For Combat Merits,3151093,Gunner,242nd Separate Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division

[Bill Garvy]

Order Book (#B355225) of Senior Sergeant Aleksandr Nikolayevich Bliznuk dated September 1st, 1947 for a Combat Service Medal, #3151093 (missing), August, 1945.

[Bill Garvy]

[SIZE="3"]Secret

Prikaz

Leningrad Artillery Front

No. 039/H

City of Leningrad

July 10th, 1945

On behalf of the Presidium of the Supreme Council SSR for exemplary performance of tasks of commanding the front in the struggle against the German invaders and displaying valor and courage we award:

Medal “For Combat Service:

16. Senior Sergeant Bliznuk, Aleksandr Nikolayevich, Gunner, 242nd Independent Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division, Reserve of the Supreme Command.

Commander Artillery
Leningrad Front
Colonel-General Artillery Odintsov

Chief of Staff Artillery
Leningrad Front
Major-General Artillery Brusser
[/SIZE]

[Bill Garvy]

[SIZE="3"]Award List

Bliznuk, Aleksandr Nikolayevich

Senior Sergeant, Gunner, 242nd Independent Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division, Reserve of the Supreme Command

Medal “For Combat Service”

Born 1913, Russia, not a member of the Communist Party

In the war from the first day

No wounds

Inducted into the Red Army 23rd June, 1941

Rakityanskaya Regional Military Commissariat, Kursk Oblast

No previous awards

He is loyal to the party of Lenin & Stalin and our socialist motherland. He has participated in the war from the first day, he showed courage and skill.

In February, 1942 together with (by?) his own calculation of supporting an offensive by our infantry his accurate work destroyed two German dugout (trench?) by his direct fire.

In April 1944 during a raid of 15 JU-87’s and 6 FW-190’s on the airport at Chuprov replaced two of the barrels (manned two guns?) and by his accurate work shot down a JU-87.

He is worthy of being awarded the medal “For Combat Service”.

Commander 242nd Independent Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division, Reserve of the Supreme Command
Major Pridachiy

He is worthy of being awarded the medal “For Combat Service”.
Deputy Commander Artillery, Leningrad Front, Air Defense
Colonel Stavtsev

24th May, 1946


Document for the Medal Victory over Japan dated May 9th, 1946 by the Commander of the 1647th Ussuriysk Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment, Serial #B460786.
[/SIZE]

[Bill Garvy]

Military ID Book dated April 22nd, 1944.

[Al-muell]

It's interesting to note, that he aparently fought both against Germany and Japan. At least his KK seems to indicate that.

[CtahhR]

There were a large number that fought on both sides but only those that were in units mobilised to do so. I've found that there were a large number of younger "greener" members of the army thrown at the Japanese. More likely to ensure as many Soviets had combat experience as possible - The Japanese were quite a soft target at such a late stage in their war (all though by no means out of fight).

You'll find his unit was not "reserve command" but in the Reserve Of The Supreme Command" (RGK). These RGK unit awards seem to be presenting themselves in a glut recently. Another coincidence.

I'd advise the purchase of a physical Anglo-Russian (or at least Russo-English) dictionary to try to make sense of some of the nonsense that google translate often brings up - I think there is someone out there trying to sabotage it. Sometimes it is so randomly wrong that it feels rather deliberate. Price is right though!

[Bill Garvy]

It's interesting to note, that he aparently fought both against Germany and Japan. At least his KK seems to indicate that.

[SIZE="3"]Indeed, the second scan, page on the right, lower, confirms his unit assignment as indicated on his Victory over Japan document.

Thank you for your encouragement and support, my progress has been slow, but at my age, ahem. . . The typewritten documents are much easier to decipher. I still must rely on a professional translator or the good will of collector colleagues for assistance of the handwritten documents and acronyms.[/SIZE]

[CtahhR]

The most important part of not only collecting but understanding what is collecting is enthusiasm. I know it gets harder to be enthusiastic the older we get but keeping the candle burning is a great thing. The military acronyms of any nation can be tricky - even in a native tongue so in a different language and alphabet it's a great learning task. Fortunately we have lots of resources and a community.

I think we all start with "CCCP", "KGB", "MVD", then move on to "RVK" and beyond. The most difficult one I've come across recently is "TOPO" - "Trade And Production Section" of the NKVD/NKGB. Everything what to tell me it was "Topo" (Topographical) but it wasn't.

I think some of the more "deliberate" errors on google translate come from sayings being translated. (Fictional example) The Russian saying for something along the lines of "Like watching paint dry" or "watching grass grow" will have results for grass and paint being the same word as it'll be translated as a phrase but if you are trying to translate that word in another phrase you can have a word that translates to "paint" or "grass" even though it's a completely different word "watching the mountain grow". So you can put in "attacked a mountain" and it'll come back as "attacked paint" or "attacked grass". Complete nonsense but it comes from translate phrases with a similar meaning rather than the wording.

So often "service" and "merit" are incorrectly mistaken as are "honour" and "merit" so rather than "honourable service" you could get "meriting merit" and the other way round. Although translation generally has become a lot more true than "gist of" over the last 10 years.

Can't really complain though having the most complicated language in the world as my first tongue. Shouldn't enforce transliteration to be phonetic rather than a true transliteration due to the fact that we don't use phonetic spellings. Am I right or am I rite? I hope I'm not Wright.

Life's a long learning experience we can embrace it and enjoy it or ignore it and be frustrated. I'm glad so many of us here can enjoy propagating the actions and deeds of those who aren't here to do it for themselves.