A digital memorial for my grandfather

[sksvlad]

On May 8th, 2015 there will be a celebration of V-Day (Victory Day), the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe. I'd like to celebrate this event by displaying a "collection" of my grandfather's medals. He was a surgeon in the 6th Guards Tank Army which was a part of the Red Army (the Soviet Army, for those readers who were born after the USSR got dissolved). The back of the commemorative 6th tank army medal lists the main battles this Soviet unit fought: Korsun-Shevchenko, Iași, Bucharest, Budapest, Vienna, Prague and Port Arthur.

 

[Pete deCoux]

Thanks for your grandfathers service in World War Two in ending Hitlers rein of terror.

My uncle spent the war in a tank factory in Siberia as a watch maker after escaping Hitler in Poland where he killed all of my mothers family except for my uncle.

 

[timeout]

for people like me who have an instrest in medals but dont know a lot about foreign awards (non uk) can you please name them. thanks paul.

 

[sksvlad]

Unfortunately, I am in the same boat as you. But I'll try to help, because I have documents for all these medals (not because I know the subject well). The really important awards are in the picture below. The 3 identical star like awards on top are the Order of the Great Patriotic War First class. It contains gold unlike the Second Class which is identical in appearance but has silver background. I think First Class is akin to American Purple Heart. The large Red Star with a soldier in the middle is, you guessed it, the Order of the Red Star, given for great achievements in defending USSR. How do I know this? I found this great British web site http://www.garenewing.co.uk/home/collections/russianmedals.php?show=25. All 4 of these were bestowed upon my grandfather on Sept.8, 1943, I don't know why, but I guess they had no time to process them timely in the years before, and just gave them in a kinda "lump sum". I have low serial numbers on all of them, and I'll try to learn more. The medals at the bottom of the picture are standard awards for particular country or city, from left to right: for fighting valour, for defence of Leningarad, for victory over Germany, 20th Anniversary of V-Day, for victory over Japan (in Manchuria), for conquest of Budapest, for conquest of Vienna, for liberation of Prague. These were given to everyone in a campaign in hundreds of thousands if not more, they have no serial numbers and are common. I am a gun and ammunition collector, not a medal collector, so I am sure that information above needs a lot of correcting, which I cheerfully welcome in order to learn more about the subject. My grandfather was at Khalkhin-Gol http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Khalkhin_Gol, but I have no medals from that conflict. I know just because he has told me many years ago.
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[timeout]

thats great thanks, I have the medals from my gramps from the first world war and he was with the homeguard in the WW2 when he died a few years ago I found his WW2 medals still in the boxes sealed and never opened. I have my Dads medals and I hope my two boys will keep theirs and when I am gone mine can be added to the collection. thanks again....paul.