Austria-Hungary Wound Medal

[Riley1965]

Very Nice Wound Medal for sick/invalid!!! GREAT BAR Period!!!

Doc

[Kev in Deva]

Very Nice Wound Medal for sick/invalid!!! GREAT BAR Period!!!

Doc

Hi Doc

as this has one red stripe, in the center, its for 1 wound, sick or invalid had no stripes outlined in black.

Kevin in Deva

[cimbineus]

Interesting bar.

Unusual he didn't get a Hungarian or Austrian commemorative medal.

Yes, I agree. It is unusual and even strange that he had no Austrian or/and Hungarian commemorative medals. Since this is an Austrian bar, perhaps he or the inheritors separated that/those medals from the bar for any reason, and by the time that/those got lost.

cimbineus

[Riley1965]

Hi Doc

as this has one red stripe, in the center, its for 1 wound, sick or invalid had no stripes outlined in black.

Kevin in Deva

Hey Kev,

OOPS!!! I didn't see the stripe on the obverse. I see it now on the reverse.

Doc

[saschaw]

Let me show you an interesting Wound Medal. It is made of BRONZE and not the well known zinc alloy "Kriegsmetal". Here it is:

The bar has been put together way after the Great War (at least not until 1934), so it may be possible this medal in bronce is a later replacement. Or were those officially given out, too? When they started to award those I think they did use zinc only, I'd guess.

I used to have another one, quite interresting I think: made from Aluminium!

Edited November 19, 2008 by saschaw

[Gordon Craig]

I have been doing some research on what medals to put on my Hungarian WWII generals tunic over the past few months. Mostly buying the medals to put on the tunic. Last night, while reviewing my selection of medals as a result of my most recent purchase for the tunic, I came across the ribbon bar shown below. It is the field ribbon bar of a major general and shows the five wounds ribbon in wear. This is a big help for me as that is what I wanted to put on my generals tunic but wanted some proof that this would be a reasonable thing to do. I think this fits in rather well with this wound badge thread.

The picture is from the book "Die ungarischen Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes" by Attila ?ttot Kov?cs.

Regards,

Gordon

Edited November 20, 2008 by Gordon Craig

[Riley1965]

:jumping: WOW!!! That's a GREAT looking ribbon bar!!! More education in Austro-Hungarian ODMs for me.

Doc

[Riley1965]

What are the awards? I recognize several of them.

Doc

Edited November 20, 2008 by Riley1965

[Gordon Craig]

Riley1965,

The easiest way to answer your question about what the medals are in the ribbon bar is to post the pages from the same book which list his awards. The ribbons, when read from your left to right, from top to bottom, seem to follow the printed list of awards well until you get to the last row. I am not an expert by any means on Austro-Hungarian ODMs and am not sure about the last row.

Cheers,

Gordon

[Gordon Craig]

Continuation of the list of awards. I should mention that the miniature on ribbon #7 seems to be for the Hungarian 1922 Signum Laudis.

[Riley1965]

Hello Gordon,

Thanks for the list!!! I'll work on learning these ribbons.

Doc

[Guest Rick Research]

That is an absolutely ASTONISHING array of awards. He had an extraordinary--literally-- WW1 career as he passed through the brief cadet phase in becoming an officer-- THREE bravery Medals including the nothing higher GOLD class.

He had to have been virtually indestructible-- wounded at least 5 times in the First war (and decorated 8 times!!!), survived TWO sets of imprisonment under the Communists... and still made it until 1967 as an abused, friendless manual laborer.

Amazing.

Simply amazing.

[Gordon Craig]

Rick,

Thanks for the brief bio of this General. I'd like to know more of the details if you have time to put them here or in a PM.

Winning the Knights Cross obviously did him no good after the war!

Regards,

Gordon

[Riley1965]

What are the first five ribbons? I've tried but can not ID them...

Doc

[Gordon Craig]

Riley1965,

Here are the first five;

1-Hungarian Order of Merit, Commander's Cross on War Ribbon, with Swords

2-Hungarian Order of Merit, Officers Cross with War Decoration and Swords

3-Imperial Austrian Order of the Iron Crown, 3rd Class with War Decoration and Swords

I didn't notice the difference when I said earlier that the list of awards seems to follow the ribbon bar. It does up to here then things get a bit messy.

4-Hungarian Order of Merit, Knights Cross on War Ribbon - this order isn't in the list of awards but I think this is what the ribbon on the bar stands for. Another picture in the book suggests that this award was presented with swords as well. I thnk the miniature indicating this is probably missing from the ribbon.

5-Hungarian Order of Merit, Knights Cross-the ribbon here would have been green and though the one on the bar is faded that is what the original colour probably was.

I hope that I have this correct. As I said before, not an expert by any means. If there is a mistake hopefully someone will correct it.

Regards,

Gordon

Edited November 22, 2008 by Gordon Craig

[Riley1965]

Good Morning Gordon,

Thank You VERY much my friend!!! Every bit helps me learn more as I step into the "Imperial ring".

Doc

[VJK]

Hi!

Here is a pic of vez?rőrnagy (Major General) Vit?z Zolt?n Sz?gyi with his medal bar.

Best regards,

VJK

[Gordon Craig]

VJK,

Very interesting picture. Sz?gyi appears to be wearing the rank of Leutnant in this photograph. Since he was promted to Leutnant (der Reserve) in 24.07.1915 and promoted to Captain in 01.11.1917 he would have only worn that rank for that period. We can narrow the date of the photo even more as he is wearing the wound medal for five would and he was in the hospital from 02.12.1915 until 01.04.1916. So the photo was probably taken sometime between 01.04.1916 and 01.11.1917..

Regards,

Gordon

[Ian]

Hi,

Is not the officer in the photo (vez?rőrnagy (Major General) Vit?z Zolt?n Sz?gyi ?) wearing a Hungarian regency period (1920-1945) uniform?

Regards,

Ian

Edited November 24, 2008 by Ian

[Gordon Craig]

Ian,

I am putting my previous post here;

VJK,

Very interesting picture. Sz?gyi appears to be wearing the rank of Leutnant in this photograph. Since he was promted to Leutnant (der Reserve) in 24.07.1915 and promoted to Captain in 01.11.1917 he would have only worn that rank for that period. We can narrow the date of the photo even more as he is wearing the wound medal for five would and he was in the hospital from 02.12.1915 until 01.04.1916. So the photo was probably taken sometime between 01.04.1916 and 01.11.1917..

I am not an expert in uniforms from this period but from the rank of the collar this is unlikely to have been taken in the Horthy era. Uniforms like the one pictured were worn in both periods. Here are two pictures from the book ?A Haz??rt 2004 - A MAGYAR HONV?DS?G M?LTJA JELENE? showing similar uniforms in wear from both 1918 and the Horthy era.

Note what I said above was a mistake that I made when transcribing from my reference book to this thread. Sz?gyi was promoted to Leutnant, one star on the collar, on 01.05.1915 and to Oberleutnant, two stars on the collar, on 01.11.1917. Therefore, the photo had to have been taken prior to 01.11.1917 and he could not possibly have been wearing a Horthy uniform.

Regards,

Gordon

Edited November 24, 2008 by Gordon Craig

[Gordon Craig]

And from the Horthy era.

[Ian]

Gordon,

You may well be correct and I hasten to add that I am not an expert on the uniforms of the Horthy era either, but I offer up this comment. The last ribbon depicted on the uniform looks very much like the Austrian 'ERINNERUNGSMEDAILLE fur WELTKRIEGSTEILNEHMER 1914 - 1918' and as I understand it this medal was not issued until the very late 1920's/early 1930's.

Also the devices worn on the other ribbons are not something that I have seen worn on war time ribbon bars. The order of precedence seems to indicate Hungarian as opposed to Austro-Hungarian.

Regards,

Ian

[Gordon Craig]

Good Morning Gordon,

Thank You VERY much my friend!!! Every bit helps me learn more as I step into the "Imperial ring".

Doc

Doc,

I am afraid I am going to be busy for the next litle while and won't have time to post pictures of the medals as I said that I would. I suggest that you go to this URL and I am sure you will find all of the info that you need to start your study of Imperial awards.

http://www.akm.externet.hu/rendjel/index_en.htm

Regards,

Gordon

[Riley1965]

Hello Gordon,

No problem, mate!!! Thanks for the link!!!

Doc

[Ulsterman]

Outstanding thread-and link! :jumping: