Soviet Awards to non-Soviet personnel.

[salyan]

Hi all...
Late responding to this one one as well, but did enjoy reading the posts. I recently saw a color photo of Gen. George S. Patton wearing what I thought was an Order of Kutuzov, 1st class ...now the pic of his ribbon bar confirmed it! The article said his wife stated he wore it one time on his full dress uniform, and hence that is when the photo was taken.

I spent a few days last summer with Marcel Albert... doing interviews. He flew with the French Normandie-Niemann squadron in Russia... and is a HSU. He told me he loved returning to Russia...always gets a great welcome due to his HSU
status...
regards, Dan

[ejb1792]

I'm trying to determine if there is a known quantity of the Order of Glory awards to Americans during WW2. I know of a WW2 Army vereran who was awarded one and he has no idea as to the reason why.

He was in the 16th Infantry Regiment of the US First Infantry Division and served from the Sicily landings to wars end in Czechoslovakia.

[Bryan]

Hi,
I know of one that was awarded to an American soldier with the 104th I.D. for preventing any friendly fire mishaps by linking up with the Soviets in Czechoslovakia. He was a U.S. soldier who was born in Russia and his family moved to the U.S. sometime before the war.

Bryan

[Ed_Haynes]

Munroe,

Actually Indian WWII awards are usually anmed.

A friend has a named group to an Indian enlisted man with a Red Star.

I am trying to talk him out of it.

Ed Haynes

[mcwirsk]

Dear Ed

I hope you get the Red Star group. What will be nice about this group is that the ww2 medals should be named. I have the list of these Red Stars issused to Indians. Most were for the PAIFORCE supply of materials to teh Soviet union via iran.

My red star award (on another thread) was for this same action. It would be interesting to compare the award number to teh Indian one to see if the orders came from the same batch.

Kind regards

Munroe

[Tal Inbar]

This is a big picture so here it is in 2 parts:

[Dave]

I just was reading through here and saw Salyan's post about General Patton. Yes, he was awarded the Order of Kutuzov, 1st Class. Other awards to Army (and Army Air Force) officers (up through US Military Academy Class of 1917) included:

Lt General William H. Simpson - Order of Kutuzov (class not specified) (Commanding General, 9th Army)

Maj General Donald H. Connolly - Order of Suvorov 2nd Class (assigned TDY to USSR from 17 Dec 43 to 2 Feb 44, served as "Foreign Liquidation Commissioner")

Maj General Emil F. Reinhardt - Order of Suvorov 2nd Class (CG 69th Inf Div, made initial contact with Russians at Torgau on 25 Apr 45)

Maj General Walter M. Robertson - Order of Suvorov (class not specified) (Commanding General, 2nd Inf Div.)

Lt General Walton H. Walker - Order of Patriotic War 1st Class, Guards Badge (Commanding General, 20th Corps)

Maj General Albert E. Brown - Order of the Red Star (Commander, US-USSR Commission on Korea)

Colonel Charles F. Williams - Order of the Patritoic War 1st Class (Deputy Chief of Staff, 1st Army)

Brig General Richard U. Nicholas - Order of the Patriotic War 1st Class (head of Engineers for 9th Army)

Maj General William R. Schmidt - Guards Badge (Commanding General, 76th Infantry Division)

Brig General William L. Roberts - Patriotic War (class not specified) (Assistant Divisional Commander, 9th Infantry Division)

General Karl Spaatz - Order of Suvorov 2nd Class (Commanding General, US Strategic Air Forces Europe)

Brig General John F. Conklin - Order of the Patriotic War, 1st Class (head of Engineers, 3rd Army)

Colonel Mason J. Young - Order of the Red Star (head of Engineers, 7th Corps)

Brig General Charles M. Busbee - Order of the Patriotic War, 1st Class (Commanding General, 102nd Infantry Division Artillery)

General Omar N. Bradley - Order of Suvorov 1st Class, Order of Kutuzov 1st Class (it is noted that the Suvorov was presented to him by Konev, and the Kutuzov personally by Stalin!)

Maj General Leland S. Hobbs - Order of the Red Star (Commanding General, 30th Infantry Division)

General Dwight D. Eisenhower - Order of Victory, Order of Suvorov 1st Class

Maj General Stanley E. Reinhart - Order of the Patriotic War, 1st Class (Commanding General, 65th Infantry Division)

Maj Genearl Horace L. McBride - Order of Nevsky (Commanding General, 80th Infantry Division)

Maj General William M. Hoge - Order of the Patriotic War 1st Class (Commanding General, 4th Armored Division)

Maj General Stanley L. Scott - Order of Kutuzov 2nd Class (Commanding General, 104th Infantry Division Artillery)

Brig General Roland P. Shugg - Order of the Patriotic War 1st Class (Commanding General, 13th Corps Artillery)

Lt General Joseph L. Collins - Order of Suvorov (class not specified, but he was awarded it TWICE) (Commanding General, 7th Corps)

Colonel Walter W. Warner - Order of the Red Star (Ordnance Officer, 9th Army)

Maj General Charles H. Gerhardt - Order of the Patriotic War (class not specified) (Commanding General, 29th Infantry Division)

General Matthew B. Ridgeway - Order of the Red Banner (Commanding General, 18th Airborne Corps)

Maj General Ernest N. Harmon - Order of the Red Banner (Commanding General, 22nd Army Corps)

General Mark W. Clark - Order of Suvorov 1st Class (Commanding General, 15th Army Group)

Captain Russell L. Meredith - Order of the Patriotic War 1st Class (Air Base Commander?)

Colone Onslow S. Rolfe - Order of the Patriotic War 1st Class (Assitant Division Commander, 71st Division)

I'd type more, but dinner is getting cold (read: wife isn't pleased!) ;)

--Dave

[new world]

Dave,

Impressive list!

What were the sources?

[Dave]

Here are some more names of awardees of Soviet awards. There were a number of them (especially the Patriotic War) that weren't classified as to what class they received. Also notice that several of the awardees received their awards posthumously. Another interesting note is that the US Army staff in Moscow during the War are not recorded as having received any Soviet awards, which I find strange. There are also very few awards to Air Force personnel (like about ten!)

I abbriviated the list from what I had above, as I didn't want to be typing the list for the next two weeks! :) I think it still gets the 'flavor' across though... There are many more awards to US forces, these are just the majority to Army officers during the War:

BG Lucius Clay - Kutuzov (not specified)
Col Thomas Nixon - Pat War 2nd
Col Benjamin Dickson - Pat War 1st
BG John Hinds - Pat War 1st
Col William Epes - Pat War 2nd
Col Francis March - Pat War 1st
BG John Stokes - Pat War (not specified)
BG Walter Muller - Pat War 1st (number 151155)
BG Don Shingler - Kutuzov (not specified)
Col Harlan Hartness - two Soviet decorations (not specified)
BG Julius Slack - TWO Pat War 2nd
Col Elton Hammond - Pat War 2nd
MG Ernest Brannon - Pat War 2nd
BG Willard Wyman - Pat War 1st
BG John Collier - Nevsky
BG William Kean - Suvorov 2nd
BG Richard Partridge - Kutuzov 2nd
BG James Mitchell - Pat War (not specified)
Col William Bartlett - Pat War 2nd
Col John Howard - For Valor (from 49th Guards Rifle Division)
BG Edward Williams - Pat War 1st
Col Hayden Sears - Pat War 2nd
BG Sidney Hinds - Nevsky
BG Halley Maddox - Pat War 1st
BG Charles Barrett - Pat War 1st
Col Alfred Kessler - Suvorov (not specified)
Col Charles Reed - Pat War 2nd
Col Wesley Yale - Pat War (not specified)
BG George Taylor - Pat War (not specified)
BG Theodore Osborne - Kutuzov 2nd
Col William Carraway - Pat War 2nd
Col Charles Woodruff - Pat War (not specified)
Col Edward Adams - Pat War (not specified)
Col Fisher Blinn - Pat War (not specified)
Col Wendell Blanchard - Pat War (not specified)
Col Charles Meehan - Military Merit
Col John Williams - Pat War 2nd
Col Craig Alderman - Pat War 1st
MG James Moore - Red Banner
Col Peter Hains - Suvorov (not specified) (Sad, because I knew this guy and never asked him about it!)
BG Richard Nugent - Nevsky
Col James Anding - Pat War 2nd
LTCOL August Regnier - "Distinguished Service Cross" (no idea what he means by that!)
Col Russell Baker - Nevsky
BG Armistead Mead - Pat War 1st
BG William Sexton - Bogdan Khmelnitsky (not specified)
Col Charles Hart - Suvorov 2nd
Maj John Hall - Pat War (not specified)
BG George Smythe - For Valor
Col John Claybrook - Pat War 1st
Col William O'Connor - Guards Badge
Maj James Channon - Pat War (not specified)
Col Branner Purdue - Nevsky
Col George Peploe - Pat War 1st
MG Terrance Allen - Surovov 2nd
BG Donald Booth - Kutuzov (not specified)
Col Paul Black - Red Star
Maj Lee Williams - Pat War (not specified)
Col Walter Johnson - Nevsky
Col Ralph Zwicker - Pat War (not specified)
Col Philip Ginder - For Valor
Col Robert Fleming - Pat War 2nd
BG Russell Wilson - Pat War 2nd (posthumous for boming raid over Berlin)
MG Frederick Anderson - Suvorov 3rd
Col Verdi Barnes - Pat War (not specified)
LTCol William Breckenridge - Military Merit
Col Francis Boos - Pat War (not specified)
Col Paul Harkins - Pat War 2nd
Col Thomas Taylor - Pat War (not specified)
LTCol Louis de Lisle de Riemer - Red Star
LTCol Laurence Buck - Pat War 2nd
Col Edgar Conley - Pat War (not specified)
BG James Gavin - Nevsky
BG Paul Yount - Kutuzov 3rd
BG Frederick Castle - Kutuzov (not specified) (posthumous)
Col Charles Dodge - Guards Badge
Col James Curtis - Military Medal and Guards Badge
Col Sidney Wooten - Pat War 2nd
Col William Wright - Pat War (not specified)
Col Carl Hutton - Red Banner
Col James Luckett - Pat War (not specified)
Col Orlando Troxel - Pat War 2nd
Col Charles Hoy - Pat War (not specified)
Col Samuel Horner - Red Star
Col Louis Truman - Pat War 1st
LTCol Charles Williams - Pat War (not specified)
BG William Darby - Kutuzov 3rd (poshumous)
Capt William Calhoun - Military Merit
Col Thomas Crystal - Pat War 1st
Col Harry Hillyard - Nevsky
Col Frank Omanski - Red Banner
Col Reuben Tucker - Pat War (not specified)
Col Charles Billingslea - Red Star
LTCol Philip Brant - Pat War (not specified)
LTCol William Ekman - Pat War 2nd
LTCol Arthur Allen - For Valor
LTCol Charles Parsons - Red Star

Enjoy!

--Dave

[Dave]

A while back, I was able to talk to one of the retired generals who was awarded a Patriotic War, 2nd Class. He declined an interview (nor was the award for sale, so don't even ask!) but was willing (not initially though) to answer questions over the phone (he only answered them as I am active-duty military) Anyway, here were some of the questions and answers from our conversation:

Q: When was it awarded?
A: After the war, late 1945

Q: Where was it awarded?
A: At a reception with Soviet officers at the Headquarters of the 71st Infantry Division, Salzburg, Austria.

Q: How was it awarded?
A: It was given to him with a scroll attached. The scroll was a citation for the award. No case, no order book.

Q: Why was it awarded?
A: For Soviet-US friendship (though his wife mentioned that he had previously taken care of some released Soviet POW's, and believed that was why he had gotten it.)

Q: Did he ever wear the award after the War?
A: Hell no (he wasn't big on medals)

Q: Was there ever any worries about the award during the "Red Scare" of the 1950's.
A: No. No one really even gave it much notice.

I also remember talking to another gentleman who was awarded a Patriotic War 1st Class by the Soviets. It was sent to him in the mail in late 1945, but at the time, the Cold War was starting and he did not feel it right to accept an award from a nation which was quickly becoming the major enemy of the United States. He packed it back up and returned it in the mail.

He did remember that in addition to the award was a stipend for one bottle of vodka per month!

--Dave