Valter

But I have to mention that wear&tear of the ribbons is very inconsistent - winterschlacht ribbon looks very new, while NDH ribbons seem old and faded... This smells some messing up! :shame:

Very beautiful bar nad nice restoration job!!! Is there a particular reason why all the ribbons except the 3rd one are rounded, and the 3rd one tight and flat?

UUUps, it is Austrian republic red cross medal - I didn't look closer and thought it's a WW1 one...

If you check any german deathcards collection, about 80% of deaths werer "im Osten". That's where the wehrmacht might was destroyed. Wether the decisive battle was Stalingrad, Kursk, Baghration or even Moscow it's hard to say. Moskow sin't that unimportant either - that was the first time german advance (on the east) was stopped, Russians recognized the germans are not invincible and it boosted russian's morale and will to resist. As Stalin was really depressed by first great defeats in 1941, it is not impossible to calculate that Soviets would ask for peace if the Moscow would be lost. And one more important fact, though not a battle - perhaps the German's biggest mistake beside Barbaroosa was neglecting atomic weapons. IF the germans would place all available resouces to development of atromic bomb Including accepting "jewish" theory of relativity), and IF they'd succeded before allies, they could destroy both Soviets, Britans and Normandy inavsion.

Thank you, Saša! I'm glad I got these epaulettes - and the story is also interesting. The grandpa died before I met my wife, so I didn't know him but I've hear alot about him. He was talking about this shot down stuka and said the pilot was blown in half, his lower body missing, but the upper body was still in a cabin, with open eyes and very confused face... I don't know if that was true, but sounds interesting... :o

the reverse... sorry for crappy pics, but I don't have boards with me at the moment.

This pair belonged to my late grandfather-in-law, he was a reserve 2nd lieutenant of AA artillery. At the time of attack to Yugoslavia (6th April 1941) he was mobilised and sent to navy base of Boka Kotorska, where according to the family history his unit shot down one of attacking Stuka's.

Very nice indeed! I've never seen these, and even didn't know for existance of such an agency!

Thank you very much for this detailed response! I hope this guy will succeed in his next attempt... :cheeky:

A very nice bar and great restoration job, Tom! I assume you used a period or other legit thread - the repair is impossible to notice! Ulsterman, sorry for my ignorance, I'm new in imperial field - who is infamous Austrian and how to avoid his fakes? Regards, Valter

SLO medal is yugoslav, actually Slovenian. In this case, SLO means Splošni ljudski odpor (general people's resistance) and it 's a commemorative medal instituted and awarded in Slovenia (then part of SFR Yugoslavia) in 70's and 80's. Approx. 8.000 awarded. It depicts people's resistance - a woman, a farmer, an armed worker and a kid - a partisan's messenger. This medal was awarded to former (WW2) members of resistance (usually those who weren't in partisan units, but supporters and concealed resistance members on the occupied territory), but also to people who merited in post-war defence-strengthening activities etc.

Itb is a known style of chetnik badge, but I don't know these enough to tell if real or fake. At the first glance it looks good and well detailed. Ravna gora has a special meaning, it is considered as a birthplace of chetnik's movement, so it appears on many badges, patches, songs etc., usually not connected with the exact geographic location. Here are a serbian page about Ravna gora, although it's in serbian, you can check the photo gallery, it's pretty interesting http://www.srpskicica.com/srpski/Galerija/Galerija_dogadjaji_9.htm

Could be, a rather simplified one. A proper A-H eagle had a shield on his chest and held sword and pomme in his claws. But the russian eagle has basically the same design, so it could be also russian?

Too many, too crowded, some of them almost invisible... a WW1 red cross award together with combatant awards AND WW2 EK2 (for combatants - a doctor should get a KVK instead ). No go for me! Actually, maybe that bunch of medals could be worth 600$ ? :whistle:I don't know prices for austrian republic stuff.

very nice and interesting pictures! :beer:

Thank you, Elmar! "Maintainance door" on decoratkion - sounds weird yet possible. I was thinking about something more misterious, like to put there a small piece of paper with recipients name... or a piece of hair from Franz Josephs's moustaches... :cheeky:

sorry, if this is stupid question - but what was the purpose of this hinged locket? :speechless:

Yes, casting is a very popular hobby in former Yugoslavia! There are also poorly casted national heroes, kingdom flying badges and air force ashtrays... I'm not sure where those are comming from?! Bifter, it is possible to get 3rd class for 200 € or less, medals without boxes and maybe without ribbon are not that rare.

Hi Peter, here is "my" explanation I owe you and other members. I have to confess that my concerns about seeing sole SS LS award (without NSDAP LS) is based on an article of Richard Lundström from Wehrmacht-awards forum: http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/related/ribbons/exotica.htm Since Mr. Lundström's article is posted in general part of WAF page (not member-only) I took the liberty to quote the relevant part here: "SS long service awards were only granted to three categories of personnel: career enlistees in the SS-Verfügungstruppe (later "Waffen-SS"), and staffs of SS-Junkerschulen (Officer Training Schools) and Totenkopfverbánde (Concentration Camp personnel). All other members of the SS simply received the same NSDAP long service awards that career uniformed personnel of any Nazi Party organization received. Members of the few SS branches entitled to their own long service awards also wore the Party awards, with the SS one (only a single SS award could be worn, though all three NSDAP awards could be worn together) first. ..." Since the SS was (considered elite) part of NSDAP, and since SS LS awards were awarded only to a very limited portion of (career) SS members, almost all career members of SS were also members of NSDAP, and as employees of SS, they were technically also employees of NSDAP; so entitled for NSDAP LS awards too. (NSDAP LS awards were awarded only to career NSDAP personell, not to all party members!) So, it is the far most common combination that a person who was entitled for SS LS award got NSDAP LS too. There were very few exceptions when career SS members were not party members, but that was rare indeed. Here's another part of mr. Lundström's article about this subject. http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/related/ribbons/good_bad_ugly.htm If me (and my source) are wrong, I deeply apologize. Regards, Valter

Hello Timo, I completely agree with all your concerns. Is the backside and padding material also glowing under blacklight? And if I see correctly, there are different threads used - for medal bar nad backing (pic #6), that is odd too. And the left eagle doesnt have the aged, patinated "old gold" color as should be expected, but more like glittery gold color of later 1957er pieces. Not surprisingly, Chilean award is missing as this one was too hard to get for a forger. :angry:

Everything SS related is very prone to faking. And an SS LS award without NSDAP LS is even more suspicious. Since RAO mini is worn while hindy and SS are mint, it's very likely these two are replacements for something more common - prussian LS, centennary medal or whatever.

1st bar no.3 is Verdienstkreuz des preuss. Landes-Kkriegerverbandes - quite a common weimar period award: http://www.sammlercabinett.com/d/details/14977.html 2nd bar no3 - no idea, too faded no 4 - Preussisches Kriegserinnerings-kreuz 2. kl. (sorry, I can't find a pic...)

It's probably an auto-crated uniform (supposed to be Albanian?) as Artan suggested. AH never used shoulder boards like these (actually, they didn't have any shoulder boards with ranks, except navy), they wore ranks on collars.

KSC, Saša, thank you for lots of useful information! Some update from me: in Slovenia, it's surely worth to visit private museum in Logatec, owner is ret. brigadier Janez J. Švajncer, probably the best and most knowledgable Slovenian military historian with great collection. Vojni muzej Logatec Tržaška 81a 1370 Logatec phone: (00 386) 1 754 27 81 open sat/sun 10-18:00, For groups, weekday visits can be made with prior arrangement. page: http://prohereditate.com/en/museum/C0022/ http://www.logatec.net/static/vojnimuzej.asp Verys good museum of WW1 is in Kobarid, open daily, more info here: http://www.kobariski-muzej.si/?lng=ang if you travel to Belgrade by car, just after Croatian border (or just before, if you're comming from Belgrade), near the highway, is a large monument and museum of Sirmian battlefield (Sremski front) - it's a battlefield where at the end of 1944 yugoslav partisan army (with support from Soviets and Bulgarians) went from guerilla warfare to battle on open ground, like regular army, with German and quisling formations. Partisans, who had no experience with frontline warfare, sustained heavy losses in the beginning, but nevertheless succeeded. The monument is impressive, and despite obvious lack of money reasonably well mainatined, and in the museum there are interesting uniforms (although most of german stuff is fake or with faked insignia), weapons, battle flags etc. And about flea markets in ex-yugoslavia - it's quite commont he sellers will raise the prices when they notice you're a (western) stranger So, if anybody from this forum comes to Ljubljana, let me know and I'll try to be of some help :cheers:

Explorer, a really outstanding collection! No wonder why russian type spomenica's and orders are hard to find on Slovenian militaria shows! A remark for Artan - did you consider the opinion these rank insignia were made locally in Albania, from parts of italian or whatever else insignia? Slovenian partisan isnignia were mostly made locally, by the units themselves or by the local civilians, they used all kinds of materials, including parts of captured or civilian uniforms, or even civilian gold/yellow textile. In one slovenian museum is a partisan rank that uses a cloth with flower pattern for the gold part, which is surely from a non-military source. It's quite possible Albanian partisans made their ranks the same way, it would be easier than to transport them from somewhere else.