Ed_Haynes

Award Page:

Red Banner of Labor - 4935

Awarded - 1 June 1939 (but booklet 7 Feb 1947)

Name page:

OPRISHKO, Maria Yakovlevna

Duplicate issue

Photo (none alas):

Document cover:

(1945 printing)

Order of the Red Banner of Labor, type 2, var. 2

#4935

Well said, Jeff. In some ways it may make sense to see a Bronze Star are something closer to a MiD than anything else in the British system? Or maybe we could compare it to a WWI Iron Cross 2nd class?

But such analogies and comparisons are always problematic, but they are also probably inevitable. It is also dangerous to believe that there is/was ever a fixed, unchanging, non-fluid, "honours system" (or that there is ever any "system" at all underlying these things).

Folks like us think more about the place and role and niche and history of these awards than ANYONE involved in awarding or receiving them ever does, ever has, ever will.

Bronze Stars seem to be pretty widely and commonly awarded these days, for everything from low-level bravery to hearing a story from one of your mates that shots had been fired in anger somewhere, sometime. A Silver Star, however, usually represents something real.

The Liverpool ones are all unawarded, "leakage" from manufacturers.

The one Pete mentioned is real (and illegal in the USA).

Oh . . . pretty . . .

Thanks, Eric. Always glad to learn new things.

Ed

Yuri Yashnev's fine site lists this one, though he only shows the second variety.

http://www.netdialogue.com/yy/Europe/Bulga...B/MatM/MatM.htm

Yuri Yashnev has some treatment of Nicaraguan awards, including the

Valor Cross

http://www.netdialogue.com/yy/America/Nikaragua/VC/VC.htm

and

Merit Medal

http://www.netdialogue.com/yy/America/Nikaragua/MM/MM.htm

Chris,

I have never seen this one before! How rare is this one?

Paul

One of the major US dealers has one for sale just now at $69.

These boxes are really nice, especially when with contents, and especially when you consider what the troops who got them were about to experience. Especially rare -- I have only seen one -- were the boxes given to Sikhs (who do not smoke) where the tobacco was substituted with chocolates (not such happy choccies after all these years, but ....).

That article gave me a chuckle indeed! Riding...polo... pig sticking... I spent big money indeed on a book by an officer of the regt and it more or less goes like this...

Chapter 1-20 Riding...polo... pig sticking...Riding...polo... pig sticking...Riding...polo... pig sticking...Riding...polo... pig sticking... damned war..Riding...polo... pig sticking...Riding...polo... pig sticking...Riding...polo... pig sticking...

Ah... what a life it must have been back then...

This is pretty much the Way it Was. There as a standing joke in the Indian Army (infantry regiments only):

Two regimental officers meet in the mess. After the third whiskey, one officer tells the other: "Old boy, I got a cat, a tom."

The second replies: "First rate, what did you name him?

The first replies: "Indian Cavalry."

Ther second asks: "Why?"

The first answers: "Because all he is does is eat, sleep, drink, and [fornicate]."

Enough said?

The joke has survived partition and can still be heard recgarding the Armoured Coirps.

Thanks for the advice. Let me see what I can turn up. Being able to write as a professor of history might help.

Ed

No, thats nothing exiting. Only, that Dankwart Fehr donated to an initiative to save a local open bath.

best,

Gerd

Thanks, Gerd. That's what I got out of it too. Was afraid my aging German had missed something important. Assume that wasn't the basis for his HdA?

Based on help from my colleague in Russian history, I can now reconstruct:

Vatslav Bronislavovich Laurinovich

? 13 January 1919 ? permission to him as Commander of 9th Company, First Infantry Regiment, Vitesky-Subgev, to marry Kladiva, citizen of city of Samara

? 2 February 1919 ? certificate that he is commander of 9th Company, First Rifle Regiment named for Vitbek-Soudep, Orienburg (Siberia)

? 15 June 1919 ? action that won him Red Banner ? as commander of 9th Company, 209th Regiment (later 8th Turkistan Rifle Regiment)

? 6 July 1919 ? decree awarding him Red Banner

? 1919/20 ? participated in all fights of 511th Rifle Regiment from town of Rechisy to town of Ivangorod and back to city of Bobruysk ? served as commander of 2nd Battalion and as commander of regimental reconnaissance

? 26 January 1921 ? Commander of 2nd Battalion, 34th Rifle Regiment, 4th Rifle Division ? recruiting with the Labor Committee ? permission to access railway transport

? 15 February 1921 ? permission to check on workers on western railway ?in secret and on a fixed schedule?

? 21 March 1921 ? railway pass related to labor recruitment

? 5 August 1921 ? commander of 1st Battalion, 34th Rifle Regiment

? 18 September 1921 ? efforts to transfer service in Trans-Volga Military District nearer Samarov, where his family lives ? three years on front lines

? 15 October 1921 ? authorization to carry guns and edged weapons outside regimental area (34th Rifle Division)

? 27 October 1921 ? ordered to Igumen for ?tank research?

? 26 January 1922 ? 12th Brigade, 4th Division informs him that ?the river? is in bad condition and must be cleaned up before attacking, deadline 0800 2 February 1922

? 5 February 1922 ? order for ?all cooperation? with his repairs concerning the river project at Swisslodge, 15 km from Zhukovits

? 9 February 1923 ? investigating affairs of the Samara Telephone Network

? 22 February 1923 ? employee of 2nd Department of the Department of Clerical Matters, Office of Public Works, Samara ? also instructor in the Information Department

? 31 December 1923 ? member of local committee and secretary of the Pricing and Conflicts Committee

? 17 August 1925 ? to Ufa from Samara to inspect the division for 7 days

? 26 February 1926 ? permission to travel by ship (issued Samara)

? 24 September 1926 ? invitation to a conference where ?war related topics will be discussed?

? 12 March 1927 ? medical certificate that he is in good health to travel between Samara and Ufa

? 14 March 1927 ? chairman of the Marksman Society of the Bastikian Society of the Friends of Aviation and Chemical Buildup, Ufa

? 18 March 1927 ? representative of Committee for Labor and Defense for Ufa at the Regional Congress

? 26 March 1927 ? announcing results of a test which will be released at a later date ? to commander of 100th Division, Samara

? 20 July 1927 ? he is correspondent to the Red Bashkiria newspaper from Totsky Camp

? 27 August 1927 ? orders to report to Samara

? 25 January 1928 ? he is seeking info on his Red Banner and it seems none too easy

? 31 January 1928 ? orders to report for a special session on military discipline and to bring documentary research

? 21 September 1928 ? won horse race (a watch) riding ?Reconnaissance Man? ? he was assistant commander of 100th Rifle Regiment, 34th Rifle Division

? 12 November 1928 ? assigned to service at Saratov ? travel authorized Ufa to Samara and thence to Saratov ? he the commander of 100th Rifle Regiment, 34th Rifle Division

? 20 March 1929 ? student at the Highest Lenin Teaching Academy (Leningrad) as an instructor of tactics ? previously, instructor in tactics at Saratov school of Retraining Red Army Reserve Officers

? 20 July 1930 ? thanks for his services at the Saratov school

? 4 November 1932 ? ???

? 23 January 1934 ? best shock worker among those who arrived on skis (?), he is allowed to make a report about combat training for the 17th Congress ? he was commander of battalion of the Ulanovsk Armored Order of Red Banner School Named for Comrade Lenin

? 9 September 1934 ? Certificate for ?Ready for Labor and Defense Badge?

? 20 June 1937 ? promoted colonel

? ??? ? certificate that he and wife reside at 1 Tikahorestky Prospect, Building #108, Apartment #24

? 6 July 1941 ? Statement of dependents: wife ? Klavdiya Sergeeva; wife?s mother: ___ Vasil?eea; son: Sergei Lavrinovich ? he the Commander of Automobile and Armored Troops, 23rd Army and Major General

? 20 September 1941 ? medical examination of cause of death

? 22 September 1941 ? certificate of ?the death of the courageous? in fight for Beloostrov

? 6 February 1942 ? posthumous Order of the Red Banner

? 21 September 1944 ? widow trying to hold on to apartment and get financial support ? Military-Electro Technical Academy of the Red Army Named after Budonny

? 19 September 1946 ? certificate to retain ration cards to widow (Leningrad City Military Comissar)

More to come including some untouched Russian materials with a soundtrack of begging sounds attached.

Dankwald actually shows up if you google him. There can't be two in Eisenach.

Thanks a lot. But, in addition to being just beyond my comfort level in German these days (and the BabelFish version is, of course, worse than the German!), I'm not sure there is much here. Am I wrong?

http://mihla.de/chr/030327HI.HTM

Oh, yes, I forgot.

M. A. R. Skinner, Sworn to Die (New Delhi: Lancer International, 1984)

Have it right here. Fairly chatty, as is usual for a regimental history written by a military officer who has no training as a historian, whose love of "his" (in this case, really "his") regiment transcends his skill as a researcher or writer. Often seems to be as interested in sports as he is in operations; it is that sort of regimental history. Covers from 1921 (The Great Amalgamation) through 1945 (with a few notes only on post-1945 regimental activities). There is no useful index, as is common for such things, but there is a brief index, which is fairly unusual. Will dig out mentions to Coaker later.

The regiment sells these through the IAC Centre at Ahmednagar, so you have to be fairly secretive in finding someone who knows someone, etc. The last I heard, their stock was running down with no plans to reprint. While a few are very nice, the overall quality of anything out of Lancer has been dropping like a rock.

Other regimental histories:

H, Roberts, A Short History of the 1st Duke or York's Own Lancers (Skinner's Horse) 1803-1908 (Lucknow: Indian Daily Telegraph, 1908)

Christopher Rothero, Skinner's Horse (Maiden: Almark Publishing Co., Ltd., 1979)

None of these histories are easy to fine and will often set you back the price of a nice 2nd Sikh War medal to the regiment. Look on abebooks.com? Some plans are underway for regimental histories (as well as Army Lists) to start coming out on CD-ROM, once copyright questions can get resolved. Cross your fingers.

St. James' Church sells low-quality printings of two books on Skinner, but that is even further from what you seek.

As you said Rick: "Research is never done." Can we get a forum special price on that mass tattoo?

Congratulations on putting just a bit more flesh back on these scraps of metal and enamel.

Ed

The "printing" information, inside back cover:

Oh, and the church from the outside.

Another memorial, detail lacking.

Shall try to try again next time (December?).

Memorial 1 -

Not as detailed as we'd like, sorry --

Col. James Skinner, CB