I do not know all the details. Dragoş (dragos03) is much more knowledgeable in this respect.

Apparently they were awarded "to those persons who through their fight and political, social, cultural and scientific activity have contributed towards the development of the socialist order and the achievement of national freedom and independence".

Kevin has posted a nice review on the Romanian Victory Medal. See THE ROMANIAN INTER-ALLIED VICTORY MEDAL OF WW1 in Central & Eastern European States.

Nice badge, but it is from the later part of the communist period. The current badges of the Order of the Star of Romania are inspired from those existing in the 1930s and 1940s.

It seems that there are several types of cases for this order. Here is an image of a red case with right angle corners (as opposed to the light brown cases above with rounded corners).

Christian, I doubt L?hr has been Romanian. On one hand his name is not typical Romanian. On the other, he chose and built a career in the Austrian Army which alone might suggest a German ancestry. The simple fact that he was born in Romania does not have any relevance, because following the same line of thought, King Milan Obrenović of Serbia had been a Romanian as he was born in Mărăşeşti.

It was no correction Gerd, but only pointing out the differences. Besides the colours there are also differences in the shape of the metal pencil.

The colours of the fourragere seem to be red and green. None of the Romanian fourrageres had green in them according to the book by Safta et al on Romanian war decorations.

On the reverse is written "Plovdiv" which is a city in Bulgaria, so probably the medal is Bulgarian as well.

On 7 February 2007 Dumitru Prunariu retired by decree of the President of Romania.

Program badge

Flight badge

A while ago, while surfing on the net I came upon the page below with several photos taken on the border. Some uniforms are visible. And one of the photos is a close-up of a ribbon bar (for those interested). North Korea (DPRK) - Keson. 38-th parallel. Border.

Congratulations, your turn now! Actually it is said that the crash of his 1910 jet was caused by a combination of factors. The hot exhaust gases started sticking to the surfaces of his wooden airplane due to the later-named Coandă Effect and eventually set to the plane was one of them. The other was that Coandă himself was too caught up in studying the phenomenon to properly land the plane (I think the legend also says that he did not have a pilot licence at that time, but I cannot find any reference for this). Here is an image of the hall where this material is said to have been used.

You are on the right track, but the aeronautic industry in Romania started much earlier so you have to think much earlier. However, it is true that the gentleman in question gave it a big push in the communist time. One more hint: a patent of his is very much used for increasing manoeuvrability in modern fighters.

I think I have a new one, simple I hope. Who is the man in the photo below? He was an aeronautical engineer and inventor with a rather succesful career in the West who at the end of his career chose to move and work in an Eastern Block country.

I was afraid that it would turn out this way. I feel like I am stealing the wind of the more knowledgeable members of this section as soviet history is not high among my interests. I will try to come up with something by this evening, but it becomes tougher and tougher...

The first idea that came to my mind was "tanks produced at the Kirov Factory", but I guessed that it was not quite the answer Belaruski wanted. However, a subsequent search showed that during the Winter War the Soviets have used an SMK (Sergei M Kirov) tank protoype on the Mannerheim Line. I hope I am not right.