Interesting Reference to Awards

[Eryk]

While looking something else up I came across this in the (IMO excellent) book Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942 – 1943 by Anthony Bevor, pp 202-203:

Dobronin had already revealed his own feelings when, earlier in October, he reported, without criticism, that a soldier had said ‘They’ve invented the Orders of Kutuzov and Suvorov. Now they should also have medals of St Nicholas and St George, and that’ll be the end of the Soviet Union.’

The principal Communist awards – Hero of the Soviet Union, Order of the Red Banner, Order of the Red Star – were still, of course, taken very seriously by the political authorities, even if the Red Star had become something of a Stakhanovite ration issued to every man who destroyed a German tank. When, on the night of 26 October, the chief of the manpower department of 64th Army lost a suitcase containing forty Orders of the Red Banner, while waiting for a ferry to cross the Volga, a terrible consternation ensued. One might almost have thought that the defence plans for the whole of the Stalingrad Front had been lost. The suitcase was finally rediscovered two miles away on the following day. Only a single medal was missing. It may well have been taken by a soldier who decided, perhaps warming to the idea after a few drinks, that his efforts at the front had been insufficiently recognized. The chief of the manpower department was put in front of a military tribunal, charged with ‘criminal carelessness.’

Soldiers, on the other hand, had a much more robust attitude towards these symbols of bravery. When one of them received an award, his comrades dropped it in a mug of vodka, which he then had to drink, catching the medal in his teeth as he drained the last drops.

Don’t know about the “Red Star to every man who destroyed a German tank,” seems like exageration and lumping all awards together. But it’s an interesting passage none the less. Anyone have teeth-marks on any of their collection?

A side note, does anyone know if the “manpower department” was also known as the “4th section?” Much as the different areas in US Army organization are G1, G2, G3, etc.