Red Star,2592085,Driver,118th Heavy Howitzer Destruction Artillery Brigade,Vistula

[Bill Garvy]

Award Card
Order Booklet A 804384
1. Last name: Merabishvili
2. Name and patrionymic: Georgii Georgievich
3. Rank: Private
4. Gender: Male
5. Birthyear: 1916
6. Birthplace: Tbilisi, GSSR
7. Party membership: candidate member since 1943
8. Education: upper-level
9. Nationality: Georgian
10. Time in Red Army: 10.1940-3.1946
11. Place of service at awarding: 118th Heavy Howitzer Artillery Brigade – Driver
12. Place of work at present: temporarily unemployed
13. Home address: Tbilisi, Sovetskaya St. #175

14. Awards:
Designation Serial Number Awarding Organization
Combat Service Medal 608.216 364th Howitzer Artillery Regiment dated 31.7.43

Red Star 2.592.085 118th Artillery Brigade dated 17.10.1944

Verified by Chief of Personnel (?) Lieutenant Colonel Rukhadze on 27th June, 1947

[Bill Garvy]

Award Sheet

1. Last name, name, and patrionymic: Mirobishvili, Georgii Georgievich
2. Rank: Private
3. Duty position: Driver – 118th Heavy Howitzer Twice Red Banner Destruction Artillery Brigade, 6th Mozyr Red Banner Artillery Division, RGK
Recommendation for the Order of the Red Star
4. Born: 1916
5. Nationality: Georgian
6. Party membership: n/a
7. Previous combat: since 22.6.41
8. Wounds or shell-shock: n/a
9. Inducted by: Lenin Regional Military Commissariat, Tbilisi
10. Previous awards: 364th Red Banner Howitzer Artillery Regiment, RGK dated 31.7.43
11. Home of record: Georgian ASSR, Tbilisi, Sovetskaya St. #175. Wife – Anna Ilichevna Mirobishvili

Short description of personal combat feat or accomplishment

While fighting to expand the bridgehead on the western shore of the Vistula in July, 1944 Comrade Mirobishvili supplied fuel to the battalion from the river’s eastern shore.

During one delivery while Comrade Mirobishvili was on a crossing site he was subjected to an enemy air raid. An illumination flare landed close to the flammable vehicle. Despite exploding bombs Comrade Mirobishvili threw sand on the burning flare, thus saving the vehicle and its fuel load.

He is deserving of the Order of the Red Star.
Signed Commander, 118th Heavy Howitzer Twice Red Banner Destruction Artillery Brigade, RGK, Colonel Valagurov on 23rd October, 1944

Awarded the Order of the Red Star by 118th Heavy Howitzer Twice Red Banner Destruction Artillery Brigade, 6th Mozyr Red Banner Artillery Division, RGK dated 17.10.44. Signed Brigade Chief of Staff Major Luchenko on 23rd October, 1944

[Bill Garvy]

Private Georgii Georgievich Mirobishvili's Order of the Red Star. . .

[Bill Garvy]

If you notice, there are two different spellings of his name in the above documents; "Мерабишвили Георгий Георгиевич" & "Миробишвили Георгий Георгиевич".

I found a Combat Service Medal issued to "Мерабишвили Георгий Георгиевич" on the archive site, but the birth year is different, 1914 instead of 1916. Therefore, I am uncertain if these are the documents for his Combat Service Medal, for another person with a similar name, or simply an error in the record keeping as relates to his year of birth. Please note the Unit notation on these documents matches the Unit notation on his Award Card, which lists both the Red Star and Combat Service Medal. Then again, another possible hypothesis is the information on his Award Card is in error as it relates to the Combat Service Medal.

Regardless, I am posting them here for further discussion. . .

[Bill Garvy]

Here are the remaining two documents relevant to this discussion. He is #15.

[Auke]

It's definitely his. Note that this is Order of the 364th Howitzer Artillery Regiment nr. 08/N of July 31, 1943, which is exactly the one refered to on the record card. Spelling errors in Georgian names and years of birth are not that uncommon.

Edit: they also made a spelling error in the name of the Georgian capital.