Valter

Thank you Rick! I really appreciate your kind comments. I think there were not so few men who served all the war and got nothing but Hindenburg cross. Approx. 11 milion Germans fought in WW1 (I'm not sure if this is a number only for fighters, not rear area servcies?) and approx 5 million EK2's awarded. Surely some got decorations from other states, and non-EK Prussian ones, like war effort cross, but there's still a considerable number of those who didn't anything.

Just to revive this excellent topic... Now I'm a proud owner of two Tamara ribbon bars too. Not that great as Ricks, but I'm very glad of them.

This one is fresh from assembly line... Certainly NOT "Gebraucht: Artikel wurde bereits benutzt." (Item has already been used) as stated in description. http://www.ebay.de/itm/Grose-leere-Ordenspange-fur-5-Orden-7-Abzeichen-/370895411037?hash=item565b16d75d

Who is this buyer? Is it possible that crooks are fakely buying from each other just to improve each others feedback and then selling the bogous item offline to some uninformed collector? If I understand right, the medals alone are good, but bars are frankensteined?

Thanks Rick for excellent and fast explanation! http://www.ebay.de/itm/141053050598?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649 here's the link for auction, someone will throw alot of money...

Is this a fake too? Looks desirable (IF you ignore the fact the precedence is wrong), but it's on sale by (in)famous club... I can post direct link too, if it's appropriate.

I uploaded the pictures of collateral damage Hindys. And also of "balkan fighter" bar with "update".

The precedence of this bar is a complete mess, and wear of ribbons is inconsistent - Waldeck, Lubeck and AH generic one are much more faded/frayed then the others. But the backing plate is shining new.

Paja, thank you for very nice scans and pics of variety of partisan badges. About GC's star I would also say it's Soviet, but if worn by Yugoslavs, we'll probably never know. There were regular Soviet cap stars, enammeled and painted, worn by partisans, some on regular basis, some gotten from Soviet soldiers, especially where two armies operated together (Srem front). On Slovenian forums, there quite often someone comes out of the woodwork with soviet cap star (usually enammeled one) and claims it's partisan. It may be and in many cases they are, but without very solid proof (a picture of this particular star worn on partisan, for example) it's almost impossible to prove it.

Yes, that makes sense. Very interesting pic and story. ANY web sources about bulgarian activity in Korea (also in russian or bulgarian)?

Ok, I'll try... Rozglezhdane (unleggible for me) za operativnie (ditto) prez sledvashchata sedmica v 53 gosp. 1953 g. v rajone na Teguou (??) Consideration (or exam or viewing) (unleggible) for operative (patients, or room, perhaps?) in/during next week in 53rd hospital in year 1953 in the region of Teguou (or whatever). If native bulgarian speakers will laugh at me, please take into consideration that I never learned Bulgarian (only Russian and Serbian).

Bulgarian bravery cross 3rd class, 1st grade. Most likely from WW1. here's a picture of WW2 variant, WW1 was the same except year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:3-1_%D0%9E%D1%80%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BD_%E2%80%9E%D0%97%D0%B0_%D0%A5%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B1%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%E2%80%9C_III_%D1%81%D1%82._1_%D0%BA%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%81,_1941%D0%B3..jpg

In my eyes, the bar is pure crap. AEZ with reverse to front, a RKK2 without RKM3 which should always be there... and sold by one of my "favorite" eBay sellers.... Sascha, thanks alot for your reply! I thankfully didn't buy this one, it's on sale currently on ebay. I wanted to check first, and my gut concern was right. Upturned AEZ is not such a big concern, as these are often seen upturned, but RKK2 without RKK3... That one I missed Thank to you I never will again!

Many beautiful bars here! What do you think about this bar? The ribbons are alittle loosely packed, is that a matter of concern? And what's the missing last place decoration with plain red ribbon? Saxe-Weimar white falcon or some Austrian medal cross?

The last one, Enver Hoxha and Nako Spiro. If anyone needs bigger pics, let me know. Regards, valter

These are couple of pics from one of the book I mentioned. Not the best pics and either scans, but since Albanian partisans reference pics are scarce, i added these. Book is: Nijaz Dizdarević, Albanski dnevnik (Albanian diary), Zagreb 1988, ISBN 86-343-0474-4

One with neat maker's tab and one very little one...

I have a copule - nothing really special, but I like them.

Totally agree with you, GC. I checked a couple of books and there's no mention of olive-painted stars in Yugoslav partisan use. Only red-painted or enammeled. But it would be quite possible they used some if they got them in areas where Yugoslav army operated together with Soviet troops.

The fact these newly appeared badges are pristine new is one of the main concerns about their originality. Your silver para badge is worn and shows signs of that, I don't see any red flags with it. Yes, i also saw these (and other) flying badges on ebay, but they also appear on local shows in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia... or local auction sites like http://www.kolekcionar.eu/ www.limundo.com The interesting fact is all those yugo aviation badges were not really rare, but neither easy to find, until this recent appearance of new unissued pieces. The "new" pieces are now much easier to find than worn, issued ones. I saw one gold para badge on e-bay too (perhaps we looked the same one), and one Slovenian collector showed one a while ago.

I just read two books about partisan movement in Yugoslavia and Albania. There were indeed several Albanian partisan units (from Albania) that operated on Yugoslav territory - not only in Kosovo, but also in Sandzak (a territory in Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro, inhabitated mostly by Slavic muslims). Don't bother too much about "obsolete" rank patches. In difficult circumstances of partisan movement and lack of supply, many partisans and even whole units used older rank insignia, and also olther types of caps years after the official design changed. Several higher Yugoslav partisan leaders worked in Albania as instructors or consultants from 1943-44 so it's quite logical Albanians adopted the same or similar rank insignia.

A year or two ago many yugoslav flying and parachute badges of all types appeared on the market. One source quoted they are a recent find from some magazine in Belgrade, but there is also a debate if these are modern fakes, made on original tools. The discussion is inconclusive and polarized. There very surely more gold badges produced than issued. The "normal" para badges with or without a jumer (some say the one "without" actually has a blue jumper) are just known production variants. The other variant of all these badges are older type (with five torches in Yugolsav crest) and newer (with six torches); the change occured around 1963, when crest was changed due to constitutional changes: five torches represdented five nations, six torches six federeal republics, what is more politically neutral due to "appearance" of Muslim nation and due to several national minorities).

I think this is a soviet other rank's combat star - but I'm not sure if WW2 period or later (the same tipe as WW2 was used a few years after the war too). As far as I know, Soviets didn't make any "special" stars for Yugoslavia (the oval cocardes are different thing), but they did deliver to partisans the same stars as used in Red army. Partisans used soviet made red army type stars both enammeled and painted, probably also olive-green painted combat ones (I have to research some sources). Soviet WW2 type stars, especially painted and enammeled ones, are often offered for sale as "yugoslav parisan" stars, but without rock solid proof for that very star (period photo of partisan with star with some distinctive damage, for instance) it is impossible to say if the star was used by red army, partisans or it's from old soviet stock of unissued WW2-type stars (these stocks are quite big, I think). In yugoslav literature is quoted one letter from Tito to soviet authorities about the delivery of hat stars, and Tito writes that although painted stars are easier to produce, they do not look as nice as enammeled ones. Tito cared alot about the appearance of his army and himself, they claim he shaved every day even during offensives. ;-) In early post-ww2 period Yugoslav army used all kinds of stars and cocardes - oval ones, soviet made ones, and yugoslav made ones. Even uniforms, weapons and equipment was very mixed in first years, due to great shortage of material.

Some very beautiful boards here, gentlemen! Thanks for sharing! Just a little infromation for collectors outside Yugolsavia - in Kingdom of Yugoslavia, "chetnik batallions" (later callet assault batallions) were kind of special force, elite infantry units. These should not be confused with chetniks from WW2.

And here is mine example, the same type as GC's but better preserved. Sorry for far from perfect pics.