Dave Danner

Ed, by "Turkish" do you mean Turkish, as in Turkish Republic? I note that in the forum, "Turkish" is generally (and erroneously) used synonymously with "Ottoman." Of course, even the Ottomans weren't averse to making that error, since ethnic Turks dominated the Empire. I can start a thread on Turkish Republic medals with what information I have. Unfortunately, other than one ribbon bar, I don't have any Turkish decorations of my own, just Ottoman.

In case you're wondering what the page says, in the upper right it says "Please press the pictures for detail" (e.g. "press to enlarge"), in the upper left it says "For your price and other questions:" with the e-mail address. The center says "Some examples of Ottoman orders and decorations found in our collection."

They are from various agencies. Most came from Ayatollah Khamanei's website.

From a multinational conference. One of the officers pictured here is not Iranian.

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Not a lot of detail, but here are some photos of ribbons in wear.

I couldn't find anything on the Iranian police website. There is a page on rank insignia and one on patches, as well as one showing vehicles and weapons.

The Iranian Ministry of Defense website is not publicly accessible - you need a username and password - so no way of checking if there's anything there. You could e-mail them, I suppose: info@mod.ir The President's website mentions medals in a few articles on the Farsi side, but no images, and there's nothing on the English side. Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar, the Revolutionary Guardsman turned Defense Minister, doesn't wear decorations or ribbons in his official photo. His bio does mention a decoration which as near as I can tell is just "Third Class Decoration for Labor and Production" (نشان درجه 3 کار و توليد) or something like that. The whole sentence is دريافت نشان درجه 3 کار و توليد از دولت, or "Received the Decoration 3rd Class Work and Production from the state." Elsewhere, this decoration is referred to as نشان کار و توليد درجه سه, but that means the same thing (سه is the word for "three"). Elsewhere, I have found references to two different medals, both of which essentially translate as Medal of Honor, the Medal-e Eftekhar va Sarafarazi (مدال افتخار و سرافرازى ) and the Medal-e Ghadr-hane (مدال قدردانی). The only picture associated with the latter is the one below, of the Minister of Information being decorated by former President Khatami. Googling "مدال افتخار", by the way, gives you tons of hits for the computer game Medal of Honor.

Nothing wrong with the ribbon combo - this is one to an actual officer. My only question would be with the clasps. Do you know what actions specifically qualified one for the Combatant's Cross and whether there were any such actions in Chad or the former Yugoslavia? Otherwise maybe there is a clasp missing on the Overseas Medal.

Here is the more basic group, the group to PFC Durbin of Pennsylvania to which I referred above.

Ribbon bar:

Another French ribbon bar.

No, that one is Australian-based. There are far too many German state decorations to adequately cover. When I first created the German awards site, it was an outgrowth of my other pages, which mainly just showcase my own collection. Because there is/was no comprehensive on-line reference site for German decorations, I just decided to create one, by broadening my own pages to include images contributed by fellow collectors and a few dealers and auctioneers who gave me permission to use their pictures. I kept the site limited to German military decorations for several reasons: (i) it is hard to find images of many of the less common orders, service medals, commemoratives and the like, (ii) the higher orders are too expensive for the average collector, and (iii) collectors like me generally have a "grunt's eye" view and are more interested in military decorations than in political awards, especially ones where the accidence of birth played as much, or more of, a role in getting the award as any act of merit. I am rethinking that approach as more images become available and also because there are some collectors whose focus is both broader and narrower - broader in the sense that they care about more than military decorations, and narrower in the sense that perhaps their focus is one state, such as Lippe, which allows them to concentrate resources on medals that would otherwise be too expensive if you had a more wide-ranging collection. This is a slow process, made slower because I am also doing something else, which is beefing up the descriptions of the states to include more about their military units in World War I. If you look at the Reuss and Anhalt pages, for example, you will see descriptions added of Reserve, Landwehr and other units. For Hesse I provided a link to a separate page on the Hesse Army in WW1, since that state's size made the article too long to leave on the main page. For Bavaria, this will be an even more involved process since the Bavarian Army was much bigger. That's why I hadn't linked to the new page on the Bavarian pages - because I am still revising the main Bavaria page. I have added several images, by the way, to the Bavaria pages: http://home.att.net/~ordersandmedals/germany/BM3bX_1.jpg http://home.att.net/~ordersandmedals/germany/BM3bX_2.jpg http://home.att.net/~ordersandmedals/germa...ayern_KLK_1.jpg http://home.att.net/~ordersandmedals/germa...ayern_KLK_2.jpg http://home.att.net/~ordersandmedals/germany/BM5bXmKr_1.jpg http://home.att.net/~ordersandmedals/germany/BM5bXmKr_2.jpg http://home.att.net/~ordersandmedals/germany/BM5cXmKr_1.jpg http://home.att.net/~ordersandmedals/germany/BM5cXmKr_2.jpg

Order of the Star of Somalia, from the recent La Galerie Numismatique auction. Yuri Yashnev's site (on Ed's list) also has images of some other classes of this order.

I have created a new page, just for Bavarian knightly orders. My current Bavarian page, like the other pages, focuses mainly on military decorations. However, Bavaria's other orders are so nice, I went ahead and branched out. Maybe some day I will even have some of the orders pictured on the page (the first order pictured on the page sold in an auction two weeks ago for 15,000 Swiss francs, plus auction commissions, so I don't think I'll be getting one soon). The page is here: http://home.att.net/~david.danner/militaria/bavaria3.htm Have a look around and let me know what you think.

My bad. There apparently was an Honor Cross, although I don't know anything about it. It might have been discontinued before the war. I will check my references when I get home. As for the Merit Cross, I did promise better (or at least bigger) pics.

Order of Ouissam Alaouite A new addition. I once owned a Grand Cross set of this order, which ranks among the many "I wish I hadn't had to sell that" sales I've had over the years.

The Deutschen Kriegerbund was founded in 1873. In 1897 it became the Preu?ischen Landeskriegerverband. It later joined in 1900 with the veterans' organizations of Bavaria, Saxony, W?rttemberg, Baden and Hesse to form the Kyffh?userbund, which stll exists today. The Stahlhelm Bund was founded after World War I. The K.B. and the date 1873 point to a Kriegerbund connection. The initials at the top (St.A.?) might be a specific chapter.

Not a lot out there on decorations of the Islamic Republic. This is one I picked up several years ago, ostensibly a Military Merit Order of some sort. The tulip doesn't exactly scream "military" to Western eyes, but in Iran, the tulip is a symbol for martyrdom. Ostensibly, a tulip grew on the ground where the blood of Hussein flowed when he was killed, the seminal event in the founding of Shi'ism. However, other sources also place the symbolism of tulips growing on graves of martyrs in pre-Islamic Persian tradition. The crossed sabres do imply something more military. Given the symbolism, this may be a Martyr's Medal of some sort, perhaps for next-of-kin, rather than a more general Military Merit Order, but sources are lacking. The text on the back is Sura 3:169. It means "Do not think that those who are killed in the cause of God are dead; they are alive at their Lord, enjoying His sustenance."

The grades of the White Falcon were Grand Cross (Gro?kreuz), Commander 1st Class (Komturkreuz 1. Klasse), Commander (Komturkreuz), Knight 1st Class (Ritterkreuz 1. Abteilung), and Knight 2nd Class (Ritterkreuz 2. Abteilung), with the Merit Cross (Verdienstkreuz) affiliated with the order. Sachsen-Weimar had another decoration for enlisted soldiers, the General Honor Decoration with Clasp and Swords (Allgemeines Ehrenzeichen mit Bandschnalle und Schwertern). For enlisted soldiers, this was the Grand Duchy's Iron Cross equivalent. The Wilhelm Ernst War Cross was a pinback decoration, loosely equivalent to the Iron Cross 2nd Class ("loosely" because the award criteria were stricter - you had to be a native of the Grand Duchy or serving in its regiments and already have the Iron Cross 1st Class - and it was much rarer, awarded 362 times). The Wilhelm Ernst War Cross could, however, be awarded without regard to rank. For the other Sachsen-Weimar decorations - the White Falcon and the General Honor Decoration - one's rank generally determined what grade one got. The Merit Crosses were for senior NCO and warrant officer-type ranks (Feldwebelleutnant, Offizier-Stellvertreter), which was also the typical rank for the General Honor Decoration in Gold. Regular NCOs got the General Honor Decoration in Silver, and junior enlisted the General Honor Decoration in Bronze. As for "famous" recipients, the White Falcon was the Grand Duchy's main award, so there are lots of famous recipients among the ranks of princes and generals. If you are thinking of lower ranking recipients, many of whom may have gone on to other things, some are: Joachim von Ribbentrop - received the White Falcon Knight 2nd Class in World War I. Later Foreign Minister of Nazi Germany. Executed at Nuremberg in October 1946.Gerd von Rundstedt - held a pre-war White Falcon without swords. Later a field marshal and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oakleaves and Swords.Gotthard Heinrici - served in IR 95, a Thuringian unit (Saxe-Coburg and Saxe-Meiningen) and on the General Staff, and received not only the White Falcon, but five other Thuringian decorations (Saxe-Ernestine House Order, Carl Eduard War Cross, Duke Carl Eduard Medal with Crown and Sword Clasp, Princely Reuss Honor Cross, Princely Schwarzburg Honor Cross). In World War II, he rose to Generaloberst and received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oakleaves and Swords. He was regarded as a master of defensive warfare and commanded 4th Army, 1st Panzer Army and Army Group Vistula.Walter von Unruh - also a recipient of the Pour le Merite and the W?rttemberg Military Merit Order. Otto von Knobelsdorff - A Prussian, but served in IR 94 and had both the White Falcon Knight 2nd Class and the Wilhelm Ernst War Cross. Was later a General der Panzertruppe and received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oakleaves and Swords.Paul Laux - born in Weimar, but served in the Saxon Army. Also had both the White Falcon and the Wilhelm Ernst War Cross, as well as the Saxon Military St. Henry Order. Was later a General der Infanterie and received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oakleaves.Mortimer von Kessel - a Pomeranian cavalry officer who received the White Falcon Knight 2nd Class. Later a General der Panzertruppe and holder of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oakleaves.Hans von Obstfelder - later General der Infanterie and holder of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oakleaves and Swords.

The Croix de guerre T.O.E. was discontinued in 1992, with the last awards for Desert Storm, but apparently was briefly revived for Kosovo. However, this was only for the Kosovo War, from March to June 1999. Since this was almost entirely an air war, I can't see how a Legion infantryman would have gotten one, though. There is a dealer on eBay.de who sells a lot of French ribbon bars, almost all of which seem put together. This looks like one.

This is a BZ3bXmE, Baden's Order of the Z?hringen Lion, Knight 2nd Class with Oakleaves and Swords (Orden vom Z?hringer L?wen, Ritterkreuz 2. Klasse mit Eichenlaube und Schwertern): B = Grand Duchy of Baden Z = Order of the Z?hringen Lion (Orden vom Z?hringer L?wen) 3b = Knight 2nd Class (Ritterkreuz 2. Klasse) (3a was a Knight 1st Class, 2b a Commander 2nd Class, 2a a Commander 1st Class, 1 a Grand Cross) X = with Swords (mit Schwertern) (rank lists used a little crosses swords icon) mE = with Oakleaves (mit Eichenlaube)

Thanks! So Normann was the one from the non-Freiherr line. That clarifies, but returns to the open question category which one the FAR 70 officer was. Is there an FAR 70 history, or maybe a mention in one of the artillery Ehrenb?cher? The recalled Darmstadt Landwehr lt. colonel who was KIA in September 1914 might be another one whose name could be found. The three lieutenants might be harder.