azyeoman

Wonderful photo! I hope others will add moren like it! Great thread! Thanks!

The latest is a rare UK WAR Office letter from December, 1916 on how to write to PoWs.

I wish I did, but that's all I've got. I was just trying to get one of each of the medals including the non-combatants on a medal bar.

A nicely mounted trio by A. Bux of Stuttgart. Nothing unusual, but sadly it appears it may have had a 2nd award clasp removed from the EK2. Instead of The more common silver or white on black this label is brown on white.

Not an unusual trio, but a scarce when mounted with a tailor label and especially this one by A. Bux of Stuttgart, which is uncommon. It appears as though it may have had a 2nd award clasp for the EK2 at one point.

A nicely put together pair by Acker.

Added more info on below post in this thread...

Wonderful parade mounted frack by Werner.

That's what I was thinking. Both interesting campaigns with some tough fighting and weather. Thanks for the input!

Despite the center medal being a bit rough, I thought this was a nice little WWI German bar for the collection; nice in that it has the Austrian Bravery Medal. It's not a rare medal but it's nice on a parade mounted medal bar. Tapferkeits Medaille (Bravery Medal) Awarded to non-commissioned officers and other ranks for a deed of bravery in war. This medal was instituted on 19 July 1789 in 3 classes : the Gold Medal, the Large Silver Medal (also called 1st Class Silver Medal) and the Small Silver Medal (2nd Class Silver Medal). On 14 February 1915 a Bronze Medal (50% bronze, 50% gunmetal) was added. During the 1st World War two types of the Tapferkeits-Medaille were issued : a first type bearing, on the obverse, the bust of Emperor Franz Joseph I with the text FRANZ JOSEPH I V.G.G. KAISER V. OESTERREICH (Franz Joseph I, by the grace of God, Emperor of Austria) and on the reverse within a laurel wreath with crossed flags at the bottom, the words DER / TAPFERKEIT (For Bravery, in German) and a second type, issued after Franz Joseph's death in November 1916, bearing, on the obverse, the bust of Emperor Karl with the text CAROLVaS D.G. IMP. AVST. REX BOH. ETC. ET REX APOST. HVNG. (Karl, by the grace of God, Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia etc. and Apostolic King of Hungary). The reverse is similar to the first type but for the word FORTITVDINI (For Bravery, in Latin). On 29 November 1915 bars, trapeze form and in rustless iron, were attached for subsequent awards of the same class. An order of 15 September 1917 made officers also eligible, under special conditions, for the gold or silver classes and in those cases a gilt or silver "K" was affixed to the ribbon. By mid-March 1918 the Vienna Mint had struck, during the war, some 950,000 bronze, 384,000 small silver 2nd Class, 143,000 large silver and 3,700 gold medals.

A very and interesting historical medal.

An Extremely Rare Olmützer Militärmedaille 1796 - Extremely Rare Olmützer Militärmedaille 1796 - Napoleonic Pair of Awards, mounted as originally worn, on original, slightly tattered ribbons; Army Cross 1813-14, green lacquer mostly worn off;Olmützer Militärmedaille 1796, in silver gilt, 44mm; medals in slightly worn condition. Footnote: Olmützer Militärmedaille was awarded by the City of Olmütz (Olomouc) in 1796 to 10 bravest volunteers-troopers who served during campaigns against French Troops. According to Václav Mericka in his monumental work “Orden und Ehrenzeichen der Österreichisch-Ungarischen Monarchie”, only 10-12 medals were produced, and only 10 awarded, making this one of the rarest Napoleonic Campaign medals.

A nice Godet mounted non-combatant pair.

Very pleased to have found this for the collection. Crimea 1854-56 bar Sebastopol. (genuine on ribbon loose as issued) J. PRESTON, 55th REGT. Officially Impressed naming. London Gazette 29.12.1854 - 3194 JAMES PRESTON MISSING (P.O.W.) 7.12.1854. In the Crimea Casualty Roll (Cook/Hayward) The Border Regiment has six (6) men listed as such, these casualties occurred in the “2nd,3rd,4th,5th & Final Bombardment of Sebastopol & Minor Actions”. Original Border Regt. Museum letter 1975 states the roll says "Prisoner of War" with a later pencil entry "Dead". Copy National Archive roll for SEBASTOPOL bar listed as 'Dead' possibly died as a P.O.W. (G.V.F.) Preston James Private 3194 55th Foot (Westmoreland) Missing in Action Minor actions at Sebastopol 07 December 1854 at: http://www.britishmedals.us/files/crimpr.htm The 55th Foot (Westmorland Regiment) saw active service in Turkey and Russia during the Crimean War. The regiment was awarded three (3) battle honors to its Regimental Color for service in the Crimea: The Alma, Inkerman, and Sevastopol. Maj. Gen. John Richard Hume, 55th Foot, notes on page 89 of his Reminiscences of the Crimean Campaign with the 55th, that on the 5th of December "A corporal and five men of the 55th were surprised on piquet and taken prisoner. This was one of the few instances of our men being surprised during the siege" (Unwin Brothers, London, 1894). Most certainly Pte. Preston was one of the five men.

A WWII and Korean War Canadian group with label.

A WWI Scottish Day Badge for supporting PoWs. It's great these small artifacts survive!

The most recent addition to the collection and a first from a PoW captured in Java and another first for a man serving in the RAF. Sadly, this was stolen in the post or possibly never sent by Britannia Medals. Please contact if these surface. WWII Prisoner of War Medal group to: 1266305 LAC Walter McIntyre Bowman, Royal Air Force Consisting of a 1939 Star, Pacific Star and War Medal along with a Red Cross letter confirming the recipient was captured by the Japanese and held as a Prisoner Of War at Java Camp. Also with two photographs, a letter from his mother to him while a POW and a Java Camp POW receipt book that the recipient used as a diary in late 1945. Good survey of WWII in Java: http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/articles/aerialdefense.aspx From Java to an Uncertain Fate

 One of the major tragedies among the horrific stories of the Far East prisoners of war in Japanese hands during the Second World War is that of the drafts from Java to the Molucca Archipelago or 'Spice Islands'. Flight Sergeant Eric "Johnny" Johnston, was in one of the men in a large group whose destination was the tiny island of Haruku (Haroekoe) just east of Ambon.

Such was the cruelty and sadistic mind set of the Japanese responsible for this expedition that only about one-third returned to Java, but how many ultimately survived the deprivations, cruelties and dangerous sea journeys endured in this draft of men is difficult to say. 

The Haruku draft was assembled in April 1943 when a parade was formed at Jaarmarkt Camp in Sourabaya, Java. 2,070 so-called 'fit' men, i.e. those who were not lame or seriously ill at that stage, were chosen to board ships to an unknown destination. The selection was carried out on the basis of a glass rod being inserted in the rectum to check for the presence of blood and thereby dysentery. No subsequent examination was made of these samples, so it was essentially a pointless but degrading exercise. 

 To Hell on the Hellships

 The band of 2,070 men forming C Group, consisting mainly of RAF and a smaller Dutch contingent, which boarded the Amagi Maru and the Matsukawa Maru where they had to endure appalling cramped and filthy conditions with limited food and water for the two-week voyage. The group included dysentery carriers and the severe over-crowding in the ships caused this to spread quickly.

A halt at Ambon was closely followed by orders to unload the cargo of decomposing oranges. A further stop at Amahai saw the men unloading petrol drums, bombs and other such dangerous items over a grueling 36-hour period without sustenance and accompanied by the usual screaming and beatings by the guards. However, they were transported via small motorboats on to a muddy shore with rain-drenched vegetation that was Haruku. Exhausted, they were then forced to complete the building of the bamboo huts that were to house them for the next sixteen months. Today, this is known as the "nutmeg island" of the "Spice" group. 


 White Coolies

 The men were to be deployed as slave ; although, many of them were highly-trained and skilled in technical applications - air crew, fitters and armorers, aircraft engineers and radio operators. For example some had undertaken three years training at RAF Halton and RAF Cosford as Fitter/Armourers, only to spend at least as long again wielding primitive tools for the Japanese war effort. Their main task was to build an airstrip - a potential Japanese launch pad to Australia, but unfortunately a hump of coral graced the surface of the island and had to be hacked away by hand to make the land level. Using a native hand tool called a pachul, or pickaxe, and a chisel, it took many man-hours to do this. Their parlous state of health due to months of starvation led to serious conditions such as beriberi, pellagra and malaria caused by mosquitoes and the scourge of dysentery that was to run like wildfire through the temporary population of this island. There were also the tropical ulcers, which could be caused by a small scratch from a piece of flying coral or the casual blow of a guard's rotan (bamboo pole) and which could fester to huge proportions. The blinding sun was hard to contend with as it reflected mercilessly off the pale coral that the men were forced to excavate.

Over the next few months, dysentery was to claim 1 in 5 of those PoWs who were taken to Haruku, and over the weeks a total of almost 400 men were carried with decreasing ceremony to the cemetery on the island. The nauseating stench of death permeated the whole camp and its environs. The Evil Gunso Mori

 Perhaps the most pernicious threat to the survival of the prisoners was the presence of the Japanese guard, Gunso (Sergeant) Mori and his sycophantic Korean sidekick and interpreter, Kasiyama. Known as 'Blood and Slime' respectively (two of the symptoms of dysentery), all power seemed to have been given to Mori by the laissez-faire camp commander, Lieutenant Kurishima. Mori's use of violence was purely gratuitous and indiscriminate. Other-ranks, NCOs, doctors and officers were not safe from the wrath of his rotan. Squadron Leader Pitts, the Senior British Officer on Haruku particularly suffered at his hands and yet, Squadron Leader Pitts had this to say about him after the War, "being in part an untamed and brutal savage and, in a much lesser degree, a placid harmless human being, possessing a strong personality and intelligence"

"It must be said that first and last he is a soldier with some fine but indefinable quality, perhaps the absence of meanness, which, suppressed though it was, won for him a certain admiration which was not accorded to any other Japaneseit is difficult to appreciate how one man can indulge in such bestial and brutal savagery upon another, and still be regarded with a certain amount of esteem, yet such a state did indeed exist."

Perhaps it was this juxtaposition of qualities that led the eminent ex-Java POW, Laurens van der Post, to base his Gunso Hara upon him in his book, "The Seed and the Sower" which was later made into the film (under Japanese direction and therefore heavily 'fictionalized' and romanticized), "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence". Both the book and film are condemned by the PoWs who experienced the real events. 
 Nevertheless, Mori was directly responsible for the dysentery epidemic and the huge number of deaths because of his refusal to allow a latrine to be built over the sea for fear that it would 'sully the ocean belonging to His Imperial Emperor'. Instead, the ground fomented with infected excreta and disease-spreading maggots and flies, which overran into the rudimentary accommodation huts. 

There were certain theories about the causes behind Mori's state of mind and his brutal behavior, including the rumor that he was an ex-China veteran who had contracted syphilis during the rape and conquest of that country and which had rendered him insane. Whatever the cause, the fact remains that he was a merciless mass murderer who paid for his crimes in the hangman's noose in Singapore in 1946. Heroes of Haruku
 There were many heroes in the Pelauw camp in Haruku whose day-to-day acts of brotherhood and compassion surely alleviated the suffering of their friends under these diabolical circumstances. The doctors, amongst them Dr. Buning, Dr. Springer, Dr. Philps and Dr. Bryan, saved many lives using the crudest of contrived instruments and effecting what cures they could in the absence of medicines or even vegetation to concoct alternative means of healing. One of these heroes was not a doctor, but a botanist by training who went on to become a Professor of Botany at London University some years after the War (now an Emeritus Professor), and who was serving as a radio officer in the RAF when taken prisoner: Leslie Audus used his skills to manufacture yeast from 'next to nothing', providing the very sick, and eventually all the men, with a source of vitamin B, the absence of which in their scant diet worsened their malnutrition and caused beriberi and pellagra as well as optic neurosis, which could cause irreversible blindness. A good summary of his cultivation methods can be found in Dr. Richard Philps' book, "Prisoner Doctor" as well as in his own definitive work on the Moluccas drafts - "Spice Island Slaves". Without a doubt he saved many lives and the eyesight of many of the men by developing his cultures, and they were most fortunate indeed that he was in the Haruku draft where conditions were so appalling. He was only permitted to continue with his yeast-making activities because one of the by-products was alcohol, which was then commandeered by the Japanese guards. Departures from Haruku By November 1943, there were so many sick on Haruku that even the Japanese must have become marginally concerned that they might lose their whole, "workforce" so arrangements were made to remove the sickest men back to Java. One such unfortunate party was on the ill-fated Suez Maru, which was sunk by the USS Bonefish with the loss of all on board. Those who survived the torpedoing were shot in the water by the Japanese guards who had secured life rafts for themselves. The motive: To prevent the world from finding out about their brutal maltreatment of prisoners of war. 

Even by the end of 1943, US operations were intensifying over the Ambon area, notching up the casualty list of POWs and indigenous peoples as well as the Japanese. starvation, beatings and despair continued in the prison camps but despite everything the men retained a strong sense of discipline and camaraderie - the cornerstones of morale and, ultimately, of survival in such diabolical circumstances.

On 1 August 1944, the gates of the Pelauw camp on Haruku were shut for the last time as the final party were moved to Ambon. The airstrip with its inbuilt "design faults" effected by a covert PoW-devised sabotage was never really used by the Japanese who had not reckoned on the Americans out-flanking them in the Banda Sea. 

Between August and September 1944, most groups were clustered around Ambon, for want of sufficient means of transportation back to Java, pending their participation in the risky and piecemeal evacuation and doing their utmost to evade the heavy bombing being carried out by the US. The horror of the "hell ships" travelling to the Moluccas matched the squalor and severely over-crowded conditions of those that returned the men to Java. There were two real and crucial threats: their severely weakened state of health from long-term deprivation under the dreadful conditions on the islands and the increased US domination of the sky and sea. The infamous Maros Maru which took 70 days to reach Java from Ambon and on which 372 of the 500 men aboard perished from disease, starvation and exhaustion. It is nothing short of a miracle that many returned once more to Java and it is no wonder that some of those who still survive today are convinced that they had a "guardian angel". References: The titles below are all accounts of (or contain accounts of) the Haruku draft. The definitive and most comprehensive work - "Spice Island Slaves" also contains detailed accounts of the other Moluccas drafts and "The Knights of Bushido" contains a sizeable passage on Haruku but is essentially a study of Japanese war crimes across many theatres. "Spice Island Slaves" - Leslie J. Audus "Prisoner Doctor" - Dr. Richard Philps "The Knights of Bushido" - Lord Russell of Liverpool "My Life with the Samurai" - Anthony Cowling "The Emperor's Guest" - Don Peacock "Their Last Tenko" - "James Home Here's LAC John (Jack) Plant's account as given to the BBC. He was a PoW in Java along with Bowman. When I was captured by the Japanese in Java in 1942, I was just 24 years of age. I had served for 2 years plus in the UK in the Medical Branch of the Royal Air Force in No. 3 Bomber Command, based at Marham in Norfolk; I was a fully trained Nursing Orderly. After being moved around a variety of PoW camps in Java I found myself in the Jaarmarkt cam p in Soerabaya. Jaarmarkt (Dutch for Yearly Market) was the largest PoW camp in SE Asia covering about 5 acres; by its very nature and the storage and office buildings available, it was ideal for the Japs to use it for this purpose; e.g. there were fixed toilet facilities and running water. Prisoners who had been confined in a mixed bag of camps around Java were ultimately moved to Jaarmarkt ;it became the main transit camp and provided men to undertake tasks which were essential to the Japanese war effort and which were spread around the East Indies (then Dutch), now Indonesia. The PoW’s were made up of Dutch, British, Australian, New Zealander, few American, troops and at any one time there would be anything up to 3,000 of them confined in Jaarmarkt. Early in 1943, a party of us ,mainly British R.A.F. some Dutch, were lined up in an open area of Jaarmarkt for what was said to be a medical inspection to determine who was fit enough to be put on a draft overseas. The ‘medical’ was to say the least perfunctory; looking back on it makes one smile at the simple deceipt.We were lined up Tenko fashion and instructed to drop our pants; in that most of us were wearing shorts this was no problem. Then along came a Japanese doctor; he was at least wearing a stethoscope and a white coat, with half a dozen orderlies in attendance. At a signal from the doctor, the orderlies began to take samples by inserting a glass rod up one's anus. The rods, one to each man, were then thrown into a tray on a table ;there was absolutely no identification of individuals, and thus the whole procedure was farcical. However, if it achieved nothing else it made us smile; the jokes are not repeatable here. The following day we were called out on parade and each handed a small beg, holding about half a kilo of uncooked rice; cursory examination showed the contents to be very poor quality and full of weevils. We were told to retain the bag carefully as it may be required in an emergency. We were then marched down to Tanjong Perak, the docks in Soerabaya; two ships were tied up alongside; we could see their names beneath a rough covering of paint; the Amagi Maru and the Matsukawa Maw. Each was of about 5,000 tons and looked as though they had seen long service; they were clearly coalers and there was evidence of that spread around the decks. The equatorial sun burned down upon us; the godowns on the dockside offered no relief in the way of shade as we were quite close to the equator; in any case, moving out of line brought the guards down on us unmercifully. We waited thus for some hours and were relieved (silly us) when the guards shouted that we were to embark. A few planks of wood were thrown down to enable us to get aboard from dockside to deck; they were not secured in any way and as the vessel rolled with the swell, the planks moved and became unsafe. However the guards had, it seemed all gone mad; they shouted and screamed at us to” speedo and lekas” (faster, faster) and used their bayonets to prod us forward. It was only when we were actually on deck that we realised that we were to go down into the hold. There was a wooden stairway set at about 45o which had its bottom end sitting upon the floor of the hold. The guards pushed and shoved us so viciously that men piling in at the top of the steps were falling forward on top of those further down who of course were unable to see in the blackness of the hold having just left the brilliant sun above. It was complete pandemonium until the guards were satisfied that they had forced a sufficient number down. Now to describe the hold; it was about 18 yards square at the base but narrowed to about 5 yds. at the top .The top was timbered over and covered with tarpaulin sheeting leaving a space about 2yards square at the top of the steps. It was quite a drop to floor level and some men had suffered severely when pushed down during loading. Everywhere was covered in coal-dust and within minutes of arriving the mixture of heavy sweating and dust made us all look like freaks. We were now aboard the Amagi Maru, and we realised that the situation was desperate. There were between 300 and 400 of us confined in a” black hole of Calcutta” situation ; there was no panic despite several men collapsing from either heat exhaustion or from physical damage done during embarkation . The rest of us stood, in order to seek what little air there was coming in through the aperture at the top of the steps. In our hearts we knew that the immediate future looked grim. As we stood packed closely together we realised that it was unlikely that we would find enough room to lie down, and cheered ourselves with the expectation that we would only be aboard for a few hours. In the corner of the hold, we could discern as we got used to the darkness that there was a wooden structure built in 3 stories which would, on the face of it, provide more floor space, but it soon became clear that the distance between the layers would allow for a person only to lie down. There was complete calm as each one of us weighed up the situation .Clearly there was need for someone to” grasp the nettle “and organise us. We had two officers with us, both RAF personnel; one a doctor named Forbes, known to be a disciplinarian, took over the responsibility. Without him we should have been in a worse pickle. He had us all seated, cross-legged and back to back, and drew up a series of rules that we should all adhere to; less physical activity would conserve our air supply; priorities were set for the use of the latrines and orderly queuing became the order of the day. Doc Forbes made it clear that he had very limited stocks of medicines; no more than he could carry in a side pack; therefore the use of them would be for only ones whom he considered to be in urgent need. The latrine facilities aboard the Amagi Maru need description; there were none below deck. A urinal trough was mounted on the bulkhead on deck, which discharged directly into the sea, Only 4 persons could be accommodated at one time, and the Japanese guards saw to it that that number was never exceeded. One had to go up the steps and bow to the guard as one stepped onto the deck; use the urinal and return, bowing as one went. Failure to bow was seen by the guards as inexcusable and was rewarded with a severe beating around the face. The no.2 requirement was catered for by a couple of open topped wooden boxes, each about a yard square, mounted on the side of the ship directly over the sea. There was an aperture in the base which allowed one to discharge directly into the sea below; at least that was the idea, but it was quite a different “kettle of fish” when the vessel was at sea, what with the swell and winds. It was quite a frightening procedure to use the boxes, particularly at night when there was little moon; no lights were allowed on deck. Clearly most people preferred to go at night when one couldn’t easily be seen but had to face what was a substantial risk. The numbers of men using these facilities meant that there was an endless queue, day and night; when the epidemic of diarrhoea occurred, the process became horrendous: (but I jump the gun somewhat). Despite the awful brutality to get us aboard quickly, we lay alongside the dock for 2 or 3 days; conditions because of the heat meant that life was almost intolerable. Doe Forbes was constantly being called for to treat heat-stroke; as his orderly I helped in whatever way I could; we had to crawl over people to get to the stricken ones. We too, like every one else, were under intense pressure to give in. Doc Forbes made many representations to the Japanese to ease the situation, by for example opening up the aperture at the top of the steps, in which he had some success. He of course risked a beating whenever he protested about conditions. On one occasion, he was told when he pointed that many men would likely die, that” there were thousands more back in Jaarmarkt camp” We were housed in the hold forward of the bridge but we became aware that there was another hold full aft of the bridge; at no time were we allowed to contact them. We sailed after about 3 days and it had the advantage that there was at last some movement of air through the aperture at the top of the steps. We of course had not a clue as to where we were heading but visiting the latrines on deck presented the opportunity to those of us who were more expert in these matters to make a judgment; we apparently were heading east and running along parallel to the Flores Islands; i.e. passing Lombok and Bali .After a few days we turned due north heading in the direction of the Celebes. Life aboard became a little more bearable from the point of view of excessive heat but almost everyone was struck down with diarrhoea which overloaded the latrines and made things even more difficult. The daily routines include the distribution of food; a temporary cookhouse had been constructed at the pointed end of the ship; it provided us with two “meals” per day. For breakfast we got a portion of rice pap; about ~ of a pint. As far as food goes it provided no nutrition consisting of carbohydrates and water. If one was lucky enough to have a small quantity of salt or possibly some “goolah” (local natural sugar), one could make it a little more acceptable. That was it until the afternoon when again it was rice, steamed rice, served with a green liquid called vegetable soup. Again without a pinch of salt, it was nauseating, but you either ate it or starved. The rice had to be carried from the cookhouse in wajangs (large shallow woks), and a space cleared at the foot of the wooden steps for distribution. It was essential that the sharing out was done absolutely fairly; there were in this respect two queues ; the first one which saw that everyone got the same amount, started with a different person each meal; and a second queue called a “laaghi” queue (laaghi means more) where the remains from the first distribution were shared. Again the person at the front changed in sequence each meal. For anyone to attempt to dodge the order of distribution was an offence and the person involved could expect some rough treatment from those around. As the diarrhoea problems got worse, Doc Forbes confided that we were in for an epidemic due largely to a complete lack of washing facilities; matters it seemed could only get worse. On very rare occasions, the guards would allow a hose on deck to be used for washing, albeit seawater; for those who happened to be on deck at the time it was a treat. Through no fault of their own a half of the PoWs went down with diarrhoea. Necessarily the queues for the latrines got longer and longer; it reached the point where the sick were unable to control their bowel movements. Indeed the situation became so desperate that the wooden steps out of the hold became fouled with excreta; the smell was horrendous .Those who were unlucky enough to have been living beneath the steps had to find alternative space. It was found necessary to scrape down the steps when the food was due from the cookhouse to prevent slipping. Our Japanese guards thought our predicament was hilarious, and despite Doc Forbe’s protestations our conditions continued to deteriorate. Whatever happened when we reached our destination we thought couldn’t be any worse; how wrong we were. After about two weeks and a thousand miles we arrived at the port of Ambon on the island of Amboina. Those PoW’s who claimed that they could swim were allowed on deck; their task was to transfer stores which could float, from the ship to shore by swimming behind for example a 40 gallon drum of oil and pushing it to the beach and rolling up the beach. It was dangerous and hard work; the drums would simply be rolled off the vessel and men instructed to jump in and push. Men were tempted to undertake the task purely to get into the sea and wash. This off-loading was accompanied by much shouting and the guards used their bayonets to speed things up. We then pulled out to sea; within a few hours sailing we arrived at our destination; a coral island which formed part of the Moluccas called Haroekoe. The island was breathtakingly beautiful with lovely sands along the beach and a wooden jetty running out to sea. It was raining when we disembarked late in the evening; there were no huts yet erected and we had to huddle together on the wet ground overnight. The Amagi Maru cruise had come to an end. Submitted by - John (Jack) Plant Ex Royal Air Force (March 1940 -March 1 946) Rank -Leading Aircraftman No. - 958592 Prisoner in Japanese hands -March 1 942-Aug 1945 Award -Mention in Dispatches 1946 Photo below: RAF Sqd. 211 personnel in March '42. Possibly on the Tjilatjap railway platform. Sadly, this was stolen in the post or possibly never sent by Britannia Medals. Please contact if these surface.

And yet the TR came out with its own version in this case worn between the Hindenburg Cross and the Silisian Eagle.

Here's a contemporary New Zealand company that mounts medals and uses a tailor's label.

A few years after acquiring the above pair to Ross, I managed to acquire this pair to 22243665 Cpl. P.F.P. Williams RUR who also played on the same football (soccer) team in the N. Korean PoW Olympics. Peter F. Williams was captured on 4th or the 5th of January 1951 during or after the Battle of Chaegunghyon. Williams, like Ross, is listed on page 8 of Peter Gaston's "Korea 1950-1953 Prisoners of War The British Army". The medals are the Queen's Korea (type II) and the UN Korean War Medal (English version). Although Williams is not in the above photograph, he is listed in the nominal roll on this site: http://www.koreanwaronline.com/history/POW_Olympics/pow/names/names-10.htm It's quiet an amazing feat to find medals to men who played for the same side. The Battle of the Imjin and Kapyong are the two actions that remain to this day the two bloodiest battles fought by British soldiers since 1945, the RUR — today, the Royal Irish Regiment — has received little recognition. The Korean War — where more British soldiers died than in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Falklands combined — is almost unknown to the British public. As part of Britain’s 29th Brigade, 1st Battalion RUR landed in South Korea in November 1950. American-led UN forces had defeated Kim Il-sung’s North Korean army, which had invaded South Korea in June, and the RUR were expecting to spend the winter mopping up guerilla holdouts. Instead they would be pitched into severe battles as China stormed into the war. The New Year of 1951 found the RUR deployed north-east of Seoul as 267,000 enemy charged into South Korea. The UN line broke and the RUR was engulfed. One RUR company went down the valley after nightfall, but behind them US aircraft mistakenly dropped flares. By their light, Chinese spotting the RUR pullback and charged down among the Riflemen The battle became a melee. The RUR lost 157 men and the 8th King’s Royal Irish Hussars lost six tanks. The next morning at parade was when they realised what had happened the previous night. The Koyang battle would become known, with grim irony, as “Happy Valley”. Meanwhile, China was massing 300,000 troops for the greatest onslaught of the war; their key breakthrough point was the Imjin River. After dark on April 22 the hammer dropped. The Chinese charged en masse. You could not see enemy, just their tracers as they fired; you had to keep firing. Other units were overrun, but the RUR held their positions until morning when the entire UN line started to retreat. Seeing their prey escape, the Chinese surged down the hillsides into the British. For the RUR, it was “Happy Valley” all over again. Their stand had bought critical hours for South Korean refugees to escape, saving countless lives. A battle monument commemorating the sacrifices of the RUR was relocated from Korea to Northern Ireland in 1962 and now stands outside Belfast City Hall.

A GSM 1918-'62 with Cyprus Clasp to 22522036 Rfn. E. Ross RUR along with his UN Korean War Medal (English version). Missing is his Queen's Korea. Ernest Ross was captured on 25.11.1951, which was the first day of the Chinese and N. Korean counter offensive when they launched 200,000 troops against the UN positions. Ross when a PoW also played football (soccer) for the UK Team at the N. Korean PoW Olympic Games that were held in 1952. The UK Team won the championship. Amazingly, I came across one of his teammates' pairs below a few years later. Ross is listed on page 8 of "Korea 1950-1953 Prisoners of War The British Army" by Peter Gaston. Ross is also mentioned on page 159 in David Green's book "Captured at the Imjin River: The Korean War Memoirs of a Gloster 1950-1953. Green wrote about his boxing in the PoW Camp. I had Ernie Ross in my corner, a first rate boxer who could have been in with a good chance had he entered the competition but for reasons best known to themselves, a number of useful boxers, like the referee, Dave Crawford, had declined. I decided afterwards that they had shown good sense. Later on in the same story Green recounts, I was exhausted and quite ready to throw in the towel but Ernie Ross, with whom I would gladly have exchanged places, was saying, "Look at 'im! He's knackered! Watch that right and you'll nail 'im!" as he pushed me out for the last round. After the fight Green wrote, As I dropped onto my stool in my corner, Ernie said, "One more round and you would have had him," to which I gasped, "You must be joking mate." Here's a site that has information on the N. Korean PoW Olympics of 1952. http://www.koreanwaronline.com/history/POW_Olympics/pow/index.htm Ross' photo is in the top photo of the three black and white football teams. For a good summary of the RUR in Korea go to: http://royalirishrangers.co.uk/korea.html

Hi Chris, Any source on that they were worse than the PoW camps? Love to get the sources for future research. Cheers! John

Despite there not being a label on it, which is the gist of this thread, I suspect it may be a home-made addition to this single parade mounted bar. I see there are markings on the female side of he snaps and it appears that they may have been added after the deterioration of the red cloth backing. It's a new "style" to me and it would make it awkward to fasten to a uniform or a men's suite.

A very nice Godet Frack.

A truly beautiful bar by Fritz Kindler of Baden-Baden.