Yugoslavia Order of Yugoslavian People's Army

[BalkanCollector]

2nd class awarded in 1985 to a technical Lieutenant-Colonel.

Without hallmarks.

 

 

[Eric Gaumann]

I was finally able to get a T1  3c OPA and am very satisfied.  Enjoy some images of the new acquisition and one shot of of a pair together.

[BalkanCollector]

Very nice, thanks for sharing!

[Eric Gaumann]

Question:  Military Orders such as this and the Order of Military Merit; who was eligible for these?  Could a Private, or even a Senior Sergeant receive any of these orders?  Or were these reserved for commissioned officers only?

[BalkanCollector]

I've never seen that a Private was awarded with such orders and I belive they never were. I've seen a few documented orders awarded to a non-commissioned officers but those were the lowest 3rd class awards. I belive that 2nd and 1st classes were only awarded to commissioned officers.

These orders were also awarded to military officials (vojni službenici). Those were special ranks that were equal to normal ranks but didn't have a privilege of commanding the units during peace. There were 9 classes of those ranks, 1st was equal to Colonel and 9th was equal to Sergeant. The highest decoration that I've seen that was awarded to a military official was Order of People's Army 3rd class although I belive they could be awarded with the higher class.

[Eric Gaumann]

Thanks for that info~!!!

[BalkanCollector]

No problem!  

[Eric Gaumann]

Examples of award documents for 2nd and 3rd class Orders.

[BalkanCollector]

I saw those on ebay recently. So that's where they went.

Nice ones Eric!

[Eric Gaumann]

3 hours ago, BalkanCollector said:

I saw those on ebay recently. So that's where they went.

Nice ones Eric!

Yes, in a safe home now. All four documents to the same man saved for posterity, for what that's worth.  So few even notice this, much less care about it.

[BalkanCollector]

8 hours ago, Eric Gaumann said:

Yes, in a safe home now. All four documents to the same man saved for posterity, for what that's worth.  So few even notice this, much less care about it.

Indeed, I hate it when they sell documents or groups of orders that belonged to the same person apart. I managed to save one fantastic group half a year ago. Here it is: 

 

[Eric Gaumann]

OK boys, here it is; my OPA2 that I just received;

Some more images.  When I saw this on ebay I thought the darker parts of the rays of the obverse were wear/patina.  Sadly they seem to be where the gold paint either flaked away or was not correctly applied.  Same on the reverse down by the catch.  So it's just another 'shinny'.

Seems I've maxed out my upload MB allowance so I'll try for more later.

[BalkanCollector]

Great addition Eric! Glad to see our subforum is busy lately.

In the post #76 you can see the OPA2 awarded to my grandpa. Sadly it also has that non-gilt parts.

Do you perhaps have a document that went with your piece? I'm guessing it was awarded in the early 80's.

 

[Eric Gaumann]

4 hours ago, BalkanCollector said:

Great addition Eric! Glad to see our subforum is busy lately.

In the post #76 you can see the OPA2 awarded to my grandpa. Sadly it also has that non-gilt parts.

Do you perhaps have a document that went with your piece? I'm guessing it was awarded in the early 80's.

 

Thanks.  I have a document for an OPA2 but it's not the actual doc that came with this order.

More images.  Huge box, BTW; 180mm x 122mm x 43mm.

[Eric Gaumann]

Interesting part of the Order:

[BalkanCollector]

9 hours ago, Eric Gaumann said:

Interesting part of the Order

 

It's a shame an order was broken into pieces but at the same time it's interesting to see how the pieces itself were attached.

[Eric Gaumann]

Yeah, interesting to see what's underneath.  Also weird that nobody's posted on these in 5 years.

[BalkanCollector]

On 14/01/2024 at 20:05, Eric Gaumann said:

Also weird that nobody's posted on these in 5 years.

 

This forum has sadly been mostly dead for years now when it comes to Yugoslav stuff.

[Eric Gaumann]

2 hours ago, BalkanCollector said:

 

This forum has sadly been mostly dead for years now when it comes to Yugoslav stuff.

Yeah, sad.  I pop by a few times a month to see if there's anything new....

I thought I'd hooked a guy on one of the militaria forums on reddit.  Made a nice imgur album about Yugo awards after he asked me for some details.  And, then like usual, no reply at all.

Ah well, more for us I guess?

[BalkanCollector]

The focus shifted from forums to sites like facebook, instagram and so on. In my opinion, forums are the best way to share info and find what you need because they can be organized extremely well. Other sites like instagram or tiktok mostly serve to see who can collect more likes which is just a show off competition if you ask me. Plus, I often see pointless discussions there with lots of false information. Sometimes those discussions even lead to fighting in the comments. I've never seen stuff like that on the forums, at least not those I regularly visit like GMIC.

[Eric Gaumann]

Yeah, social media has ruined this hobby as well! (Kinda kidding)  I think social media attracts fringe collectors, whereas the more dedicated stay focused on forums.  And the funny thing is, at least on the few SM sites I watch the big 3 forums(this one, GMIC,& WPAF) are always mentioned when it comes to finding answers.

[BalkanCollector]

4 hours ago, Eric Gaumann said:

And the funny thing is, at least on the few SM sites I watch the big 3 forums(this one, GMIC,& WPAF) are always mentioned when it comes to finding answers.

 

I can see why. GMIC was the first forum that popped up when I googled some stuff related to Yugoslav militaria back when I was just starting to collect. Naturally, the next move was to join it so here we are almost 8 years later.