Soviet Soviet award to British soldier

[Bryan]

Could this be possible or this is most probably a fake addition?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=300225659623

[paul wood]

It's not to a soldier but to a matelot, note the N.G.S. Palestine. As he has the Atlantic Star it is quite probable that he served on the Russian convoys, everyone who did received one of these if they were still alive in 1985. For once this looks like a kosher E-bay group and quite a nice one at that with two named medals.

Paul

[Ed_Haynes]

Yes, a nice naval group. A shame the Soviet document has strayed.

[Ulsterman]

There are a number of newspaper articles about surviving Royal Navy and merchant navy veterans receiving these medals in the 1980s and early 1990s.

[Ed_Haynes]

Just recently I rediscovered the very nice article on the OMRS journal by John D. Clarke, "Soviet Medals to British Ex-Servicemen: the 40th Anniversary Medal 1945-1985--For Services rendered and the Convoy Commemorative Medal", 27, 1 (spring 1988): 4-9. In this, he provides a (partial?) roll of the British recipients of the GPW 40th anniversary medal (on which Morse does not appear) as well as images of the medal, the certificate, and the convoy badge.

Edited May 21, 2008 by Ed_Haynes

[Ulsterman]

Having looked at this group, I did a quick google search and discovered there is a new official arctic star device for attachment to medal bars. See here:

http://www.halcyon-class.co.uk/new_arctic_star.htm

[Stogieman]

The Soviet Jubilee medal to foreigners is pretty rare in ita' own right. I have seen dealers asking MORE than the current bid on the whole group for the one medal....

[ANZAC]

Yes, a nice set. I have only ever seen one other similar set which was actually being worn by an Arctic Convoy veteran.

[NavyFCO]

This group is fine (at least from the Soviet perspective). Several thousand of these medals were given out to surviving Allied (I know of British, French and US, at least) veterans in both 1985 and 1995 (and to a more limited number, 2005) to commemorate their contribution to victory during WW2. Interestingly, I have seen very few with their corresponding documents, and even more interestingly, I have seen several with blank documents that were issued with the medal itself. I know of veterans who received these for participating in the "Murmansk Run", Atlantic convoy duty, US Army Air Force units stationed in the USSR, lend-lease ferry duty, Arabian Gulf convoy duty, and for the Soviet-American lines meeting through Germany in April/May 1945.

Hope that helps.

Dave

(author of the article Soviet Awards to Americans in WW2)

Edited May 31, 2008 by NavyFCO