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This is what i got and would like to show you: A CSM with doc that was awarded to naval marine of the 225 red banner naval infantry brigade during the naval attack on Novorossiisk in 1943. Documents pertaining Combat Service Medal #626.393 1. Award card Order booklet B 055944 1. Last name: Potapov 2. Name and Patrionymic: Grigorii Anastasevich 3. Rank: Private 4. Sex: Male 5. Birthyear: 1916 6. Birthplace: village of Ilino, Lipetsk Region, Voronezh Oblast 7. Party Membership: since 1943 8. Education: elementary 9. Nationality: Russian 10. Service in the Red Army: 11.1937-10.1945 11. Place of service and duty position at time of awarding: 255 Naval Infantry Brigade, 18 Army, Communications Specialist 12. Place of service and duty position at the current time: 3-d Lepse - driver 13. Home of Record: Kiev, Borshchagovskaya St. #65, Apt. 3 14. Awards Award Serial Number Awarder: Red Star 651.887 318 Rifle Division dated 30.9.43 Combat Service Mdl 626.393 265 Naval Infantry Brigade dated 7.10.43 Verified by Personnel Officer on 16 April 1946 2. Award Citation Award Sheet 1. Last name, name, and patrionymic: Potapov, Grigorii Anastasevich 2. Rank: Private 3. Duty position: Telephone Operator, Signals Battalion, 255 Red Banner Naval Infantry Brigade Application for the Bravery Medal 4. Birthyear: 1916 5. Nationality: Russian 6. Party membership: candidate member 7. Participation in combat: Northern Caucasus Front (missing) 1942- 2.1943, Novorossisk naval landing since 2.43 8. Wounds or contusions: none 9. Time in the Red Army: since 9 May 1942 10. Inducted by: Red October Regional Military Commissariat, Stalingrad 11. Earlier awards: n/a 12. Home of record: Stalingrad, Red October Region, Ovrazhskaya #8; Nesterin, Peter Andreevich Short description of personal combat feat or service He has participated in fighting near Novorossiisk since 15 February 1943. As a communications line manager to the 14th Battalion, he has daily repaired line damage under artillery and mortar fire. On 20.7.43 he gathered a kilometer of cable on the front lines by his own initiative. On 20.8.43 he repaired eight breaks in 20 minutes under heavy enemy artillery and mortar fire, thus providing the brigade's command with uninterrupted communications. He is deserving of the Bravery Medal. Signed Commander, Signals Battalion, 255 Red Banner Naval Infantry Brigade, Senior Lieutenant Voronenkov on 10.8.43 Awarded the Combat Service Medal by Order 031/N of e 255 Red Banner Naval Infantry Brigade Verified Chief of the 4th Section, 255 RBNIB HQ, Administrative Services Captain Ivankov on 7.10.43

Thanks for all replies guys. My EK1 appears to be of good quality manufacture, I compared it to my wartime EK1 26. It even has some frosting on the frame, so I would say it's definetly not of the late production. It's not as nice as a wartime EK but still a very nice piece which looks good in a 57 collection.

Thanks Rick for this nice picture. This is definetly something I have never seen before.

Thanks for your comment. However, there is one thing I don't understand. How can the cross be early but with a late pin attachment? By early but not the earliest, would you place it in the sixties or seventies?

Reverse:

Hi guys, Here's my first EK1 57. I would like to hear some opinions.

There are definitely soviet partisan stars below 2486, this has got to be a mistake. I have one piece below this number, you have one, and I've seen many more below this number. I don't know about the IKOM partisan stars though. The ones I saw, weren't numbered at all.

Soviet, my partisan star 2. class on the picture has the serial in 23XX range. The other one I have is in the 17XX range. Both show signs of wear. As you probably know they weren't awarded in subsequential order. Wlodzimierz, yours looks fine to me. I think it's a nice example with low serial number.

Another pic of the cases:

Here are mine, with cases. The 2. class in soviet made but in IKOM case.

Thanks guys. I agree, you don't have to buy expensive stuff to find interesting research storys. Even 20$ worth pieces can have a very interesting story behind them. So I prefer to buy many cheap items or groups and get a lot of research stories, than to buy just one expensive group per year or so...

I hope we'll get some more information on this unit. It sounds very interesting. Were these dogs used only in winter-snow conditions or also in the normal conditions?

Interesting story indeed. If I understood correctly he was deployed in the russian-finnish winter war in 1940 (Finnish company in 1940???), then taking part in the GPW from june 1941 in the tank corps as a driver of 34 tank (my feeling on this was right ), and when he was heavily wounded he was sent to medical unit where he was in medical unit untill the end of the war. Sanitary dog-sledge team - what does this means? What's with the dogs here? I don't get it. So this man has seen it all, from Stalins purges in 1938 and winter war in 1940, to GPW from Leningrad 1941 to Berlin in 1945. Amazing. To bad nothing is known about him in the winter war or about the tank units he served in... He might have been a driver of a tank in the winter war already... Thank you Rick Research for trying to help me translating this.

AWARD CITATION 1.First, middle and last names Kroveishvili Shalva Andreevich 2.Rank First Sergeant 3.Position, unit Driver of the 54th detached squadron of sanitary dog-sledge team Is recommended for the order of Glory, 3rd class 4.Year of birth 1918 5.Nationality Georgian 6.Party membership LYCLSU member 7.Participation in the civil war and other military actions aimed at the defense of the USSR (where and when) Finnish company in 1940 Since 1941 ? Volkhov -Leningrad front 8.Wounds or contusions received Wounded: heavy and light wounds in 1942 9.In the Red Army since 1938 10.Drafted by what district military commissariat Kutaissky district military commissariat ? the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic 11.Previous awards None 12.Permanent home address (of the prospective awardee or his/her family) Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, Samtredia, 102 Kuibysheva street I. Brief description of personal feat or merits Comrade Kroveishvili has participated in the Patriotic War since June 1941 in the capacity of a tank "T-34" driver. Taking part in military actions in the area of Sinyavino village, during the breach of Leningrad blockade he rushed his tank to the attack and annihilated the enemy pillbox. Courageous soldier was severely wounded in his left leg. After medical treatment Kroveishvili again stood up for the defense of Socialist Republic. At present he is positioned at the detached squadron of sanitary dog-sledge team as a motor-car driver. Comrade Kroveishvili is conscientious towards socialist property. For his courageous and self-sacrificing work Kroveishvili deserves the government award, order of Glory, 3rd class. Commander of 54th detached squadron of sanitary dog-sledge team Captain (signed) /Mirzoyan/ April ?, 1944 II. Conclusion of the Higher Command Deserves the government award, order of Glory, 3rd class Commander of the 54th sanitary department Colonel of medical service (signed) /Guschin/ April 25, 1944 III. Conclusion of the Army Military Council Deserves the government award, order of Glory, 3rd class Military Council members Commander-in-Chief of the 54th Army Lieutenant-General Major-General /Yemelyanenko/ Guards Colonel /ROGINSKY/ /Ignatyev/ 1944 IV. Conclusion of the Front Military Council V. Conclusion of the Award Commission of the People's Commissariat of Defense VI. Award Record Awarded with the Medal for Courage by order to 54th Army No 048/N from May 19, 1947 Deputy Commander of the personnel department 2nd section Captain of executive department (signed)

AWARD CITATION 1.First, middle and last names Kroveishvili Shalva Andreevich 2.Rank First Sergeant 3.Position, unit Driver of the 54th detached squadron of sanitary dog-sledge team Is recommended for the order of the Red Star 4.Year of birth 1918, Georgian SSSR 5.Nationality Georgian 6.Party membership CPSU(B) candidate member, since September 1944, card No7570335 7.Participation in the civil war and other military actions aimed at the defense of the USSR (where and when) Since June 1941 to February 1944 ? Volkhov front Since February 1944 to January 1945 ? Leningrad front Since January 1945 ? 1st Byelorussian front 8.Wounds or contusions received (date, month, year of wounds, location at present) Heavily wounded on December 18,1942; now he is at 54th detached squadron of sanitary dog-sledge team 9.In the Red Army since 1938 10.Drafted by what district military commissariat Kutaissky district military commissariat ? the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic 11.Previous awards Medal for courage, order to 54th Army No 048/N of May 19, 1944 12.Permanent home address (of the prospective awardee or his/her family) Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, Samtredia, 102 Kuibysheva street; Father ? Kroveishvili Andro Darispanovich I. Brief description of personal feat or merits Comrade Kroveishvili Sh. A. is at the 1st Byelorussian front of the 5th shock Army since January 20, 1945 taking up a post of a motor-car driver of the 54th detached squadron of sanitary dog-sledge team. Comrade Kroveishvili in arduous conditions in defensive and offensive actions honorably carried out orders of the detachment command, from the offensive day on April 16, 1945. When it was necessary to move reinforcement of vehicles, people and dogs to 266th, 89th and 94th rifle division, comrade Kroveishvili in spite of severe enemy's fire, got on the motor-car to the regiment medical station and battalion medical station and in time delivered special inventory and necessary things for active sub-divisions. On the way back he took the wounded soldiers and officers and on his motor-car and delivered them to the 1st medical station. On April 25, 1945 during street fights in Berlin comrade Kroveishvili made seven trips a day, delivered fresh forces, technique and special inventory; he was contused but didn't stop his work, promoting continuous evacuation of wounded. For self-sacrificing job comrade Kroveishvili deserves the government award, order of the Red Star. Commander of 54th detached squadron of sanitary dog-sledge team Captain (signed) /Mirzoyan/ April 27, 1945 II. Conclusion of the Higher Command Deserves the government award, order of Red Star Commander of sanitary section of the 5th shock Army Guards Lieutenant-Colonel of medical service (signed) /CHERTOV/ May 8, 1945 Deserves the government award, order of Red Star Commander of rear of the 5th shock Army Major-General (signed) /Ser ?/ May 30, 1945

I got the translations sooner than I expected so here they are. Award card: Order book No 250503 1. Last name: KROVEISHVILI 2. First, middle names: Shalva Andreevich 3. Military rank: First sergeant 4. Sex: Male 5. Year of birth: 1918 6. Place of birth: Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, Samtredia 7. Party membership since: C.P.S.U. (B) member since September 1945 8. Education: Secondary 9. Nationality: Georgian 10. In the Red Army since: September 1938 t0 1945 11. Place of service (name of the unit) and position occupied when awarded: 5th shock-Army of Byelorussian Front ? first sergeant 12. Current place of service and position: Temporarily unemployed 13. Home address of the awardee: Samtredia, 102 Kuibysheva Street, Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic 14. Record of previous awards Checked For Courage 837924 406274 Order to 54th Army No 048 of May, 1944 Order of the Red Star 1749575 548921 Order to 5th shock-Army No 206/N of June, 1945 Signature of awardee (signed) ________________________ Data correctness and signature of awardee Samtredia district Military Commissar attested by: Lieutenant Colonel (signed) October 31, 1946

The other one:

Hmm. Medical unit? Interesting. That is the last thing I expected from these two awards Anyway here are the two pics of the stamps.

The last one. I was hoping that this group would be from the tank units and It seems I have had some luck. A tank driver of T34, this might get interesting.

The second citation:

Another:

I've spent more than an hour to do some more pics, I'm sorry the pics are so bad, but that's all I can do with my camera and 110 kb of space for uploading. If they are not good enough, then it's no problem I'll just have to wait for the ordered translation to arrive. The name of the recipient should be SHALVA ANDRONOVITCH KRAVEISHVILY.

I hope someone will be able to make some brief translations from these pics. Thanks in advance.

Bigger pic of the citation no. 2

citation number 2.