Ed_Haynes

The only one I have is up at http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=4129&st=2

A wonderful (though depressing and slightly spooky) tale, well-told. Not my sort of "thing", but it isn't about "things" it is about "history". And as history, A+!

The various books mentioned here (that I didn't have) are on their way. My request for airmail shipping often gets downgraded to slower post. So I should live so long.

Nice!!

Mysore and Travancore, which used snake in their (THEIR, not the Brit-invented) heraldry, wouldn't be caught dead wearing something like this.

Good summary. Thanks. Has any of this ever appeared, researched, documented, and in print? (Asked as a professional academic historian.) I'd like to see it. How would you distinguish these boys from those who went on the other team, with the communists? Those who'd later get this:

Yes, there are restrikes, fakes, etc. of these. What I was trying to say is that only these were awarded as contemporaneous medals and -- as Darrell remarked -- in specimens where we can distinguish between more- and less-real medals. This is especially the case with the Mariner's Medal, where I've been told there are some especially nasty fakes about.

An interesting historical interpretation, Rick. Not one I have come across. And one on which I -- for one -- would appreciate some footnotes. Most of the serious historical research I have seen on this topic -- and I have to admit it is far outside my field, where I have a hard enough time staying up to date -- holds that there was a close ancestral/parental relationship between the freicorps people and the various street-fighting thug groups that later evolved into things like the SA and SS. The argument that they formed a proto-Nazi cadre of anti-communists and anti-Semites cannot, I think, be as easily and glibly dismissed as you seem to be doing here. Your distinction between naval and military responses is dead on target, however, and is worth remembering.

There are many fakes/restrikes of all merchant marine medals about. As most of the medals were authorised long after the original ribbon-only awards were approved, most of them are "after market" medals anyway. Like French awards, and as with most unnamed unnumbered stuff, you are awarded a medal, now trot out and buy it yourself. This opens up a very gray area as to what is legitimate and what isn't, what is original and what is a fake. Only with the Mariner's Medal and the distinguished service medal are these distinctions clear.

You see them ALL THE TIME in India. The snake has crawled everywhere.

Same for me!

Fascinating tale and intriguing theory on temporary documents.

This is all very useful -- though very disturbing. Much to ponder . . .

Very nice! The problem, of course, is that most of the WWII (= affordable) medals were issued unnamed, and only in places like South Africa, Australia, and India (though not Pakistan) do you have much hope of research with named medals. Despite what some have written, they were unnamed not because of cost but due to a desire to get them issued quickly. If people just researched before they wrote . . . sigh . . . .

Enough for now, more as I have time. A few groups want re-scanning . . . .

Order of the Red Banner of Labor, type 1, var. 2 #938 Undocumented, unresearched, unresearchable But I like it anyway http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=1830&st=5

Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic - Order of the Red Banner of Labor, type 2 I. Kh. Altynbaev #301, awarded in November 1931 to I. Kh. Altynbaev, Chief of Police Criminial Investigations Department. He was one of only two individuals to receive the order twice (#139 October 1929 and #301 November 1931 - he was the first to get it twice). http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=2548

As a break, a few singles that are close to my heart. Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic - Order of the Red Banner of Labor Timofie Prokofievich Boskoboynikov #233 http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=2577

Lekadia Agatovna Nadrushliankaya http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=1830&st=17

Nikolay Anikee http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=1830&st=12

Colonel Vasily Terent?evich Belykh http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=4150

Lubov' Petrovna Slipchenko Wife of the above. http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=7231&hl=diver

Gregory Klementovich Slipchenko http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=7231

Ekaterina Nicolovna Dvornikova http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=7234

Sr. Lt. Semyon P. Prokhvatilov http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=3938