Dave Danner

Thanks everyone. Oddly, I already had Narr. He is Gottfried Ritter von Narr. He was a Leutnant with 8. Feldartillerie-Regiment Prinz Heinrich von Preußen, assigned to Kampffl.Sch. OHL I, and killed in action on 18 October 1917 at Valenciennes. He is buried in Frasnoy (Nord) cemetery. He was born on 31 March 1893 in Würzburg. Given all of O'Connor's work, it's odd that not only could an MMJO Knight disappear into the woodwork, but that an aviator MMJO Knight could. If he is not on your list, I see three possibilities: (i) the lists are incomplete, (ii) he was stricken from the rolls or (iii) the Ehren-Rangliste incorrectly lists him as "Ritter von".

Can anyone with access to a copy of Bayerns Goldenes Ehrenbuch or Virtuti Pro Patria check these and give me their first/given names? ____ Ritter von Dreher - IR3 ____ Ritter von Bengl - IR10 ____ Ritter von Finsterlin - IR4 ____ Ritter von Goß - IR20 ____ Ritter von Schramm - IR4 ____ Ritter von Maußner - 2.FußAR, 6.FußAR ____ Ritter von Müller - 1.PBtl ____ Ritter von Mußbach - RIR12 ____ Ritter von Narr - 8.FAR ____ Ritter von Nerz - 8.FAR ____ Ritter von Neubert - JBtl1 ____ Ritter von Rudolph (supposedly stricken from the MMJO roles in 1926) ____ Ritter von Sailer - IR21 Thanks in advance!

Interestingly, my 57er EK1 also has that little ring, but on the bottom arm. I assume that it was part of the die (a ring/depression from the pin used to knock the cross out of the mold). My EK2 also has the ring, and again on the lower cross arm:

байлдаан (baildaan) and байлдах (baildaq) mean "war" (and sometimes "combat"). Merit is (ач) гавьяа (gav'yaa) and гавьяатай (gav'yatai) means meritorious. -н(ы) (-(n)i) is a possessive suffix. одон (odon) is "order" in the sense of a decoration. So the first is literally "Medal of War" or "War Medal" and the second means "Order of War Merit" or "War Merit Order" These seem to be called Combat Merit Medals and Orders in some sources, though.

Are those posts completely lost?

It is a generic stamp. The coat of arms is the standard Mongolian communist-era coat of arms (although there were variants). The smaller text where the stamp crosses the photo says: БYГД НАЙРАМДАХ МОНГОЛ АРД УЛС (Bugd Nairamdakh Mongol Ard Uls), which means Mongolian People's Republic (usually abbreviated БНМАУ). The rest of the text is Улсын их хурлын тэргїїлэгчдийн газар. Улсын Их Хурал (ulsyn ikh khural) means State Great Hural, the name for the Mongolian Parliament. тэргїїлэгчдийн газар (terguulegchdiin gazar) means Presidium. дарга (darga) means Chairman, and нарийн бичгийн дарга (nariin bichgiin darga), means Secretary, so the two signatures are: БНМА Улсын их хурлын тэргїїлэгчдийн дарга - Chairman of the Presidium of the State Great Hural of the Peoples Republic of Mongolia БНМА Улсын их хурлын тэргїїлэгчдийн нарийн бичгийн дарга - Secretary of the Presidium of the State Great Hural of the Peoples Republic of Mongolia The Chairman of the Presidium from 1954 to 1972 was Jamtsarangiin Sambuu, so the first signature is right: Ж. Самбуу. The Secretary's signature appears to be Шарав (Sharav). I can't find a list of Secretaries. (by the way, on Mongolian websites, ї or v are generally used in place of that Y character, which does not appear in many online Cyrillic fontsets) Газар by itself, by the way, means office or agency, so for example, the Mongolian CIA is Тагнуулын ерєнхий газар. Its website is here: http://gate1.pmis.gov.mn/cia/

Uwe Bretzendorfer has a copy of the Battushig book for sale. Here are his images of several pages: http://www.bretzendorfer.com/obilder/b0613a.jpg http://www.bretzendorfer.com/obilder/b0613b.jpg http://www.bretzendorfer.com/obilder/b0613c.jpg http://www.bretzendorfer.com/obilder/b0613d.jpg

Slightly off-topic, but some even got their PlM as a colonial award. Before World War One even started, the officer below had already received: Pour le Merite Royal Hohenzollern House Order, Knight with Swords Red Eagle, 3rd Class with Crown and Swords Crown Order, 4th Class with Swords Prussian Life Saving Medal Bavarian Military Merit Order, Knight with Swords Saxon Albert Order, Knight 1st Class with Crown and Swords Württemberg Crown Order, Knight with Lions and Swords

Your medal is on the wrong ribbon. The medal you show is the Jubiläums-Erinnerungsmedaille, which is worn on a red ribbon (officially "ponceaurot"). The Kriegsmedaille is a different medal, worn on the black-laddered yellow ribbon shown. Here is an example: http://www.austro-hungarian-army.co.uk/km73pic.jpg

Austrian Kriegsmedaille, given in this case I would assume for China.

Alaska and Hawaii counted for the foreign service clasp.

Given how well-catalogued the collection was, my thought was someone who had seen the photos arranged the theft. Perhaps, if they were developed from film (as opposed to digital images), someone at the developers. Or someone to whom the owner had shown the photos (fellow collector, insurance agent, or the like).

I came across this picture earlier today. Nothing exceptional, but I noted some similarities to Ed's general's bar so I thought to test my squinting skills. I read: 1st row - 1. Param Vishist Seva Medal 2. Ati Vishist Seva Medal 3. Vayu Sena Medal 4. Samar Seva Star 2nd row - 1. Paschimi Star 2. Raksha Medal 3. Sangram Medal 4. Operation Vijay Medal 3rd row - 1. ? 2. Sainya Seva Medal 3. Videsh Seva Medal 4. 50th Independence Anniversary Medal 4th row - 1. 25th Independence Anniversary Medal 2. 30 Years Long Service Medal 3. 20 Years Long Service Medal 4. 9 Years Long Service Medal Any idea what #1 on the 3rd row is?

армия - Army корпус - Corps дивизия - Division полк - Regiment батальон - Battalion рота - Company взвод - Platoon отряд - Detachment войска специального назначения - special operations forces (Спецназ - Spetsnaz) отряд (войск) специального назначения - Spetsnaz detachment отряд милиции особого назначения (ОМОН) - Militia Special Purpose Detachment Военно-воздушные силы - Air Force (ВВС - VVS) Воздушно-десантные войска - Airborne Forces (ВДВ - VDV) Военно-морской флот - Navy (ВМФ - VMF) Противовоздушная оборона - Air Defense (ПВО - PVO) Ракетные войска стратегического назначения - Strategic Rocket Forces (РВСН - RVSN) and so on, and so on, and so on...

Christophe, some newbies won't necessarily know our little acronyms. style_emoticons/ Also, there are ten medals (the FKE is obscured): Prussia, Iron Cross, 2nd Class Bavaria, Military Order of Maximilian Joseph, Knight's Cross Germany, Honor Cross for Combatants Bavaria, Order of Military Merit , Cross 3rd Class wth Crown Prussia, Order of the Crown, 3rd Class Baden, Order of the Zähringen Lion, Knight 1st Class Bavaria, Jubilee Medal for the Bavarian Army Bavaria, Service Decoration Cross 2nd Class for 24 Years' Service Bavaria, Golden Wedding Jubilee Medal 1918 Bavaria, Service Decoration Cross 1st Class for 40 Years' Service

Probably not. I would surmise that the Afghan Communist government took a page from the Soviet playbook of 1942-43. Then, the USSR shifted the focus from appeals to communist solidarity to appeals to Russian patriotism, emphasizing the struggles against the Teutonic Knights, the Tatars and Napoleon. So you had various Eisenstein films and the establishment of Orders like Alexander Nevsky, Suvorov and Kutuzov in 1942, Bogdan Khmelnitsky in 1943 and Nakhimov and Ushakov in 1944. I would guess that the PDRA established these various medals as merit medals in various fields, and named after figures from Afghan history, especially the 19th-century struggles against the British.

It appears to be Sayyid Jamaluddin Afghani, the 19th century Afghan philosopher, so I would guess it is a decoration for arts and sciences. It is a nishan-e dawlati, or State Order, rather than a medal, so it probably ranks higher than many of the others. http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ip/rep/H048.htm

Oh, I would guess the tower on the obverse is the Minar-e Maiwand, or minaret of Maiwand, the monument to the battle which was in Kabul (no idea if it still stands, though I doubt it).

Muhammad Ayub Khan was Emir of Herat in 1880 or so. He led Afghan forces against the British at the Battle of Maiwand. The reverse inscription in Dari says Madal-e Dawlati Ghazi Muhammad Ayub Khan Fatih-e Maiwand, or "State Medal of Ghazi Muhammad Ayub Khan, Victor of Maiwand".

"madal-e dawlati maulawi ...." or "State Medal of Maulawi What's-His-Name". There seem to have been a series of medals like this in your IEPE entry which are named for various figures from Afghan history. Maulawis, for those who don't know, are local religious leaders (and there are probably as many different ways of spelling maulawi as there are maulawis).

That is because it is not Arabic, but Pashto.

It is Kapustin (Капустин). http://www.generals.dk/general/Kapustin/Se...viet_Union.html