Ed_Haynes

And, finally. Let me know if closeups are desired. Stamps stripped from the two enveolpes.

See: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=4129&st=48

And.

See: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=4129&st=44

And.

See: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=4129&st=42

Way out of my "zone", on several levels, but can anyone help with the following?

See: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=4129&st=40

This has the general "feel" of the various "brotherhood" awards of chefs and vintners at the highest professional levels. See: http://www.omsa.org/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=866

Either that or it is a self-awarded joke.

R?tsel gel?st!

What do you think, when was my/the order issued? May/June 1945?

Regards

Stefan

Research will say. Guesswork may get it close, but there is no substuitute for research.

Maybe it is part of slava1stclass's collection ? What I wish to him...

Ch.

If so . . . where is that :envy: smiley . . . ????

Hi Darrell,

These are scans from Shishkov book "Awards of the USSR" - Vol 4 - 2005 edition - pages 442-444.

Cheers.

Ch.

Still, nice to see.

But, if lifting (a delicate word) an illustration from a book (where someone else did the work), it would, I think, be good practice to note that. When an item if from your collection, that seems unnecessary and may be assumed.

Ed

Posted by Tom Donovan on the Yahoo SAGongs discussion list:

Dear All

Just a note to inform you that an exhibition: Salient & Sanctuary: India in Flanders & Brighton is open now and daily until 27th August 2007 at the In Flanders Fields Museum in the famous Cloth Hall in the market square of Ypres, Belgium.

The exhibits concern the background of the Indian Army, the services of the Indian Corps in France and Flanders 1914-1915 and the hospitalisation of Indian soldiers at Brighton and other towns on the south coast coast of England.

Exhibits include medals and plaques, trench maps and documents, photographs and several interesting artefacts including the tunic worn by our friend Rana Chhina's grandfather in the 53rd Sikhs in WW1. The tunic is complete with medal ribbons (including the IDSM), havildar-major' s stripes, service chevrons and brass shoulder titles.

The exhibition occupies its own dedicated space and entry is free.

I hope group members will find this of interest and if anyone is passing through or near Ypres during the next few weeks perhaps they will find the time to take a look.

Yours,

Tom Donovan

Brighton, England

What else to say!

I have never seen any other "star associations" other than this one. I think they were pretty much an English-only associations, at least I have never seen any trace of the organisation among the majority (Indian) veterans of Burma.

It would be worth checking to see if Miskatonic University -- oops -- Amherst University has his papers. It is always sad to see assembled research pass away out of sight.

Would LOVE to see it. Immensely rare, by the by.

Ed, I am not the publisher. The publisher is Militaria House in Toronto. They have a large series of books on Eastern Europe and all from the same time period - fall of communism. All of the books are the same set up. When I first got to Belgrade this was the only book I could find on the subject...I found a few more while I was there, but they were all in Serbian. I think my own personal feeling towards something like this is that I am better off having this book than not.

The quality of the book done by Ranko Mandic on Albanien ODM was much better, but still not up to Western standards. And, both he and Nenad know that if they produce a book it needs to come up to those standards.

No problem, mate, I know your fingerprints are not on this one. You had sinply referenced them, and they do not seem to exist online any more. Indicative?

It is just that, were it a 1960s or even a 1970s publication, it would have been adequate enough, but as unfocused and incomplete and deficient and sloppy as it is for a 1990s pub from outside the country . . . grrrrr.

Point being: tHe ecological niche for a good good on socialist Yugoslavian ODM is still well and truly open.

If would be interesting to see what else this publisher has, but if this is a fair sample, . . . If their Albanian work is better than Eric's fine volume, I may forgive them this. "If".

Colors (colours?) would suggest the Burma National Army and Burmese State which worked under Aung San side-by-side with the Indian Natioinal Army (and their Japanese "friends") against European interests in Burma, 1941-45 (when it sniffed the air and changed sides, allowing Aung San to emerge as a credible leader in post-war independent Burma).

See: http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/mm-old.html#1943

And, inside:

Oh, yes, the large document. Sorry it has taken so long. Not the greatest images, but . . . .

Just got the book. And it is really QUITE disappointing. Poor quality of information, worse quality of images (even for 1991), and less than half the book relates to ODM of the socialist period and it totally ignores non-military stuff (OK, that wasn't quite the booklet's title, but one always hopes for better).

The publisher, "pmargulies", seems to have no web presence (or, rather, it has died). If this same team is doing something else, I'd need to be convinced it is A LOT BETTER than this before spending any money on it.

Am I sorry I bought it? Maybe. Would I buy it if I knew what I know now? Probably not. Will I throw it out? No.

That is clear to me

But who is the man / organisation / circle, etc. behind the order ??????????????????

greetings

eitze

This is a really good question, for all these fantasy "orders". They must have been concorted by some person or persons, probably sitting alone in the squalid dark, who desire to manufacture and self-bestowed some mark of "honor". As their goal is also to make money, simply by finding out to whom the money orders should be sent, you might just trace the origins. However illegitimate, these "orders" represent an interesting phaleristic netherworld and I fear that for many (and I have to struggle against this myself), the noxious cloud of general disgust surrounding these "orders" makes serious study and attention difficult. We badly need to know more, for 200 years from now they will surely confuse the hell out of future phalerists.

Another of those fantasy orders.

Thanks, Rick.

The stamp:

Interior. Translation help please?

Document exterior.

I am still staring (ignorantly, as it is in Russian) at the list of recipients of the RSFSR RBL.

Do I get credit for frustrated effort?

Decadent! Decadent!

That top medal looks like the OMSA award.

Come on, the OMSA awards aren't THAT bad.