NCO bar with Bulgarian war merit cross

[scottplen]

I Have not collect bars in a while but Stubbles on this bar . 
Thought it was a good one but don’t have a clue on the Bulgarian crosses ?  
what do you guys think ? 
how many awarded to Germans ?

 

 

Edited February 5, 2022 by scottplen

[VtwinVince]

Scott, I believe the Bulgarian is a 5th class, which would be right for an NCO's bar. Normally you see the Bravery Cross on these bars. Award numbers are unknown, but high.

[scottplen]

Thanks Vince !

[graham]

It is a Bulgarian 6th class Order of Military Merit. The 5th class has a crown.

[Graf]

55 minutes ago, graham said:

It is a Bulgarian 6th class Order of Military Merit. The 5th class has a crown.

The First part is correct.  However the 5th and 6th Classes of the Order for Military merit were awarded with and without crowns.

The crosses with crowns are awarded after one without crown was given already.

This particular cross is King Ferdinand Issues.

The crosses from 6th to 4th class during war time were awarded with ribbon of the Military Order for Bravery -like the one on the bar posted by scottplen

 

 

Here are some bars

- with Military Order for Bravery - Soldier Cross given to NCOs

- Order for Military Merit  5th Class with out crown with standard ribbon

-Order for Military Merit  5ht Class without crown with war time ribbon, next to 4th Class of the Order for Bravery.

 

Also

-5th and 6th Classes with crowns

[chuck]

Hi Graf,

 

A little off topic but on the 2nd bar what Bulgarian rank would have received a crown order 3rd class with swords??

 

Regards, 

Chuck 

[Graf]

Hi Chuck This bar looks like belonged  to  someone with at least Colonel Rank

All those decorations had been awarded as the person advance in the ranks.

 

 

Also on the topic

The Order for Military Merit during war time was awarded also with additional War decoration with  war time ribbon

However,   the 6th Class  was never awarded with war decoration  -only with war time ribbon

 

Here is a bar with 5th Class with war decoration

 

Interestingly the high Classes from Commander(3rd Class) to Grand Cross with War Decoration did not have War time ribbon, They were awarded on Standard ribbon

Grand officer -2nd Class with War decoration

Edited February 6, 2022 by Graf

[saschaw]

On 06/02/2022 at 01:59, chuck said:

(...) what Bulgarian rank would have received a crown order 3rd class with swords??

I cannot name the proper Bulgarian rank, but according to Willi Geile, Im Militär-Wochenblatt veröffentlichte preußische Ordens-Verleihungen. April 1914 bis November 1918. Hagen 1985, p. 46/47, the relatively few WW1 era awards of this grade went to Majore and Oberstleutnants.

 

Unfortunately, he's only listing German recipients. Not too many, by the way, and there were certainly neither too many Bulgarian officers that received this honour!

 

 

[chuck]

Hi Sachaw,

 

 I had also previously read in Neal O'Conner books Aviation Awards of Imperial Germany that the third, and fourth class Red Eagle (116 awards) and Crown Order (54 awards) were given out as retirement type awards for over the hill German Officers. Unfortunately, he also did not mention any of the German allies.

 

 

Regards,

Chuck 

[saschaw]

12 hours ago, chuck said:

I had also previously read in Neal O'Conner books Aviation Awards of Imperial Germany that the third, and fourth class Red Eagle (116 awards) and Crown Order (54 awards) were given out as retirement type awards for over the hill German Officers.

I'm not sure if the given numbers are complete, but it's certainly true that in WW1, when these classes were usually not awarded, they were sometimes used as a "leaving present". Foreign recipients seem to be another topic though, which is documented by this Bulgarian officer's group.

 

[chuck]

Just to clarify my comment those figures were quoted for the 1st World War period only.

 

10 hours ago, saschaw said:

I'm not sure if the given numbers are complete, but it's certainly true that in WW1, when these classes were usually not awarded, they were sometimes used as a "leaving present". Foreign recipients seem to be another topic though, which is documented by this Bulgarian officer's group.

 

 

[saschaw]

23 hours ago, chuck said:

Just to clarify my comment those figures were quoted for the 1st World War period only.

Thanks for the clarification, but there was no misunderstanding at all. I'm aware there were many hundreds of 4th class crosses awarded, mainly in the unification wars and in the colonial and oversea conflicts.

 

 

Here I'd love to promote late Eric C. Ludvigsen's statistic works, that were published posthumous, but unfortunately, they're out of print and seemingly not available anywhere... which is really sad.