Badge "Veteran Of The 62nd Army".

[Tommy]

Veteran of the 62nd Army

"Not one step backward, Fight to the death"

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Awarded to Nikolai Efemovich Zhmenko

Signed by A V Tsygankov

Here's a quote from Tsygankov


Today, some survivors remember those horrible times. Alexander Tsygankov, who was a soldier in the 181st Infantry Division of the 62nd Army, said in an interview with the Voice of Russia:


"We disembarked straight on the bank of the Volga, where on a patch of land, several thousand civilians were gathered for evacuation across the river, old people, women and children, some wounded. The Nazi planes came right over the heads of those defenceless people, dropping bombs and striking them with heavy machine guns," Alexander Tsygankov told his interviewer.


"I cannot tell you the hatred we felt for those sadists. We swore that we would be avenged for the bloodshed they had caused and for the destruction they had brought. They had completely destroyed the city in just a few days," he emphasized, when recalling those painful memories of the Great Patriotic War.

[SergioV]

beautiful document
is great the contrast between the black and white doc the purple of the stamp
and the red ink of the name..
never saw before..

may i ask where you got these nice piece of history?

Cheers

SergioV

[Pobeda45]

Very cool doc! :thumbsup I have 3 types of this znachok in my collection, and there may be more! Definitely a classic, for one of the most famous of Soviet Armies. Also, here's a 62nd Army Pin of East German manufacture as an honorable mention.

Cheers,
George

[Tommy]

Excellent! Ive never seen the actual badge until now!

Is it a common badge? I wouldnt mind picking one up myself to go with the doc.

Cheers,

Tom

[Pobeda45]

Hey Tom, these do show up. Just keep watching the bay.. :thumbsup

Here's an example that was handmade, pretty skilfully done if I may say so myself!

I also included a pic of the original and the garage special badges side by side.

[CtahhR]

Somehow I don't think this was a case of "Hey Granddad look what I made in metalwork class for you".
There really are some quirky items out there with the mindset behind them a complete mystery to us.

[Pobeda45]

Oh yeah, it's made with skill from a big piece of tin. How I'd like to imagine the story... two war buddies both from 62nd Army, one gets the GDR-made badge and the other doesn't. The friend borrows the badge and makes his own copy. Or it was ordered at the many homegrown (and technically illegal) workshops making brass ribbon bars etc.

I have a couple of other homemade veteran badges, I'll try to post them soon.

[Pobeda45]

Here are the (at least three) of the USSR-made types of this veteran badge.

1. Veteran of 62 Army. Thick font, Moscow 114 trademark

[Pobeda45]

2.1 Veteran of the 62-8 Army. Thin font, different soldier features. Trademark on the back of the badge has been sanded down.

[Pobeda45]

2.2 Veteran of the 62-8 Army. The same as 2.1, down to the sanded down trademark.. :confused: However, there are slight differences to obverse, for example a slight curve under "8". Probably not a true variation, just production differences.