U.S. Army Decorations Awarded to Red Army Personnel in World War II

[mcwirsk]

Dear Stava1stclass

Thank you very much for your input. What is very nice is that I have the official picture and you have officially confirmed the LOM so thus I will safely be able to assume that the BS is 100% okay.

I agree that the fact that they are left off his documents was due to the "cold war".

Thanks again

Kind regards

Munroe

[Ed Maier]

Slava,

Does your list contain US Navy DSMs awarded to Soviets in WWII or only Army awards?

Thanks,
Ed

[Ed Maier]

Munroe and Slava,

In speaking about Bronze Stars, I can confirm that the awarding of Bronze Stars was much, much greater then Silver Stars. After going through the General Orders of US Infantry Divisions it would appear to be at least a 5 to 1 difference and probably more in the area of 10 to 1.

As for their award to Soviet soldiers, I have seen a few lists of US Awards granted to Soviets done at the Division level. There were a number of Bronze Stars listed. Perhaps this is why there is not a list of Bronze Stars awarded through the US Military Mission in Moscow. It was done at a much lower level.

Another reason might be the hurt feelings of the Soviets when the US decided to issue only Legion of Merits as the highest award offered to foreign soldiers. I know that the Soviets were very upset with this "insult" (as they viewed it) since they awarded the Order of Victory to Americans.

I'm just thinking off the top of my head so I hope this adds to the thread.

Take care,
Ed

[slava1stclass]

Thanks for the confirmation ref my assumption concerning the total number of Army-awarded Bronze Stars during WW II. In this regard, it's also important to remember that a BS can be awarded for service/achievement in addition to valor. Your theory concerning the lack of visibility over the Bronze Star numbers to Red Army/other foreign military personnel seems very sound given these facts.
Thus far, my research indicates that the authority for awarding the DSC, DSM and SS to Red Army personnel resided exclusively at the War Department (WD) or Military Mission Moscow (MMM) level. Given that these three awards represent the "Top Three" (after the Medal of Honor), and that two of the three are for valor, this makes sense. The authority to award the LOM to Red Army personnel, however, resided at those levels as well as at the Army, Major Command (MACOM) e.g., Alaska Department (think lend lease activity), Corps and Division levels.
Ed, unfortunately my data is only for Army awards.

Some additional developments - with especially good news for Munroe! I currently have archival access to original copies of U.S. War Department General Orders for World War II. Working off the WD GO number for Munroe's LOM (which I developed through a separate research source), I screened that GO as well as original WD GOs in the general number range. I hit paydirt! I came across three WD GOs which, when taken together, contain the names of 40 Red Army officers/soldiers who were awarded the Bronze Star by the U.S. Army. Munroe, your man is among them!
Before getting to that, however, here's the extract from the GO that awarded him his LOM:

WD GO 51/46 "VII_ _ LEGION OF MERIT. - 3. By direction of the President, under the provisions of the act of Congress approved 20 July 1942 (sec. III, WD Bul. 40, 1942) and Executive Order 9260, 29 October 1942 (sec. I, WD Bul 54, 1942), the Legion of Merit, in the Degree of Legionnaire, for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services during the periods indicated was awarded by the War Department to the following-named officers:

Lieutenant Colonel Matvei Krievich Halperin, Red Army. As Assistant Division Commander of the 297th Red Banner, 1st Degree Order of Bogdan Chmelintsky Slave-Kirovograd Rifle Division."

I then found the authorization for his Bronze Star in WD GO 53/46.

WD GO 53/46 "VIII_ _BRONZE STAR MEDAL. - 1. By direction of the President, under the provisions of Executive Order 9419, 4 February 1944 (sec. II, WD Bul. 3, 1944), a Bronze Star Medal for meritorious services in connection with military operations against an enemy of the United States during the periods indicated was awarded by the War Department to the following-named officers, enlisted men, and individuals:

Lieutenant Colonel Matvei Krievich Halperin, Red Army."

A few notes ref the above: 1) There were no dates/periods of service cited for either of Halperin's awards although there were dates/periods of service for some of the other Red Army personnel cited in the same GO. 2) The correct translation of his name into English should have been Galperin - the Russian language doen't have a purely "H" sound. That's why in Russian, Hitler was known as "Gitler", a Russian "G" was substituted in those instances when an "H" sound was encountered in a foreign language. The translator who turned his name into English was evidently confused about this rule since Galperin is a Russian/Jewish name and not a foreign one. 3) Note the misspelling of Khmelnitskiy - not to be unexpected.
Ed, I still agree with your basic premise that we will likely never have a very accurate count of the actual number of Bronze Stars awarded to Red Army personnel by the U.S. Army in WW II. The fact that many were probably awarded at the Corps and Division level makes tracking this much tougher. I was lucky to come across those that I did.
I intend to review all the WD G.O.s for the 1942-1946 period looking for Silver Star and Bronze Star awards to Red Army personnel. F.Y.I. These WD GOs also list awards of the DFC and Soldier's Medal. I do not intend to review these entries as I need to draw the line somewhere. More to follow...

Regards,

slava1stclass

[mcwirsk]

Dear Slava1st class

WOW, this is fantastic work. Incredible. Well done on working out the misspelling on the names. I agree that you should write this up.

Well done and thank you very much. I owe you one. Ask any favour.

This shows the forum working at its very best.

I will post the full details on Galprin, plus all the the citations.

Kind regards

Munroe

[mcwirsk]

Dear All

Here is some info on Col Galprin, Matvey Yurievitch

Awards:

Red Star 38539
Red Star 232864
Red banner 49665
Red Banner 204162
PW 1st class 57979
Defence of Lennigrad
Defence of Stalingrad *
Vic over Germany
Capture of Budapest*
Capture of Vienna

* - Signed by Commander of the 297 Rifles Slaviano-Kirovogradskaya Division (note this ties up 100% with the GO). This helps confirm that its him.

All his certficates are issued to him as a Guards Col.

I have 4 citations but they have not been translated. I will have this done and post them. (any volunteers to help)

In some of his pictures he is wearing his srewback red banner and then its changed to the suspension type. This is a reissued RB not a converted one.

As mentioned before he changed his 2nd (fathers) name from the Jewish Udel to Yurie so I suppose the Americans could change it further.

Its interesting that he received 2 American awards. He must have done something good to get this.

Kind regards

Munroe

[mcwirsk]

Dear all

I would be interested to know what the "official" point of view was regarding the wearing of American (or British) awards in the cold war period. Col Galprin did not mention them in his 1950's documentation.

I see that a lot of Soviet Marshalls received American decorations. Did they stop wearing them. Tal, you are the the man for pictures!!!.

In the British army the order was given to take down decorations awarded by the now enemy. I have seen German awards given to South African troops for the 1906 Herero (German South West Africa) campaign been instructed to be removed in ww1. I have groups like this. In addition I have a ww1 Romanian award to a South African who was POW (at Tobruck) in ww2 and he did not receive instructions to remove the award in ww2. I don't think they knew waht it was. I have awards to a German officer in ww1 who moved to South Africa in the 1930's and joined up with the South Africans in ww2. I have seen pictures of him and he is not wearing his ww1 German awards in uniform, but I have seen pictures of him in the 1950s ( in civilian clothes) wearing his German awards and not his ww2 (British) awards. By the way at the end of ww2 he was given the choice of becoming a British citizen (for him or his family) or receiving an OBE. He chose naturalization ahead of the award. PITY otherwise he would have had an Iron cross etc and an OBE.

It would be interesting to Know what the Americans views was as well.

Kind regards

Munroe

[Ed_Haynes]

While slightly off topic, this may address US attitudes.

A teacher of mine in high school had served in the US army during and after WWII. Sometime in the early- mid-1950s, he was a senior sergeant in his unit. And the colonel was staging a full-dress inspection.

One slightly older private, who rarely spoke to anyone but was well-known for his professional (combat) skills turned out for inspection. This was at a time when everyone had the National Defense Service medal for "being there" during the Korean War period. And the older pivate turned out without (!) his single medal. And the colonel chewed him, and the captain, and the sergeant (my teacher) out for this, ordering him at the next inspection to wear "all his medals". (You may guess where this is going.)

Next inspection, the private turned out wearing his National Defense Service Medal. And his Iron Crosses (Knight's Cross, First Class, and Second Class), and his gold wound badge, and his Anti-Partisan Badge, and his East Front Medal, and his SS service medals, and other assorted hardware. And this was before the "purified" badges without swastika appeared.

This was the last time the colonel made his demand for "all medals".

Ed Haynes

[Dave]

Munroe:

While I'd highly doubt that wearing British and US awards were encouraged, it did seem that people wore them. Here's a photo of Marshal of the Soviet Union Chuykov, and his US Army Distinguished Service Cross can clearly be seen on the uppr right corner of his awards. This photo is dated 1954. A later photo from the late 70's also shows him still wearing the DSC.

--Dave

[Dave]

And finally, here's MSU Rokossovsky in the early 60's wearing (in it's own right!) one heck of an impressive collection of British awards! Look at his right side- he has the Knight Commander of the Most Honorable Order of the Bath, breast badge, and the neck badge (minus cravat) down at the bottom. To the right of the neck badge is the US Legion of Merit Chief Commander!

--Dave