For Research Officer's 8-Ribbon Bar

[JasonA]

Hi Guys,

I'm trying to identify this officer. While it may be a futile search, there are a couple of interesting points to this grouping.

The first is that the Queen Maria, 2nd class decoration is slot five of the ribbon bar. The officer was also awarded the Order of Queen Maria, 1st class, which he wears around his neck.

I think it's a safe assumption, given the awards, is that he's a Luftwaffe medical officer, if not a doctor. I pulled all Obersteutnant-equivalent officers from the career summaries and narrowed down what I could. I'm still at 100 names.

Anybody recognize the officer, or have any suggestions as to how I might be able to whittle down the list?

Thanks,

Jason

[Paul C]

Definately not a career officer due to the absences of any long service award. Please name the foreighn awards.

[922F]

Appears that an Order of the Romanian Star [war ribbon] officer [rosette on ribbon], Romanian Queen Maria Cross [crossed swords/war ribbon/-verify gold thread on edges] lst class, Bulgarian Bravery Order [check ribbon for metallic silver threads in stripes--could be for either the Bravery Order or Bravery Cross or a war ribbon for the Order of Military Merit], Romanian Crusade Against Communism medal, and Turkish Iron Crescent ribbons follow his 3 German award ribbons.

Edited October 1, 2013 by 922F

[Claudio]

Dear Paul,

On his neck he has the Rumanian Order of Queen Maria given for civil and military medical personnel instituted in 1917 (Commander grad)

After the Hindenburg Cross I see the ribbon of the Order of the Star of Rumania with swords (officer or knight grade, impossible to tell without a "rosette", which very rarely was used on German ribbons), the 5th ribbon looks like the Order of Queen Maria but not quite totally correct, the 6th ribbon looks like the Rumanian medal of Cultural Merit (literature), the 7th ribbon is quite clearly the one for the medal of the crusade against communism and last but not least the Ottoman War Medal or also not quite correctly called "Gallipoli Star" or Iron Crescent form the German Eiserner Halbmond http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallipoli_Star_(Ottoman_Empire)

Here are all the ribbons depicted in a very clear and structured way:

http://www.medals.pl/ro/ro1.htm

I am afraid, like Paul said, that it would be quite a long shot to identify such non-professional (reserve) officer. Maybe Antti (Ruokonen), the author of the book about Rumanian Orders and Medals, might have some numbers or even know where to find rolls of the Order of Queen Maria... I don't think that many of this order have been awarded to German Luftwaffe personnel who achieved also some Cultural merits (writer?) towards Rumania.

ciao,

Claudio

[M Hunter]

I think ribbons 4, 5 & 6 are:

Romanian Order of the Star, second type on war ribbon

Romanian Order of Queen Marie (swords?)

Romanian Order of Sanitary Merit

The medic type ribbons (5 & 6) are not awarded on the "war ribbon". Is it possible these were awarded pre-war? Or maybe these were the "best match" the tailor had at the time.

A very nice ribbon bar.

Best wishes

Matt

[922F]

Matt,

Among others, Claudio's source [http://www.medals.pl/ro/ro1.htm] illustrates:

Order of the Queen Marie Cross
(Ordinul "Crucea Regina Maria") (1938 war ribbon)

Cross of Sanitary Merit
(Crucea "Meritul Sanitar") (1938 war ribbon)

See also ebay lot 231065220832 for an example of a war time Queen Marie 3rd class award plus brevet on war ribbon. It seems clear that both the Order of Queen Marie and the Cross for Sanitary Merit could be awarded on a 'war ribbon'...gold thread edges in these instances.

Claudio,

The Romanian Star ribbon bears a rosette. Cultural Merit Order Literary ribbon appears at http://www.medals.pl/ro/ro1.htm as:

Order of Cultural Merit - literature - Cmdr, Of, Mem1, Mem2
(Ordinul "Meritul Cultural") (1931)

Our subject's 6th ribbon side stripes seem configured differently from the Cultural Merit Order, Literary Division. That ribbon color appears to be light blue with dark [toned metallic?] side stripes. This reasoning underlies my post 3 identifications above.

Of course, it may be completely possible, as Matt suggests, that the ribbon bar assembler simply used what ribbon stock 'best matches' came to hand.

Cheers

Edited October 1, 2013 by 922F

[JasonA]

Thanks so much for the great feedback. I had previously thought that the awards for positions four through eight were as follows:

4. Order of the Star of Romania, officer's cross with rosette

5. Order of Queen Maria, 2nd class with swords

6. Sanitats Cross of Merit

7. Medel for Crusade against Communism

8. Ottoman war medal with crescent moon

I did reach out to Antti and had a nice exchange; perhaps he'll contribute here. But in a nutshell, he mentioned that the Communist take-over resulted in most of the records being destroyed. He did mention this was the first time he had recalled seeing this neck order in wear by a German officer, which might make it slightly easier to identify. If we only had the rolls to the Order of Queen Maria awards!

Cheers

Jason

[Dave Danner]

The Order of the Star of Romania is on the war ribbon and without swords. This is unusual for a German officer as most awards to Germans were with swords and on the ribbon of the Cross of Military Merit (red with blue edges).

The neck badge of the Queen Maria Cross is the 1st class, not the 2nd class. As far as I know, it was not awarded with swords, so I don't know why they are there. I could be wrong, though; my Romanian references are few. Awards of the 1st Class to Germans were very rare. I have just one gazette from July 1942, and in 40 pages of awards, there are only four awards of this class of this order (three are misidentified as 3rd Class, but they are to Oberstärzte, who wouldn't have received that class). None of these four was a Luftwaffe officer, BTW.

The Cross of Sanitary Merit appears to be on the correct peacetime ribbon. As you can see, the stripe colors on the actual ribbon are much darker than they appear on Lukasz's ribbon chart:

See: http://www.ordersandmedals.ro/ordine-romanesti/perioada-regalista