Soviet Awards to non-Soviet personnel.

[JensF.]

Two weeks ago I was in the National Military Museum of Luxembourg in Diekirch. There I found this nice picture of General of the Army Omar Bradley. Among his ribbons I found the Suvorov Order 1st class and the Kutosov Order 1st class (last row)!

[Christophe]

Just to add and complete this thread, additional pictures of the awards of Field-Marshal Montgomery, who has been awarded the Order of Victory and a Suvorov 1st Class.

This picture shows his ribbons in February 1948 and October 1958.

(Pictures taken at the Imperial War Museum in London).

Ch.

[Esteban_cool]

Originally posted by new world
George Catlett Marshall received the following honors .... edited for space - see above

How could he receive a chilean award(Orden del Mérito) if those are unknown even here in Chile? Is there some place ort site with pics and info on them?
Thanks

[charlet]

Holà Esteban;
there's no need to be known to receive an award...G.C.Marshall should be known only in the high spheres of power and economics of Chile.
Chile, like Argentina, were of the countries used by the allies for purpose of rearfront economic support, ie they were like factories to help us effort of war...with europa cut apart from teh world and the ussr 100% devoted to the war efort too, it was necessary that other industrialised countries produce necessary goods. Argentina was in 1945 amongst the ten first countries economiclally speaking, far before France, totally on knees (bombings, sabotages, etc). I don't know for Chile, but the situation must have improved during the war.

And also!! Marshall could have been awarded for a post war economic action for Chile, not as known as the marshall plan proposed for europe!

sebastien

[Dave]

Just got in research today for a Nevsky, awarded to an American!

There's no citation, but what's interesting is that there's a list of everyone in the particular US Army division that was awarded a Soviet award. The actual Prikaz tells the reason for the award (for defeating the Germans) and then each award and each person it was awarded to. The second part, or "Otchet", lists the names with their award, award number and prikaz number/award date.

The Division Commander and ADC (one a Major General, the other a Brigadier) were both awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Looks like each Regiment Commander, and the Division Artillery Commander (all Colonels) were awarded the Patriotic War, 1st Class. Two "token" Deputy Regimental Commanders (both LTCs) were awarded the Nevsky. Two "token" junior officers (one Captain, one Lieutenant) were awarded the Red Star, and two Staff Sergeants ("Shtabnoi Sergant") were awarded the medal "For Valor".

Interestingly, all of the award numbers are consecutive: The Red Banners being 211724/5, Nevskys 28272/3, PW1 163585-88, the Red Stars 1266692/3 and the For Valors 2364290/1.

All of the awards were made on 16 May 1945. The Prikaz is signed by two generals from the 47th Army (Perhorovich and Korolev) though the awards were made with the authority of Marshal of the Soviet Union Zhukov.

--Dave

[alconlon]

I found this site and thought it may be of interest.http://www.emering.com/medals/soviet/soviet.html


Happy hunting.

Thanks,Al

[Stephende]

I saw this in a small exhibit at the Casper, Wyoming airport. I tried to right as much of it down as I could and thought you would find it interesting:

50th Aniv. of Victory awarded to Sgt. Alvin Singer - 8th Army Air Force.
In a letter dated 6/21/95 Amb. Yuli Vorontsov, on behalf of President Yeltsin writes to Sgt. Singer - "On behalf of the Russian Govt. and people you have been awarded for your courage and personal contribution to the Allied support of Russia (yes, Russia not Soviet Union) during her fight for freedom against nazi Germany. Congratulations good health well being and success."
signed amb. Vorontsov.
Award date is 45/24/95 award card shows No. 11481232 - 50th anniv. of Victory. Seal of Russia Federation and Yeltsin signature.

Sgt. Singer was a B-17 crew chief. He volunteered for a secret mission and found himself stationed at Piryatin. The heavy bombers quickly sank into the boggy ground. The airplanes were transfered to Poltava. On 6.22.44 a nazi air attack destroyed or damaged most of the planes although casulaties were light. After the raid, the sgt. watched as the nazi miniature mines that had been dropped on the field were cleared by hand. Soviet troops and civilians, men and women, linked arms and swept the mines away with sticks and limbs. Occasionaly an explosion would be heard by the sgt. and a hole in the ranks would be quickly filled by a new person. The sgt. wrote that "he quickly reazlized that human life had a different meaning over here"
The sgt. recalled that the Soviet authorities had promised the Americans medals for their bravery during the raid. He heard nothing until 1995 when the award from Russia arrived. The Sgt. participated in Operation Frantic - the shuttle bombing from Britain & Italy to Poltava, Mirograd and Piryatin in 1944.

I found this to be really interesting - a govt. and country that did not exist in 1944 awarding one of its medals for actions by an American in protecting another country in 1944 - the Soviet People and Soviet Union. BTW - the letter from Vorontsove is very clear in using the words Russia and Russian People not Soviet. I think this also is interesting - a Soviet medal for bravery was not awarded to the sgt. since that country no longer exists. I suppose they could have given him a Russian "for bravery"?

[HuliganRS]

Air Marshall Sir Geoffrey Tuttle group

Sellers Description:

BRITISH MEDALS AND DECORATIONS
AWARDS FOR GALLANTRY AND DISTINGUISHED SERVICE

K.B.E. 2nd. type, military, C.B. Military, neck badge, silver gilt and enamels, D.F.C. (GV1- award for the N.W.F. 1937), I.G.S. 1908, bar N.W.F. 1935 (F/L), I.G.S. 1936, bar N.W.F. 1936-37 (S/L), 1939/45 Star, Atlantic Star with France and Germany bar, Italy Star, Defence Medal, War Medal, M.I.D., 1937 Jubilee, 1953 Coronation, Russia, Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd. class badge, Greece, Order of the Phoenix, 2nd class, neck badge and breast star to Air Marshall Sir G. Tuttle, R.A.F. His obituary 13/7/1989 records ‘Air Marshall Sir Geoffrey Tuttle, who has died aged 82, was given the task in June 1940 of commanding the R.A.F’s first photographic reconnaissaance unit. At that time the unit was suffering from the after effects of it’s foundation by the Australian adventurer Sir Sidney Cotton. Tuttle’s arrival at Heston introduced just enough red tape to satisfy the Air Ministry. When Tuttle arrived in February of that year Cotton was still in command, but shortly afterwards his bloody minded unorthadoxy became too much for Whitehall and Tuttle replaced him. Tuttle repaired relations with Whitehall but continued to encourage a certain buccaneer spirit among the crews of his unarmed aircraft, notably a handful of pink painted Spitfires. At this stage he was the only unit commander in the R.A.F. allowed to select any pilot he wanted; allowing his pilot’s plenty of scope for initiative, he refused to have irksome paperwork imposed by them. By the end of July he had nearly 1000 men under his command at three RAF stations.. It was Tuttle and his pilots who first made a name for the Mosquito. Charming the first from De Havilland in 1941, he obtained hitherto unheard of results as his Mosquitos roamed enemy skies, their speed giving them a great advantage in the business of gaining photographic intelligence. Determined to obtain more Spitfires, he staged a mock dogfight in front of the King and Queen and flew a Spitfire against a Mosquito to demonstrate the latters superior speed and manoeuvrability. He was born at Lowestoft in 1906 and educated at St. Pauls. He entered the RAF joining 19 Squadron. In 1937 after service in India he returned to join 105 Squadron. He was awarded the DFC and went on to command the unit. At the outbreak of war he went to France as a staff officer at Advanced Air Strike Force HQ before returning to begin his career in photo reconnaissance. His record brought rapid promotion in Coastal Command in 1943 and commanding 328 Recon Wing in Algiers covering operations in N.W. Africa. By 1944 Tuttle was Senior Air Staff Officer at HQ Mediterranean Allied Coastal Air Force, im which post he was obliged, after an outbreak of lawlessness, to use the RAF against Greek nationals, something he described “as the most hateful order I have had to give”. After the war Tuttle progressed to become Deputy Chief of Staff of the Air Staff, from which he retired in 1959. As vice-chairman of B.A.C. from 1966-1977, Tuttle helped introduce Concorde. During his long aviation career he flew 103 types of aircraft, from bi-planes to jets. He was thrice mentioned in despatches, appointed OBE in 1940, C.B. 1945 and KBE 1957.’ C.B. L.G. 14/6/1945, K.B.E. L.G. 1/1/1957; D.F.C. L.G. 10/12/1937 ‘For gallant and distinguished service in Waziristan, during the period 25th. November, 1936, to 16th January, 1937; Phoenix Grand Officer L.G. 15/3/1946; Patriotic War L.G. 11/4/1944 (approx 20 1st class awards and 20 2nd class only to British recipients). With full research and photograph of the recipient in full dress uniform wearing all medals (R2669) N.E.F.

Price: £ 8,950.00

[plmurphy]

One of the groups in my collection is a partial group to Birta Sing Gurung. He was a subadar in the 3rd Queen Alexandria’s Own Gurkha Rifles and I beleive he was the only Gurkha officer to be awarded the 1st class of the Order of the Great Patriotic War. He also collected a British Military Cross, 2 Mentions in Despatches and Order of British India along the way. I have his MC, his Burma Star and his service dress ribbons with a nice photo of him as an old man wearing his medals. Unfortunately the group was split when he died and different children have sold the medals at different times.

My question is whether or not anybody can identify a way in which I can track down the citation for his OGPW ? Unfortunately I do not know the award number or award date.

Regards,

Paul

[Dave]

Paul:

Unfortunately, without an award number, it's next to impossible to research an award to a foreigner. Typically, these were not given out the normal way where they were recorded with an award card and such, but normally were just made mention of in a unit Prikaz, which would list the names of the recipients and award numbers. Without the award card, the prikaz can't be looked up, so it's pretty much impossible to do. Still sounds like a neat group though and I'd love to see photos of it!

Dave