Medal "For Combat Merits".

[Pravda]

Originally Posted by desantnik

Yes, overall fewer BMs than CSMs were produced with the "tongue" or "shovel" ring as the Russians call it.

I don't know whether this contributes too, but many Russian collectors believe this particular suspension was awarded solely for the Pacific theater. This is only partially true. Research has shown that the majority of these were actually commissariat awardings in the late 40's through 50's either as catch-up awards for the European theater or wound awards.

Thanks for your responses! When I got home the first place I checked was the red book. (By the way, we should really have an app for it so we can have it at our finger tips when bartering for medals in FSU countries.) But,
I noticed that there has not been much discussion regarding the T2V3 CSM and was wondering if we knew any more specifics regarding this variation. I had inferred that maybe the numbers produced of both U-shaped ring variants might be similar.

It is interesting that you mention the Pacific theater connection. The example I saw that spurred my interest was a four medal suspension related to that theater. It had two U-shaped ring CSMs, VoJ, and 30 Years of the Soviet Armed Forces. Unfortunately there was no document book to go with it.