NavyFCO

He received the NDSM along with many of the other senior Army generals at the time. Basically it was because of his "support" of the Navy-run amphibious landings. Or something like that. Remember when you're in that kind of stratospheric level of general-dom, the other services tend to give you all of their awards, even if you didn't do anything specifically for them. For example, after the Gulf War in 1991, nearly all of the four star generals who were "players" recieved DSMs from all of the branches - thus, they ended up with the Army DSM, Navy DSM, USAF DSM and Coast Guard DSM. I know for the Navy that also has historically been a precident for a "joint-supporting" Chief of Naval Operations, where they receive the DSMs from every branch. Also historically the outgoing Chairman of the JCS recieves them all as well. Just one of those "friendly" cross-service gestures. Also, the photo in the first post is credited to Ben K. Weed of "oldflagswanted". I don't know where he originally got it from though. Dave

Since this is my "expert" area in the hobby, I might be able to help. Patton received a Kutuzov 1st class according to his biography, though I haven't been able to track down the number for it. Interestingly, he's not listed in the Shishov and Muzalevsky listing of recipients of the 1st class though, and I also haven't been able to find his award card. I'm not saying that he didn't get it, but he just received it through non-standard means... probably through a field presentation of a front commander that wasn't properly documented (others, like General Bradley, had the proper award card and the like, which I have copies of). At the time of his receiving of the award, they were stationed on the Soviet-US lines in Czechoslovakia. Other members of his staff who received Soviet awards at the same time include the Chief of Staff, Chief of Engineers, Operations Officer, G3, G4, Supply Officer, Artillery Commander and Deputy Chief of Staff. I am certain other awards were given out, but those are the only ones I have documented that were awarded to the 3rd Army staff. With regard to the Guards badge, the Soviets gave these badges out as "awards" to various US personnel. The personnel who recieved them considered them bona-fide personal awards, even though the badge was simply a representation of the unit status. A bit odd, that's for sure. I have yet to find a good reason why the Soviets did that, but the awardings of the Guards badge as a decoration were fairly rare and are considerably more rare than the actual bestowal of "real" awards. As far as Patton wearing them, I had a great statement that Patton made about wearing the awards, to the effect of 'you don't have to like the people giving you awards' or something like that... when I find it, I'll post it verbatim as it's a classic Patton statement. Hope that helps. Dave

I'll make a wager and say that the MM is a long service 10 year award, and the OGPW is an award for wounds received during the War. Now let's see what the research actually comes up with! Dave

Thanks Gerd. Yeah, I would say that this one is a keeper. I normally "flip" groups (e.g. sell them just after researching them) but this one really fascinates me. I honestly think I'll hold onto it for a while. Dave

And finally, my favorite part, his hat!

His sleeve insignia:

Here's my small contribution. I always loved the TR German railway hats with the red tops, but I didn't collect TR stuff enough to lay out the dough on one. I then discovered that the Russians had a similar red topped hat when the Webster book came out on Soviet uniforms. Then and there I resolved to buy one! Finally, a complete uniform (hat, jacket, trousers) came up for sale and I jumped on it. This uniform was purchased directly from the family by a collector and then passed whole as a group. More things might well be coming from the family - I'm keeping my fingers crossed. He was a Lieutenant Colonel of the railway service. This was his WW2 uniform; he eventually rose to become stationmaster of the Kiev Passenger Railway Station. Pardon the informal photo - I haven't yet finished setting up his display yet. Dave

And one of the parts I like most, his photo in his order book!

Red Star reverse

His Red Star...

And the reverse...

Here's his Red Banner...

Got the group today! Here are some pictures!

Used on Amazon for $5... http://www.amazon.com/Culture-Entertainmen...TF8&s=books

There's actually a good book out there about this entitled "Culture and Entertainment in Wartime Russia" by Richard Stites and published by the Indiana University Press. It has an entire chapter about the Frontline Concert Brigade. Dave

My theory is that he didn't have sufficient time in the military to warrant a long service Red Banner and went from "zero" to Colonel General in 1944, formerly serving as the commisar of armaments for the majority of the War as a civilian rather than a military figure. Basically, he was a very young enlisted man during the Revolution, and then didn't hold another "real" rank until he was made a Colonel General, thus missing the "lower" awards that he would have earned as a more junior officer. Just my thought. Dave

Here's a great pic of Ustinov getting his 10th Lenin in conjunction with his HSU in 1978. Sorry the pic is so wide! For a bit of fun, who can name the people in the picture? Any takers? Dave

I've only owned two multiple Lenin groups. One double Lenin to a HSU general who was awarded a screwback (and later had it replaced with a hanging one) and one triple Lenin to an HSL. Also one HSU that had two Lenins but one was missing. None of them brought any more of a premium than if they had multiple Red Banners or anything else like that. But of course, I sold them all before the insanity started and God only knows now that someone might go nuts over multiple Lenins and jack the price to twice what it's really worth. But that's just my opinion. Dave

Try www.sovietgenerals.com Dave

If it was researched, I'd bet that he was a pilot. If anything that "converted-to" screwback Red Banner should have a good citation. His Red Banner might be a flight hours award instead of a long service award. It would not surprise me if the Irreproachable Service 2nd class was legitimately his... Say he joined in 1943, received an unnumbered MM for 10 years of service in 53, received a Red Banner for wartime actions which was worn on his uniform in flight and then received a second one for long flight hours, and received his Irreproachable Service in 1958 for 15 years of service. When he died, his family threw the bar together without concern for precidence for his funeral (have owned them like that before) and then someone in the family sold the awards not long after. A plausible story... Dave

Gerd reminds me... SmerSh stuff brings good prices as well and has a really strong following. I have at least three people who will buy SmerSh awards without hesitation when I get research back on them. Dave

I don't think that many of the lower awards were published verbatim in papers. I believe the normal case is that a reporter (probably a member of the political staff) would take the story of the action and that would be published, not so much the actual citation itself. This might not have been the case with regard to the higher citations that had to go to the Front staff or to Moscow for final approval - those may have actually ended up released (as an excerpt format, undoubtedly and not the actual citation) to the press for publishing. I have seen several examples of high award citations which state that the person's deeds had been published "along the Front" or in other sources, so there was undoubtedly a system for that which was independent of award citation writing. Perhaps some of the Russian members who have read through wartime newpapers (esp the big ones like Pravda) could enlighten us further. Dave

I don't think they were intentional propaganda because most low soldier awards (Glory 3rd, Red Star, etc.) never even left the unit. Undoubtedly the majority of unit commanders knew what they're units were involved in with regard to combat (look at the number of commanders KIA during the war in front line combat) so there wasn't a need to inflate numbers to impress the chain of command. I personally think that there was a considerable amount of "inflation" of killed numbers simply because they were estimates and it was safer to estimate on the high side than on the low side (why lose credit for what casualties you MIGHT have inflicted?) I have always thought it interesting how, for example, an artillery unit could claim "up to one battalion of enemy soldiers were wiped out" when they obviously weren't out there counting the dead bodies, or for that matter, with artillery, many of their victims were either buried under rubble or unidentifiable parts and pieces so there was no way that they could know that they wiped out a battalion, or even a company for that matter. Even beyond that, even if they COULD count the number of Germans killed, was it a full strength company or battalion? Or was it half strength? They couldn't know the actual strength of the German unit, so they technically couldn't accept credit for wiping out an entire unit. All that said though, it was probably more accepted to put in a citation that they killed "up to a company of facists" than what they could possibly confirm by actual body count. Was it done for propaganda? No. Was it the most practical way of writing citations in a combat environment? Probably. Dave

It really depends on the collector. There are far fewer "deep pocket" collectors for KGB than there are for SS and/or Gestapo, and from those I've met, they are mostly "into" KGB cloth, rather than medal collecting. I do have a KGB order/medal group up on ePay at the moment... It's a sweet group, we'll see if it sells! Dave

Just added the rest of the citation to the translation above! WOW! Comments are (of course) welcome.