This document is one of probably several different types printed at the time the two armies came into contact at the at the end of the war. It is known other variations exist that were have different Army letterheads and unit insignia.

Silver Star to Sergei N. Ivanov

The final example of awards to the Soviets deals with a named Silver Star to a Red Army Sergeant.

This example poses some interesting questions. According to the dealer who originally obtained the Silver Star, it was purchased in a "flea market" in Berlin, Germany, in the spring of 1992. This was at the time the Soviet Union was imploding and all types of Soviet medals and awards were working their way out of country.

Figure 10: Hand engraved naming on Ivanov’s

Silver Star

The Silver Star has is a full wrap broach (Figure 9) and it is hand engraved (Figure 10) and numbered (Figure 11) in the official World War II style. Because its broach and numbering indicates it is a WWII manufactured piece, it was probably issued out of existing stocks available to the United States Military Mission to Moscow via the War Department.

Figure 9: Reverse of the Silver Star awarded to

Soviet Army Sergeant Sergei N. Ivanov

Figure 11: Numbering on Ivanov’s Silver Star.

Ivanov was a Red Army Sergeant who was attached to the 12th Guards Brigade and he received the award of the Silver Star through the Military Mission to Moscow on July 14, 1944. He received the Silver Star for his actions on February 3, 1944. The citation, which documents Ivanov’s actions, reads as follows:

"On February 3, 1944, operating with a group of scouts in advance of a regiment attacking the village of Marievkn, during the night and unexpected by the enemy he broke into the village and opened battle. The enemy, not expecting a thrust during the night, left the town of Marievkn in confusion"

26 JOMSA

Ivanov’s Silver Star is believed to be one of the very few Silver Stars in existence that was awarded to a Soviet soldier in World War II.

How Soviet Award Documents Came to the United States

The one area to be addressed in the story of American awards to Soviets is how the documents originally turned up in America. According to information received by the author, when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1992, a Red Army paratrooper was able to gain access to one of several different military ministries where the documents were housed. Because of the sad state of the Russian economy and the disarray of the then fledging Russian Federal Government, he removed the documents and was able to sell them to an individual who in turn sold them to a militaria dealer in the United States. This individual then disposed of them at a militaria show.

However, the story does not end there. Apparently, the paratrooper who removed and sold the documents was later arrested and put on trial for his crimes. He was found guilty and sentenced to an unknown amount of prison time for the theft. Although the exact number of documents sold at the militaria show remains unknown, it is believed the numbers were relatively small. It is known that award documents for the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal were among those sold.

How Many Remain?

The overall number of documents taken, and what they originally sold for, remains a mystery. How many remain in Russia is also a mystery. However, one can still see a fair supply of Legion of Merit documents, the most common Soviet/American document available, usually accompanied by a certificate signed by President Harry Truman turning up with some regularity. Most of these available through mail order military and Internet auction sites, are touted and championed for the presidential signature on the actual citation rather than for the actual award document itself.

Correction to July/August 2000 Article

In my original article in the July/August 2000 issue of JOMSA, I incorrectly stated that only foreign individuals were eligible to receive both the award and the accompanying document for their decorations during World War II. According to information supplied by Alan Menke, the Legion of Merit was routinely awarded with

a document to both United States military personnel and foreign recipients during World War 1I.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Ed Maier of Red Army Militaria for the translations in this article and Colonel Fred Borch for input and assistance on the Silver Star to Ivanov. He would like to hear from any individual who has United States Navy awards or documents to a Soviet. He can be contacted at: gcullumber@wwwebservice.net.

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Book Review

James W. Patrick, Wood & Canvas Heroes. Awards of the Distinguished Flying Cross and Other Airmen Stories: 1927 to December 1941. ISBN: 0-9719862-0- 7. Published in 2002 by J. W. Patrick Publishing, 1064 Verona Drive, Fullerton, CA 92835. 220 + xx pages, indexed, hardcover, on art quality paper. Price: $49.95 plus shipping.

Although the main emphasis of this book is the award of the United States Distinguished Flying Cross from its institution in 1927 to the beginning of World War II, this work is more than just a roster of names and an accumulation of citations. It documents the story of the development of the Distinguished Flying Cross, the various medal types, numbering, etc., and it details the chronological stories and accomplishments of the early civilians and military men who earned this prestigious award.

This splendid book is also a testament to the medal collecting hobby. Its genesis was the author’s acquisition, many years ago, of an enigmatic Distinguished Flying Cross named to ’Hawthorne C. Gray.’ His diligent research into the man behind the medal yielded an amazing story - that the medal was a posthumous award to an early aeronautic explorer, who as a U.S. Army Air Corps captain in 1927 set high altitude records in an open basket balloon, but lost his life on his third flight due to a lack of oxygen.

Medal collectors will appreciate the book’s wonderful photos of medals, award ceremonies, recipients and their aircraft and the very useful appendices. Wood & Canvas Heroes will make a worthy addition to the library of any student of aviation or medallic history.

Reviewed by William F. Brown, Jr.

Vol. 54, No. 4 27

The Stars and Stripes and the Distinguished Service Cross, 1918

William K. Emerson

American Expeditionary Forces Bulletin Number 10,

dated February 8, 1918, established that venerable army

newspaper, The Stats and Stripes. The eight page weekly,

published each Friday from February 8, 1918 through

June 13, 1919, was the official newspaper of the AEF,

but even so, it had editorials, was not always "in the

know," and generally functioned as a typical so-so run,

small town newspaper. This despite the fact that it grew

to have a very large circulation and was distributed across

a wide swath of France, and after the armistice, for a short time in the American sector of Germany along the

Rhine. Since the paper was a primary source of

information for American soldiers in France, articles in

it show how long information took to flow to the troops

and also the type of stories the soldier editors thought

would be interesting.

The late A1 Gleim used various National Archive holdings to research many of the initial 100 Distinguished Service Crosses. This article is an attempt to add some additional contemporary data on early DSCs so that those collectors interested in American combat decorations may have more information at their disposal. The facts presented are primarily as shown in World War I editions of The Stars and Stripes, with a significant number of references to the 1927 book American Decorations~ that lists winners of the Medal of Honor, the DSC, and the DSM. Passing references are also made to other sources, such as Colonel Robert E. Wyllie’s most interesting 1921 book, Orders, Decorations and Insignia.2

When newspaper headlines or story leads are quoted

herein, they appear as in the original story, with some in

all capital letters and others in both upper and lower case.

Likewise when a medal recipient’s name is misspelled

in The Stars and Stripes, it appears with the original

spelling in this article. In the section "Early

Distinguished Service Cross recipients" several names

appear, and after some names there are square brackets.

The number of each early DSCs listed by A1 Gleim is

shown in this article by numbers in these square brackets,

the first time a name is listed, regardless of spelling. If

photos show a soldier is a known recipient but the number

is unknown, a "P" is used. For those Gleim used other

data to presume as initial recipients, a "G" is used.

The third issue of The Stars and Stripes, dated February 22, has a front page story with headlines, "New valor cross and medal for A.E.F." with the sub-headline "President Approves Awards to be made for Bravery and Meritorious Conduct of Men and Women in War Service." The piece states that a recent Executive Order established the Distinguished Service Cross, although no reference is made to War Department General Order Number 6, dated January 12, 1918, which announced the award to the army. This is six months before the commonly accepted DSC start date when the medal was confirmed by Congress in July? The February 22nd article describes the new Distinguished Service Cross, along with information on the Distinguished Service Medal, bronze oak leaves (usually spelled "leafs"), silver citation stars, and the gold service and wound chevrons. In the article the DSC is described as "a bronze cross of appropriate design" while later the story points out that a person could receive only one DSC, and in lieu of a second award the War Department would authorize "to wear upon the ribband of the decoration, and upon the corresponding ribbon, a bronze oak leaf .... "

Collectors are familiar with the large oak-leaf cluster introduced during World War I and the miniature cluster that eventually became the standard to indicate additional awards. Some collectors are familiar with this change from a single oak leaf to an oak leaf cluster. Even so, the consistent use of the term "oak leaF’ in the article raises the question, "Where’s the word ’cluster’ ?" and raises another question, "Why the change?" Colonel Wyllie, who after the Great War became chief of the US Army’s Heraldry Division, answers this in one brief sentence: "It will be noticed that the expression ’oakleaf’ (sic) is used...instead of ’oak leaf cluster,’.., because the original design was an oak leaf, but it was subject to such criticism from an artistic standpoint that the present design, which is a true cluster of oakleaves and acorns was adopted.’’4 The February 1918, The Stars and Stripes article shows the oak leaf was not only considered, but was being treated as an accomplished fact as early as February 1918. This is earlier than the mid- 1918 period cited in the well-respected The Gleim Medal Letters.5

The February 22rid issue of The Stars and Stripes was

not the newspaper’s first mention of the DSC, however.

Issue number 2, the previous week, had a single column

article on the first page with the headlines, "NEW

VALOR MEDALS MAY BE CONFERRED" and the

sub headline, "President Has Power to Grant Them-

Border Vets Get Badge." The heart of the article is that

the Judge Advocate General had stated in a recent opinion

that the President had the power to provide decorations

28 JOMSA