Quite a lot of period photos show Russian soldiers wearing their decorations in action. I have always wondered if these are posed or in fact actual action photos.
In reality they make a perfect target for a sniper also if there is more than one, they can make a clanking noise, which is not on as far as night patrols go.
Can anyone inform me on what the case is here? I am interested to know if the wearing of awards flows from the top echelon right down to the grunts on the ground who are at the sharp end.:confused:
ANZAC
"If we come to a minefield, our infantry attacks exactly as it were not there." Marshall Geogi Zhukov to General Eisenhower, 1945
ANZAC Wrote:Quite a lot of period photos show Russian soldiers wearing their decorations in action. I have always wondered if these are posed or in fact actual action photos.
In reality they make a perfect target for a sniper also if there is more than one, they can make a clanking noise, which is not on as far as night patrols go.
Can anyone inform me on what the case is here? I am interested to know if the wearing of awards flows from the top echelon right down to the grunts on the ground who are at the sharp end.:confused:
ANZAC
Awards were worn during "combat" activities. It depends on your definition of "combat", but not every veteran is a steely eyed killer sneaking up to slit a sentry's throat in the middle of the night. Air crews, staff officers, and those close enough to the front to get killed by aerial bombs, artillery, enemy raids had plenty of reason to wear awards and not worry about detection.
Scouts, partisans, and those going behind enemy lines often removed them and left them in a safe place, but even then I've read memoirs of people parachuting behind enemy lines insisting on wearing their awards to show off their exploits, encourage others, etc.
I believe that the Soviet soldier probably DID wear his orders and medals into action for one simple reason: in a savage war of annihilation, such as that on the eastern front of WW2, the average Ivan knew that his life expectancy was not so good, and he wore his decorations simply because it might be the only chance he might have to do so, before the odds caught up with him.
kabanchik Wrote:I believe that the Soviet soldier probably DID wear his orders and medals into action for one simple reason: in a savage war of annihilation, such as that on the eastern front of WW2, the average Ivan knew that his life expectancy was not so good, and he wore his decorations simply because it might be the only chance he might have to do so, before the odds caught up with him.
If the decorations were serial-numbered, it was also a means of identifying remains. "Orders and Medals of the USSR" mentions the case of Alexander Gorovets, Hero of the Soviet. Fourteen years after he was shot down, the wreckage was found by farmers, and his identity traced by the serial number on his Order of the Red Banner he was wearing.
Refresh my memory, please. Isn't the pilot of the Bell P39 Airacobra being congratulated in the above photo (the one with all the Orders of the Red Banner) Pokryshkin??
![REPRODUCTION British Victoria Cross FULL SIZE Medal For Valour *[VC]](/vintage/img/g/ALkAAOSwQo5huIS8/s-l225/REPRODUCTION-British-Victoria-Cross-FULL-SIZE-Meda.jpg)