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

[Ed Maier]

There were also 22 US Navy Distinguished Service Medals awarded to Red Army Sailors during W.W.II. Twenty of them were awarded at one time in Febuary 1943.

Just my two cents,
Ed M.

[Keith]

Guys,
I don't collect these, but I thought this might be interesting. Awarded to an Estonian in the Soviet army.
Keith

[slava1stclass]

Guys,
I don't collect these, but I thought this might be interesting. Awarded to an Estonian in the Soviet army.
Keith

Keith,

Very interesting. The original DSM certificate that accompanied this letter of transmittal would be a very nice find indeed.

Regards,

slava1stclass

[slava1stclass]

To all:

Col Gen Dmitri Svyatayev, CG, 33rd Soviet Army gets ready to lay a wet one on LTG William M. Simpson, CG, 9th U.S. Army after Simpson awarded him the Legion of Merit at Simpson's HQ in the vicinity of Braunschweig, Germany on May 28th, 1945.

Regards,

slava1stclass

[Aharim]

I have a xerox of certificate for Distinguished Flying Cross to Sergeant Safik Bogutdinivich Bogutdinov, Red Army, USSR for "Extraordinary Achievenment while participating in Aerial Flight" signed in the city of Washington 15, June, 1944 by Secretary of War, Henry Stimson. If I could figure out how to shrink the pdf I could post. But that is one.

Separately by memorandum for the president dated June 7, 1944, The Secretary of War advised that Major General John R. Deane, Chief, U.S. Military Mission to Moscow urged the ward of 60 American decorations to exceptionally outstanding officers of the Red Army. That list included Two Distinguished Serice Crosses, One Distinguished Flying Cross, and 57 Legion of Merit. That is two.

The Distinguished Flying Cross was to be awarded to Col. Aleksandr Andreevich Matveev. The rest of my archives are away right now to try to find the third.

More on Vasilevski and Novikov in the next post.

Because the US "liked" the Reds at that time, and didn't want to slight them, certificates and citations were approved and signed by either the Secretary of War or President.

By (declassified) War Department Memorandum for General Edwin M. Watson, "subject Award of Legion of Merit" the Secretary of War recommended award of the Legion of Merit to Marshal Aleksandr Mikhailevich Vasilevski and Marshal Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Novikov. The memorandum states "These officers were charged with the great responsibility of planning, coordinating and directing the offensive and defensive operations of the Red Army Forces and the Red Air Forces respectively."

Attached to the memorandum are the draft citations dated June 22, 1944, marked
"Original citation to War 6/23"
and
"Certificate signed 6/22"

Again, if I can figure how to shrink wrap I would post.

I believe I also have copies of many of the others. My personal favorite is Major General Aleksandr Ivanovich Belyaev of the Special Liaison Office also known as the Government Purchasing Commission of the Soviet Union in the United States. He received the LOM Commander class two times. He even sent a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt expressing his appreciation "as well as for the success of your great country."

Information regarding number of awards to Red Army soldiers may be incomplete because awards continued to be made as late as December 1946 (One award known). But for that one, it appears that awards were not made after June 1946 when 16 LOM's were awarded including, Marshal Tolbukin, Col. Gen. Biryusov, Gen. Bagramyan, Gen. Sokolovsky, and Lt. Gen. Rudenko among others.

It appears that as many as 290 awards were made during Truman's term which when added to those 57 listed in that June 1944 document would be almost 350 awards. Again, I have documentation but cannot readily print and share.

Attached are scans of copies of the citations for LOM Chief Commander for General Novikov and Marshal Vasilevksy.

Note: To get these to fit I did have to cut some of the handwritten correspondence about date signed and date returned to the War Department, but I did finally get it to fit, having started at 950k.

LOM is the only award given by the US that is 'class' or rank specific. As it is only given to foreign officers in any class above the class of Legionaire those higher classes are based on the rank of the recipient as well as level of achievement. SO, Marshal of the USSR or Admiral of the Fleet would most likely receive the higher/highest class.

I will have to check archives to see if I similarly have citations for the following but records indicate that they all received LOM in some degree. (Note: I have included the rank of General - as in General of the Army - because a number of later Marshals were that rank when decorated)(Note 2: Col. General Biryuzov is added as an exception because he too later became Marshal USSR)

General Alexei Inokentievich Antonov
Marshal Georgi Konstantinovich Zhukov
Admiral N.G. Kuznetsov - Later Admiral of the Fleet
Admiral .A. Alafuxov
Admiral A.G. Golovko
Admiral V. P Tributz
Admiral I. S. Jumashev
General Ivan K. Bagramyan - Later Marshal
Marshal Leoind A. Gororov
Marshal Rodio Y. Malinovsky
Marshal Kirill A. Meretskov
General Maxim A Purkaev
Marshal Theodor Ivan Tolbukin
Marshal Konstantin K. Rokossovsky
General Andrei I. Yeremenko
Colonel General Sergei S. Biryuzov - Later Marshal
General Vassily D. Sokolovsky - Later Marshal

[Dadag07]

Munroe-

Here is a table of what US Army awards were awarded to the Soviets during WW2:

MOH- None
DSC- 20
DSM- 20
Silver Star- 0
Legion of Merit- 242
DFC- 3 olc to DFC- 1
Soldiers Medal- 1
Bronze Star- 129
Air Medal- 0
Total Awards- 416

Of the LOM awards, they break down as follows:

Chief Commander- 1
Commander- 11
Officer- 18
Legionanaire- 88
(Though that doesn't add up to 242...)

I'll post more in a bit...

Dave

There was 1 MoH give to a russian marshal to koniev --------------------

[Christophe]

There was 1 MoH give to a russian marshal to koniev --------------------

Sorry, but he got a Legion of Merit... :D

Cheers.

Ch.

[desantnik]

I agree. I am not aware of ANY foreign awarding of the Medal of Honor.

[desantnik]

I realize Wikipedia is not definitive, but this excerpt is from there:

Sixty-one Canadians who were serving in the United States armed forces have been awarded the Medal of Honor, with a majority awarded for actions in the American Civil War. Since 1900, only four have been awarded to Canadians.[48] In the Vietnam War, Peter C. Lemon was the only Canadian recipient of the Medal of Honor.

Most important criteria is the recipient must be serving in the US military (again with a few exceptions).

[britrecko]

i have seen a white house letter head with an authentic president truman signature awarding a legion of merit to a soviet soldier for action leading to the joining of soviet soldiers and the americans outside berlin. there were russian alphabet lettering in the top right hand corner .there was no order with the paper.