LEGION of MERIT--Showcase

[Jack's Son]

Hi All,

 

Teamski and a few others have shown us those beautiful medals

 

..........Now it's your turn.....Bring'um on.

 

 

:twothumbup: :drool2: :jeal0001: :bravo:

[StevenL]

Here are some photos of mine. The Legion of Merit is really quite impressive when you're holding one!

 

[Jack's Son]

I Guess I had better put mine up.

 

 

 

 

I just wish there was a name on it! :jeal0001:

[mp44]

Here's one that belonged to Brigadier General L.J. Stewart.

[4STARCHRIS]

Here's one that belonged to Brigadier General L.J. Stewart.

Great LOM. Curious about the rest of the group. May we see as well since you wet our appettie.

Thanks for the consideration.

4starchris

[4STARCHRIS]

 

Here is the uniform and medals from MSG Lewellyn Chilson. Triple DSC of WWII.

One of WWII's most decorated veteran. Some even say the most decorated.

4starchris

[jim2]

Here is my one and only. MSgt Mantoux served from 1953 to 1984, and was a heavy weapons infantry advisor to the 32nd Ranger Battilion, and was in Adv Tm 96 in Vietnam:

 

front:

 

[jim2]

Reverse:

 

[mp44]

4 Star Chris-- didn't want to hijack the thread. See next post about One Man's Service.

[Tom Nier]

You asked for show pieces. Here is an example of the first model Legion of Merit. It is enameled on both sides, and the arrows are pierced out. Its full wrap brooch is numbered "106". It has an Officers device, and came from England. It is believed that only about 200 of these double enameled LOMs were made before the required labor and process time became too slow and expensive. This model of LOM is considered to be a classic WW2 rarity.

[Jack's Son]

Reverse:

 

 

OH, Yes....the names, Just love the named.

[Jack's Son]

You asked for show pieces. Here is an example of the first model Legion of Merit. It is enameled on both sides, and the arrows are pierced out. Its full wrap brooch is numbered "106". It has an Officers device, and came from England. It is believed that only about 200 of these double enameled LOMs were made before the required labor and process time became too slow and expensive. This model of LOM is considered to be a classic WW2 rarity.

Tom,

That is a show piece!

My medal is in the low seven hundreds, and it does not have the enameled back.

Those low numbered ones are even more beautiful.

 

One more thing to learn on the Forum.

 

Thanks for the show.

[4STARCHRIS]

 

Here is the original medal grouping to LTG berkeley. His father is a Medal of Honor recipient.

4starchris

[KurtA]

Here's a sterling, wrap brooch LOM with theater printed 84th Division citation awarded to a Soviet artillery captain in 1945 for actions around Berlin. I bought this at a militaria show back in the 1990's from a Russian dealer. Back then there were many such dealers selling all the old Soviet "schlock". I luckily happened to see this amongst the pile of stuff on his table. He bought it in Moscow from the son of the captain. Based on the stretched ribbon, you can tell it was regularly worn (as the Soviets tended to do).

Kurt

[Teamski]

Here's a sterling, wrap brooch LOM with theater printed 84th Division citation awarded to a Soviet artillery captain in 1945 for actions around Berlin. I bought this at a militaria show back in the 1990's from a Russian dealer. Back then there were many such dealers selling all the old Soviet "schlock". I luckily happened to see this amongst the pile of stuff on his table. He bought it in Moscow from the son of the captain. Based on the stretched ribbon, you can tell it was regularly worn (as the Soviets tended to do).

Kurt

 

 

Hardcore! That is one sweet LOM!

 

-Ski

[Jack's Son]

Here's a sterling, wrap brooch LOM with theater printed 84th Division citation awarded to a Soviet artillery captain in 1945 for actions around Berlin. I bought this at a militaria show back in the 1990's from a Russian dealer. Back then there were many such dealers selling all the old Soviet "schlock". I luckily happened to see this amongst the pile of stuff on his table. He bought it in Moscow from the son of the captain. Based on the stretched ribbon, you can tell it was regularly worn (as the Soviets tended to do).

Kurt

 

This is HISTORY, this is important.

I hope people are reading this.

 

Kurt, can you enlarge the citation so we can read it?

Thank you for this post.

[KurtA]

Kurt, can you enlarge the citation so we can read it?

Thank you for this post.

Unfortunately, when I compress the photo, it comes out rather small. If I make it any larger I can't get it to upload.

Kurt

[4STARCHRIS]

Fantastic LOM to a Russian. Maybe you can type the citation so we could read it. Yeah, that's what you want to do..... :w00t:

4starchris

[PATCHRAT]

can't top an LOM to a Russian Officer. But here is a nice named one. Dont know exactly who he was. I found a chaplain who might match up.

[Dave]

Kurt-

 

Send me your original .jpg of the citation, and I'll compress it so it can be read.

 

Just FYI... in the early 90s, the defense archives in Russia dumped a huge amount of foregin award citations. They came from just about every country. I don't know who the original person was that received them, but a Soviet militaria dealer in CT ended up with stacks and stacks of these documents. They ranged from every conceivable US award (DSC/NC on down) to awards from the UK, Bulgaria, Poland, etc.... After the War, these documents were forwarded to the Soviet Ministry of Defense and if the officer wasn't locatable, just sat in a pile in the archives. This was the pile they eventually sold to someone (or someone stole, most likely).

 

Being that this is from a division though, this might have been given to the officer on the spot, which makes it a bit unusual, though oddly enough not as valuable as the big "pretty" certificates that were never issued with their awards. Go figure.

 

The attached photo is from a LOM recipient (Ivan Mikhailovich Zhurba) whose daughter still had his LOM back in the mid 90s. I tried to get it from her, but she wanted $1000 for it at the time (LOM, with box and photo). Stupidly expensive. It wasn't until a year later that I discovered that a friend of mine had all of the rest of his medals and thus scrambled to get it. But that's a different...and off topic...story...

 

Dave

[Dave]

How about a box of Wolf-Brown LOM ribbons?

[mrhell]

I'll play! I know it's probably vanilla, but here's mine. Vietnam era is my guess?

 

[KurtA]

Kurt-

 

Send me your original .jpg of the citation, and I'll compress it so it can be read.

 

Just FYI... in the early 90s, the defense archives in Russia dumped a huge amount of foregin award citations. They came from just about every country. I don't know who the original person was that received them, but a Soviet militaria dealer in CT ended up with stacks and stacks of these documents. They ranged from every conceivable US award (DSC/NC on down) to awards from the UK, Bulgaria, Poland, etc.... After the War, these documents were forwarded to the Soviet Ministry of Defense and if the officer wasn't locatable, just sat in a pile in the archives. This was the pile they eventually sold to someone (or someone stole, most likely).

 

Being that this is from a division though, this might have been given to the officer on the spot, which makes it a bit unusual, though oddly enough not as valuable as the big "pretty" certificates that were never issued with their awards. Go figure.

 

The attached photo is from a LOM recipient (Ivan Mikhailovich Zhurba) whose daughter still had his LOM back in the mid 90s. I tried to get it from her, but she wanted $1000 for it at the time (LOM, with box and photo). Stupidly expensive. It wasn't until a year later that I discovered that a friend of mine had all of the rest of his medals and thus scrambled to get it. But that's a different...and off topic...story...

 

Dave

Dave-

I sent you the photo. Thanks. That LOM Ivan is wearing in your photo appears to have lived a tough life. Ribbon has been replaced with an all red ribbon and pieces are chipped out of the white enamel. Very cool photo.

Kurt

[Dave]

Dave-

I sent you the photo. Thanks. That LOM Ivan is wearing in your photo appears to have lived a tough life. Ribbon has been replaced with an all red ribbon and pieces are chipped out of the white enamel. Very cool photo.

Kurt

 

Kurt-

 

Here it is!

 

I'm not sure what to make of it. While it was for actions around Berlin and actions for a five month period, it would make me think it was one of the "blind" awards...e.g. the award was mailed to the recipient rather than given directly. I know of documented cases happening with this for awards of the LOM as well as others, up to and including the DSC and NC.

 

However, I have never seen a "blind" award given on divisional certificates like this though and with the folds that appear old, I have a distinct hunch that this award was given to the good Captain in person. I don't know what division the 211th Artillery Regiment was attached to, though with a little research (and time) I could pull it up. (It's normally about an hour search or so through my Soviet OOB books...) What would be fascinating is if we could pull his service record and see if the award is recorded at all. I have already sent an e-mail to my point of contact for the archives to see if this is possible.

 

Fascinating!

 

If anyone is ever interested, I can post up the Soviet award cards that I have for US veterans (Eisenhower, Bradley, etc.) They're photocopies, but hey, that's as good as you'll get out of the Archives...

 

Dave

[Dave]

Out of curiosity, I kept looking for the unit that the good Soviet Captain was assigned to. The 211th Artillery Regiment was part of the 23rd Rifle Division, which was part of the 89th Rifle Corps of the 61st Army on the 1st Belorussian Front.

 

Interestingly, he was a Captain commanding a battalion in the Artillery Regiment. Not to get too off topic, but so that we can have some appreciation for what this guy did, there were 3 battalions in an "on paper" (or shtat, as it was called) Artillery Regiment. Each battalion had approximately 288 officers, NCOs and enlisted. By the time they met with the US forces near Below, in Germany, the authorized divisional strength of a front line Soviet division had gone from 4400 men to 3600 men...roughly a 20% drop in manning. Thus, his battalion was probably running something in the 230 personnel range...and had gone from being commanded by a Major to being commanded by a Captain. Fully authorized, his battalion had 8 76mm ZIS-3 cannon and 4 122mm howitzers.

 

Chances are, he had probably been commissioned for less than four years, was around 23 years of age, and in all probability, had been in combat for nearly all of that time, to include vicious fighting to the north of Berlin. My guess is that he was awarded one of the higher Soviet orders for him to be also awarded a reciprocal US order.

 

Fascinating document with history!

 

Dave