Vatjan

I was thinking along these lines

I would be very careful in assuming this screwplate to be original. We know how these screwplates were swapped around in Mongolia, and I would not consider this to be original until, at least, one other was found to corroborate this finding. I would love to see numbered screwplates, that would open great, real combat ( ) research potential, but I do not (yet) believe they exist. I asked Dr B once, he denies there were ever numbered badges. It looks like a screwplate for a soviet "osoaviakim-always ready-defence society" badge sort of thing, they were numbered This is the pic why I asked Dr B.

I would be very careful in assuming this screwplate to be original. We know how these screwplates were swapped around in Mongolia, and I would not consider this to be original until, at least, one other was found to corroborate this finding. I would love to see numbered screwplates, that would open great, real combat ( ) research potential, but I do not (yet) believe they exist. I asked Dr B once, he denies there were ever numbered badges. It looks like a screwplate for a soviet "osoaviakim-always ready-defence society" badge sort of thing, they were numbered This is the pic why I asked Dr B.

And Ypres' French Croix de Guerre Jan

Here's the MC awarded to Ypres

Can I be officially jealous now? Nice one Ed Jan

Please do, I'm enjoying this thread thoroughly.

Thanks for the help Michael, the text is very interesting, unfortunately the song is not the one I'm looking for. One Belgian regiment adopted the song, and I've found an excerpt in a magzine article, it goes like this: "Maintenant qu?on part au Bataillon d?Afrique. La discipline esp?re nous m?ter ... Para?t qu?l?-bas, faudra poser sa chique et faire le mort sans jamais rousp?ter Et toi la m?me qu?est-ce que tu prendras, quand on reviendras. ... Jeunes, fougueux, nous sommes les joyeux." Jan

Could anyone provide me with the lyrics, or even better with a sound recording of the Marche des Joyeux, which is supposed to be a French Foreign Legion song/march that was already popular in 1914. Thanks Jan

Very dangerous declaration JC, seeing OPS 4929 was awarded on 5-11-1955 and OPS 2506 on 30-12-1956. Not much of a system to be found in OPS awardings I'm afraid Jan

Hi Jacky, General information about the order can be found in this thread, more specific information about your order is quite hard to give. Numbers cannot, as yet, be researched and the "award-date-related-to-the-number" listing is very chaotic for the Polar star, so no help there either I'm afraid. Jan

This medal is the one the Belgian red cross awarded in this period, alas not with this diploma Jan

Very nice set indeed. Could you tell me if the monogram on the palm of the Leopold II order and the of war cross is written as "LIIIL" or just "L" I've got a doc of a KIA soldier who received more or less the same medals, and I'm reconstructing his group, but I'm not sure about the palms I need, hence my question. Jan

This info is not in his book but in the introduction he has written in his Soviet-Mongol priceguide. This should not be too hard to find if you don't have it

I agree, I just though it was worth mentionning, or at least not discard the info offhand.

According to Herfurth, from the 1960's onwards orders were made in UB but also in Budapest, Hungaria.

1552 was awarded on 19-sept-1964 and 1920 on 18-dec-1968, that should narrow it down a bit for you. So at around 100 awardings per annum yours was probably awarded in 1966 Jan

Christophe is there an editorial address to be found in the magazine. (email?) I also would like to order a copy. jan

The certificate in itself is good, the naming looks tampered with, the serial number... it's hard to tell, the 9's and 2's seem to be in the same calligraphy as the the date numbers, and there seems to be no evidence of erasing. If both number and name have been faked, on a good doc, it's a poor attempt to earn 1 extra dollar, surely not more. The name was probably erased by the family. The seller probably added a fantasy name, and maybe the number of a loose medal he had lying around. This is still childsplay, things will get worse when they start applying the techniques they have to forge soviet orders, to Mongolian. We do not have the knowledge yet, to fight this the way our Soviet collecters friends have. IMHO Jan

Igor, where you the one who got the group to NCO Biset that was on auction at the Galerie Numismatique in Lausanne about a month ago?

Ahah, so you are the one who made the offer that couldn't be refused and made this one dissappear from the ebay radar. Nice one, Igor, congratulations Jan

I hope you put all available copies you found on this plane into your bag, to distribute among your forum buddies?

Now, these are actually pretty nice I must admit

Ah yes, buckets of beer and talking about medals for hours on end in the hippest place of UB city

Sukhbaatar square, hooray, lovely Ed