Gunner 1

According to the FMP page about 'Royal Artillery honours & awards Transcription' it states that the file number (68/Gen/8098)  "match those written on the surviving honours and awards recommendations held at the National Archives, Kew."  The problem is that I can not find an MID recommendation for Frei on the TNA "Recommendations for military honours and awards 1935-1990," which is where it should be.

The booklet is for Senior Lieutenant Petr Iosifovich Voishnits.  During the Great Patriotic War he was a Lieut. Colonel and Deputy Commander, 139th Rifle Division, 49th Army, 2nd White Russian Front in 1944 and 1945. He was born in 1902 and joined the Red Army in 1921.  He was awarded the Order of the Red Star on 18 Sep 1943, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st Class on 5 Oct 1944, a second  Order of Patriotic War 1st Class on 22 Jun 1945 and the Medal for the XX Anniversary of the Red Army on 22 Feb 1938.

The actual book is available at ozonru.com at $36.47 and is indicated as in stock.

I have done business with them for a number of years and have found them very reliable and with quick delivery (usually about two weeks to California)

Reminds me of one of the OMSA conventions some years ago when a gentleman was selling bags of various parts of unfinished and misnamed Purple Hearts.  If I remember correctly he was selling them by the pound!

A good source (but not on the Internet) is Who's Who in France which should be available in most university libraries.  Wikipedia has bios of many of the better known French generals as does http://worldatwar.net/biography/

Owain:  I look forward to the review of the book for JOMSA. Did you receive the page proofs that I sent yesterday?

Regards, Dick

Odulf:  Article attached.

Captain (later Lt. Col.) Petrovskii was also awarded a second Red Star on 28 Dec 43 as a Major with the  90th Field Repair Post and the OPW 1 Class on 14 May 44 as a Major and Deputy Commander, Technical Forces, 101st Tank Brigade, 19 Tank Corps.

What is comrade Petrovsky's full name please?

It appears to be the Romanian Order of the Star with the second-type ribbon (1938).

Paul:  You are correct about the date which I have corrected.  Regards, Gunner 1

The India General Service Medal 1908-35 with clasp BURMA 1930-35 is unusual to the British Army and is also quite rare to the Royal Artillery as only six clasps were awarded to that regiment (all to RA officers).  The only artillery unit present in the campaign was the 7th (Bengal) Indian Mountain Battery which had British officers but Indian NCOs and other ranks.  Four of the clasps were awarded to the Battery Commander, Battery Captain and two Lieutenants of that Battery; the other two to RA officers on the staff.  The medal below was awarded to one of the Lieutenants of the 7th (Bengal) Indian Mountain Battery"

The medal rolls for all British Army recipients of clasps to the GSM up through Palestine 1945-48 are available for free download on the TNA website (as are all of the clasps to British Army recipients for the IGSM 1908 and IGSM 1936-39).

Group to a RA officer with GSM clasp Arabian Peninsula.

GSM with clasps Northern Ireland and Dhofar to a RA officer who served with "Cracker Battery" during the Dhofar campaign.

British GSM with N Ireland and South Arabia clasps and Omani GSM with clasp Dhofar and Sultan's Commendation to an RA officer seconded to the First Regiment of Omani Artillery.

 A GSM with NW Persia clasp to a Captain, Royal Artillery.  Only 11 RA officers received this as a single clasp.

Group to a Royal Artillery officer with GSM and clasp South Persia.  Only 15 RA officers received this clasp.

Pair to a Royal Artillery Lieutenant with a GSM with Iraq and Kurdistan clasp.  Only two GSMs with this clasp composition were awarded to RA officers.

According to The Decorations and Medals of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OMSA Monograph No. 28) by Edward Emering the second medal from the right is the Iraqi Gulf War Medal.

I have illustrations of British Army, Corps and Division patches and your badge is not similar to any of those. 

As a university freshman in 1957 I walked up the steps behind my calculus professor and noticed that he had artificial legs.  He later told me that he had lost both legs to a German machine gun while parachuting into St Mere Eglise during the Normandy invasion.

Pilot Officer Joseph Archibald Wilson McCallum  (173828) RAFVR received the DFC in the London Gazette of 30 June 1944 for service with 44 Squadron, RAF.  No citation is given.

Bill:  Certainly is a one-of-a-kind Victory Medal with what appears to be a British War Medal suspension and a length of American Victory Medal ribbon!!

Bill: As some of us are not on the British Medal Forum would you please post a description or photo of the "new variety."?

Paul:  I expected them to be laser etched and asked the next-of-kin to query the MoD as to whether they were laser etched or impressed and she received the following reply:

"Thank you for your email and I am so pleased that you received the First World War Medals.  It is lovely to hear that your family are thrilled at receiving them as, I appreciate that they mean so much.

In respect of your question about how the wording was applied to the rim of the medals, I can confirm that it is impressed.

Best wishes.

DBS MODMO Honours & Awards E1a"

Not to be pedantic but the last medal in the group is the Efficiency Medal.  There has never been a "Territorial Long Service Medal".  From 1908 to 1911 it was the 'Territorial Force Efficiency Medal'; from 1921 to 1930 it was the 'Territorial Efficiency Medai'.  On 17 October 1930 it was re-designated as the "Efficiency Medal' because it was awarded not only to the Territorial Army but also to the Indian Volunteer Forces and the Colonial Auxiliary Forces (i.e. to all the volunteer forces in the UK and the Commonwealth). Later it was also awarded to the T&AVR and to many officers who held Regular Army Emergency Commissions during WWII.

According to Ancestry an Edward N. Needs was born at Neath Wales in second quarter 1919 which matches well with the 10 April 1919 date of birth on his marriage certificate.

I have some photos but they are quite poor (see below).  According to the information on the Great War Forum a letter from the Medal Office indicated that the naming was impressed.