Ed_Haynes

A fascinating medal, extremely rare. It has always been my understanding that these were individually sand cast from his order: Shove the obverse into the sand, pour in the molten medal, let it cool and finish it, and them make another one.

If I understand correctly, just like other places? Если я понимаю правильно, точно так же как другие места? Если я правильно понимаю, как и в других местах? Trying two online trabnslation sources. Which is better? #1 or #2? #1 = http://www.online-translator.com/text.asp?lang=en #2 = http://www.google.com/language_tools

Lovely tractors! Need some!!!

We need to know SOOOO much. Help us, Kevin. Frist class ("gilt") vs. third class ('bronze") is always tricky, for any of these orders?

Yes, these are quite nice, and -- I agree -- surprisingly "robust" in their construction. I have almost the full set, though undocumented . Let me dig 'em out and post.

Wow! The Chinese award is the nicest piece!!!!!!!!!!

How could I have missed this. to one and all.

This will require someone going to the archives, knowng what they are doing, and doing the research. There are researchers who can do this (though these days its seems there are severe problems, of whatever cause). You can try these researchers, but working from only a name won't be easy. Only for officers will there be any sort of service record. And I suspect that for such an early and low-ranking casuslty there would be almost no trace, unless (perhaps) he was awarded a decoration of some sort. See http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=13330 and read Dave's PDF. Sorry.

As Bob so wisely said: . All I can add is !!!

Thanks for putting things up, and please post others, even the more common ones. Nice images are always nice.

Let me check my notes, much richer than what I have online, but I think this is a new one. Typical Sudanese design.

This is VERY disturbing. It seems the only moderately trustworthy dealers with large stocks are those we can't afford?

When it comes to HISTORY, there must be a TON here, but how to dig it out? Enough for a novel, or a filmscript?

Oooohhhhh . . . . . . FASCINATING!!

Based on what I have seen so far, I'd say (and seeing the Sky Blue Bible): Probably not. Yes. Quite. Idiots!

Oh . . . nice . . . have never seen that one before. Can ribbon be obtained? (PM if you can get any meaningful quantities -- a meter or two of each -- please. Some would go into OMSA ribbon bank.)

I don't see anything immediately wrong here, but I'd want to check the "Sky Blue Bible" (where the numbers don't/won't quite match up). A shame the group is severed, but then there was her SB and other awards . . .

Interesting. Why a clasp on the UN medal? Very few clasps were authorised for these medals. Ignoring the reinvetions.

Crazy? Hardly. He just didn't much like the Brits taking over his country. Can't blame him. Not sure, however, one a Swiss soldier could have gptten the bronze medal. There were, by the way, Swiss on both sides in thet war, very interesting.

Fascinating. Well . . . until I saw this, the article was almost finished . . . . Some questions outstanding with Bat, now some more. There are sooo many things we don't quite unerstand yet. What fun.

Very interesting. Possibly a group, possibly not, one may never know. The ribbons do look fresh, but -- to me -- my "gut" says "good". Thge fact that everything is mounted up correctly (correct obverses, correct order) is a very good indicator.

I think the OMSA ribbon bank may have some, but not (I fear) for this class.

While his book is far from complete, Henry Sakaida's little Heroines of the Soviet Union, 1941-45 (Osprey Elite #90, ISBN 1-84176-598-8), pp. 54, 60, shows this is Guards Major Natalya Fedorovna Meklin, a "Night Witch".

Nice items. I see some Egyptian and UAE awards as well as the tricky Sudanese awards.

This looks like it. That is surely what it says at the top of the reverse. Thanks! Thoughts, Owain?