Citations.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by Auke

Which myths are you referring to?

Myth 1: Interference of political officers was always counterproductive.
Myth 2: Soviet soldiers surrendered en masse because imbecile Stalin sent them into the battle unarmed. While some POWs were captured heavily wounded, the question is not as simple as it seems at first.
Myth 3: NKVD henchmen in zagradotryadi (blocking detachments) hid out of harm's way and fired machine guns in the backs of the good veterans who assaulted Nazi positions. As Rabinovich citation shows, judgments against the timid were issued by men who died themselves fighting to the last bullet. Contrary to the popular belief, the practice of killing your own soldiers is not exclusive to Red Army during GPW.

[Auke]

Here's another example of a situation where a superior officer holds a lower rank than his subordinate. This regimental chief of staff is a Lieutenant Colonel, whereas the commander is a Major.

[CtahhR]

I came across the most "bureaucratic" award I've yet seen today. An officer presented for an award 17 months after the event, then approved by the Military Commissar of the SSR 14 months after that, downgraded 9 months later, awarded by decree 16 months after that and then received 4 months later.

Nothing like getting the cogs turning!

[Al-muell]

Wow, that's 5 years. Was it at least any kind of high award?

[CtahhR]

It ended up being a "For Combat Merits". I'll post the whole thing in time and it will show that the Medal was a case of "a day late and a dollar short".

A different story to the Chef turned Medic who was collecting wounded one day and two weeks later confirmed with an award of the Red Star.

[Auke]

Once again a chief of staff, in this case a full colonel, holds a higher rank than the CO, a lieutenant colonel.

The AllAces website (http://www.allaces.ru/cgi-bin/s2.cgi.../d/shad206.dat) shows that the chief of staff-to-be actually commanded the division for two months as a LtCol, but evidently he was replaced after two months and demoted to chief of staff, but promoted to colonel. Really wondering what happened here...

[NTAT]

Been absent from collecting Soviet Orders & Medals for a while. Retirement and a part time job now make it easier to get back into the hobby.

Was going through some of my WW2 Soviet groups and reviewing citations. My question is how accurate were the accounts of some of the deeds?

Have one OGIII group where the recipient is credited with the death of eight German soldiers with his machine gun. All done while storming a trench. Great citation and a great deed.

Many times I see accounts of KIA Nazi fascists as high as 12-14 in combat. Are figures like these 'inflated' to give a more positive party-propaganda view of heroism in combat? Or were they fairly accurate?

Thanks!

Gerry C
NTAT