Ed_Haynes

Very interesting indeed! Thanks.

Sorry, I do not collect miniatures, so it will require a more expert opinion than mine.

Almost no miniatures were officially produced and there could be great "variability" (to put it delicately) and in this case they over-abbreviated her title. The pair to Sowar Hirah Singh, 13th Bengal Lancers, shows the correct legend.

I, too, would be sure it isn't an official UN medal. Whether or not it is an official Hungarian medal remains an open question. Still, it is nice.

Nice one!

Scan the dedication?

Oh yessss! The Air Force volumes are wonderful/wondrous, even for Russian-illiterates (like me). If we had similar volumes for other services (and I am told they are on the way . . . save every kopeck) . . . . Have not seen the civilian volume. Guess I should . . . Need speedy RNA transplant for the Russian language . . . .

Nice photos. I know the Centre for Armed Forces Historical Reserach (New Delhi) has a few more period photos, but they are uncommon.

Many thanks. Always learning . . . .

Ah . . . yes . . . troubling. The proper coat of arms (1978-80) should be:

I have never seen it either, but it is possible. Given the massive destruction of records after three decades years of war, we may never know for sure. Any image of the reverse? And is it Russian on the botton scroll? That would not be a positive indicator. Thanks for adding this. Very interesting!

While the medals were issued in the multi-millions and that mounted pair must have existed in the millions, I'd agree that the online "wholesale deal" smells pretty bad.

Another parallel tale: A good friend of mine in graudate school was doing his dissertation reserch in Pakistan (that resulted in a 400+ page Buddhist Studies dissertation, but that's another tale). To help fund his work, he took a part-time job teaching history at the US embassy school in Lahore, he also coached basketball (which, there as elsewhere, seemed more important than the history). He had the kids of some prominent folks on his team, both Pakistani and foreign, including the two sons of the Saudi consul in Lahore. He took them off to the regional basketball competition and his team did really well the first day and they went back to their hotel rooms . . . in -- you guessed it -- Kabul. The day of the semi-finals they woke up to -- you guessed it again -- Soviet tanks in the streets of Kabul. They were three weeks getting out and he claims he considered defection if anything had happened to any of the boys.

Algeria, not Albania. Both start with "Al__".

Thanks!

There is/was a very nice web site (in French, of course, so . . . ) with rolls of recipients and some marvelous photos of the old guys wearing their medals and trying to squeeze into their old uniforms. Somehow, the URL has gone missing here. Anyone??

A clarification: When I refer to "flawed sources", I am talking about the places where Lilo has extracted the gibberish names about which he wants us to guess. I am in no way alluding to any of the Wish Ones who have been playing these guessing games. If anyone used the correct names (in, for example, Greek or Ottoman Turkish) and could post them here we'd be far ahead of talking about these things even in an accurate English translation. Unfortunately, Lilo's quoted sources are not even in the same universe when it comes to using precise or accurate or helpful names. Sorry that my frustration got in the way of my clarity of expression.

Lilo- The problem with this post (and so many others) is that you present us with a faulty translation/rendering/piece of linguisitic rubbish from some sloppy source, where they are trying to describe an award from a foreign country and then ask us to guess what award could possibly have been intended. Without an image of either an award or a ribbon, is it any wonder that we have to draw on guesswork as to what that source may have thought this person got? These awards have perfectly good names in the original languages (Greek, Ottoman Tuskish, whatever), but, of course, no one in your flawed sources (or here) uses them (nor can the forum use the proper scripts anyway). You are asking all of us to guess, and you should understand and appreciate this. If someone describes a cat as a "dog", there will be no way for us to guess what the animal REALLY was. Ed

So often, if something isn't military, there is limited interest in in. Always wondered why that was the case. Both the forum you referenced and even this one even use that word in their names. And the only archives in which research is known are those in which research has been done. I know that is a tautology, but it is true. Brings us back to that military fixation. I guess pre-pubescent males rarely played games of being an airline pilot? Other archives and records are (or were) out there. If someone were to look . . . ??

Interesting. What is the size? I tend to think that things that are numbered are (A) more significant than things that aren't numbered and (B) are, were, or once were capable of being traced (though I've been told in Ulanbaatar that unnumbred awards were seen as so trivial by the recipients that in some cases the awards were numbered just to make them feel more important).

Well, RENAMO had strong South African/Rhodesian "influence", so . . . ???

As with almost all French medals, were any "officially maunfactured"? You got your certificate in the post and toddled off and bought your gong? (Like post-1918 German awards?)

Thanks, Bob. The dealer seems to be a good guy who (other than that Labor Hero) seems to have good stuff and seems to care about having good stuff. Not only is the item a pretty obvious fake, but as we know there is no reliable way to link numbers to the "Sky Blue Bible". Soon there may be . . . .

Fascinating, and inspirational. Nice to see some real heroes. Years ago, I had an extensive correspondence with the widow of Adam von Trott. She offered to send me some of the letters he had written to her, but I sensed she was just being gracious and that she didn't really want to let them go, so I declined . . . .

Yeah . . . don't know where that price holds, maybe in UB, not elsewhere. In Belarus?