Ed_Haynes

Very very nice. Whatever the word is, it is not a common vocabulary item. Dictionary time. Or maybe they just misspelled the Hindi, as the Mongolians did on their Indo-Mongolian friendship badge.

I would agree, by the way, with your guess as to both the time period and the significance.

I hope we're not getting into a too-literal reading of the Chinese. What does the Mongolian say?

The chap on the front looks to me to be Demchugdongrub (Дэмчигдонров), known in Chinese/Japanese as De Wang. He was a local notable in Inner Mongolia under the Chinese Republic, He became a fairly enthusiastic collaborator with the Japanese and was appointed as commander of their Mongolian Military Government which evolved into the Mengjiang United Autonomous Government (of which he was Head of State).

See the picture below. He is (obviously) the fellow on the left, with Japanese "friends".

I suspect this medal is from the early periods in the evolution of the Inner Mongolian puppet state, as Demchugdongrub was moving from local warlord status to a tame local ruler under the Japanese. Perhaps something for the Mengjiang National Army?

The last time I noticed his group for sale (some days, I wish I'd gone for it):

Thanks for "bumping" this thread. I'd (almost) forgotten what a good reference it is!

Well, it depends in part on WHICH Iron Cross you reference.

There is, after all, the famous 1870 Iron Cross group to Henry Hozier who was (may have been ) the father-in-law of some chap named Winston Churchill.

Again a PERFECT example of award degradation during the war--

this was easily a 1944 OPW 2nd or a 1945 OPW 1st level citation. Inescapably, RANK enters into RECOGNITION-- he was SCREWED.

My thought exactly. And he was an essentially rankless commisar when he got the award. But maybe the bravery medal just meant more then and got demoted as new things were invented?

Wow.

Thanks for taking the time to post these.

Once again, public thanks to all who helped out here.

As always, any comments are welcomed.

And the translation

And the recommendation

Translation

Back

Record card front

1st Baltic Front, Headquarters of the Artillery?s Commander ? Political Commissar of the Platoon for the security of the Artillery Headquarters

Medal "For Bravery" 207811

Try with just warm water and a very mild "baby's first" toothbrush. Should do a non-destructive job. But use your fingers as much as the toothbrush. A toothpick (wooden) is often useful for this specific task, but be sure to "chew it down" to remove the sharp point.

Oh, OK. Trying again.

Try 54 mm (V) x 48.5 mm (H at the star points) and this:

Which one? A25?

46.5 mm (V) x 51.6 mm (H). (And just 43 g with screwplate.)

Comparison shot with a (more familiar?) item.

Hope this helps.

Just as a footnote, while I don't know any Indian naval aviators, the folks I know wear submarine and surface warfare badges that are much more derived from US that from UK models.

I've never collected badges, sorry.

I would suspect, given the size that these would be rather uncommon, especially for Pakistan. See:

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/NAVY/Air-Arm.html

http://www.paknavy.gov.pk/naval_airarm.htm

Most air operations are the duty of the respective air forces.

Is it "fashion" or "nostalgia"? Whether you know what the award is or not, the symbolism would be quite clear.

Research on the first of his two Red Stars is in hand. Will post it when the translation is done.

If it is the book I think it is, it is not so bad. You must, of course, take it in the context of the time (post-War, post-regimental integration, and a time of rebuilding and redefinition in the context of a growing anti-imperialist challenge) in which it was written, but it is still of value. Not serious historical scholarship, but worth having and worth reading. I have it on the shelves and sometimes graze in it.

Hope that helps.

Quoting from Caulfield's nice article:

Army Distinguished Service Medal 393

Spanish Campaign Medal No 7756

Philippine Insurrection Medal No 22456

World War I Victory Medal U.S.M. 95

France - Legion of Honor, 4th class

Serbia - Order of St. Sava, 5th class

Serbia - Order of the Red Cross, 2nd class

Montenegro - Milosh Obilich Medal

Missing:

Poland - Order of Polonia Rsetitutia, 2nd class

Belgium - Order of the Crown, 2nd class

Serbia - Order of the White Eagle, 2nd class

Rumania - Order of the Crown, 2nd class

I was going through some old issues of the JOMSA and ran across an interesting article by Jeffrey Calufield in the May 1988 issue on these medals.

An interesting piecture was included, which I add here. Nice group!

Even nicer in that his WWI Victory medal was officially numbered. Only 100 or so were numbered.

Just as eye-candy . . . .

The archives are open to any serious researcher who is willing to jump through a few stupid bureaucratic hoops. Like most archives, you need to do your own research, their small staff will not do a demanding researcher's work for them.

If I were there, I could get the recomendation within a day. I know right where the Foreign Department indexes live. None of this sort of thing was copied on to London. Unfortunately, all the provincial-level honours files were targeted for destruction prior to 15 August 1947.