Messages

76

Russian Imperial Medals, Orders, Uniforms & Militaria / Re: Need Help to Identify Imperial Uniform Pictures

« on: April 26, 2013, 01:37:46 AM »

Quite an impressive journey your father had during his service! You've mentioned the B-29 your dad had flown - believe it or not, as a kid I got a four-hour ride in this big bird. More exactly, it was its Soviet clone, Tupolev-4, several squadrons of which were stationed in Vozdvizhenka. Dad was regularly flying it on radar calibration missions and once smuggled me in as a reward for my good school marks. The flight was all over Russian land and without bomb load, but I was provided with an oxygen mask, and one of the pilots gave me a big pistol (unloaded of course) "to keep the wolves away in case of emergency landing". I was so proud! Actually I still am  :-)

77

Russian Imperial Medals, Orders, Uniforms & Militaria / Re: Need Help to Identify Imperial Uniform Pictures

« on: April 25, 2013, 10:05:51 AM »

Mike, it's a pleasure to read about your's and your family's military roots and service. I've seen US officers in mess uniforms in movies - really fancy show, but bleak compared to the British Life Guards in their red tailcoats!
This is how a Grodnensky hussar looked: http://dic.academic.ru/pictures/wiki/files/85/Un-hus-gvgr.jpg
My dad spent his young years in Leningrad, was drafted in 1939 and took part as a private and later sergeant in the Winter War against Finland (to my sincere regret I must say...) and later in the WW2 against the Nazi Germany (of which I'm greatly proud). In 1942 he was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant. After the war he studied at the military academy for communications and electronics in Leningrad, where I was born. Upon graduation, he was sent to the Vozdvizhenka airbase near Vladivostok - there I'd spent my childhood years, until he retired from the active service and we came back to Leningrad.

78

Russian Imperial Medals, Orders, Uniforms & Militaria / Re: Need Help to Identify Imperial Uniform Pictures

« on: April 24, 2013, 01:58:45 PM »

Actually my father was responsble for the radar support of Soviet nuclear-armed strategic bombers patrolling the coast of Alaska and the Northern Pacific

79

Russian Imperial Medals, Orders, Uniforms & Militaria / Re: Need Help to Identify Imperial Uniform Pictures

« on: April 24, 2013, 12:53:42 PM »

Sure many people are following our talk here, it's normal and good of this forum. I've all my father's medals and badges which he himself brought to Israel in 1991, but none of his uniform articles or other paraphernalia. Even back in Leningrad, he used to keep very few of them after his retirement from the service: a cap, a pair of heavy fur-lined boots, a leather navigator's bag - that's all.

80

Russian Imperial Medals, Orders, Uniforms & Militaria / Re: Need Help to Identify Imperial Uniform Pictures

« on: April 24, 2013, 10:22:41 AM »

We were photographed on some state holiday, because Dad wears his awards - normally he would wear only ribbons. His tunic is dark khaki-green, the lapel tabs are light blue, the shoulder boards and buttons are silver, the stars on shoulder boards (corresponding to his tnen Major's rank) are gold, the pipings are light blue. His lapel emblems are those of the Air Force Engineering Corps: wings with a propeller and enamel red star in the center. The shirt and the necktie are dark green. His awards are: on the right - two Red Star orders and a military academy graduation badge. On the left are medals: For Battle Merits, For Defence of Leningrad, For Victory over Germany, 30 years of the Soviet Army, 40 years of the Soviet Army. Later he received more medals. He died in 1992.

81

Russian Imperial Medals, Orders, Uniforms & Militaria / Re: Need Help to Identify Imperial Uniform Pictures

« on: April 23, 2013, 03:13:49 PM »

Please try this:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4s8oP0AqJILYjhiYTI2NzAtNjY2YS00MzU1LThkZjEtODc1MTNiYTViZmQ2/edit?usp=sharing
Your pics are great, especially those from the gunnery school and along the PT-17. Do you know we have one - still flying! - at the Israeili AF museum?

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Russian Imperial Medals, Orders, Uniforms & Militaria / Re: Need Help to Identify Imperial Uniform Pictures

« on: April 23, 2013, 01:46:46 PM »

My grandfather (mother's dad) retired as an Engineering Corps colonel; my dad achieved the rank of Air Force lieutenant-colonel. He was a radar engineer in the Soviet Far East, at the same airbase where President Ford and Brezhnev had met. I've never done an actual service but was commissioned as Railway Corps second lieutenant (res.) upon graduation from a Technology Institute. With time, I was gradually promoted to captain - until emigrated to Israel 25 years ago. Here, the army service being mandatory for all capable men and young unmarried women, I've done a short service as a private in a Home Front unit and then relieved for good. My two daughters have served in the army, and their husbands are reserve officers.
Here're dad and me aged 11:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_OGVZRyHpbd0qFZzJPwb3ccK8lxFr2V8oTKDRELlBL7GDn-3DcwHEbp7jDD93rxMWAK7m--8soSoLxrN9R5CnoIdzgWtdrzDPruVMgLCD8jj

83

Russian Imperial Medals, Orders, Uniforms & Militaria / Re: Imperial Russian Police and their Uniforms

« on: April 23, 2013, 03:14:55 AM »

Police constables [gorodovyye] wore black tunics in winter and off-white or light-mustard tunics in summer. The trousers in both cases were black. They always wore swords - infantry shashkas.

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Russian Imperial Medals, Orders, Uniforms & Militaria / Re: Need Help to Identify Imperial Uniform Pictures

« on: April 22, 2013, 12:08:17 PM »

UPD: Christian Delzer was a private in the Life-Guards Grodnensky Hussar Regiment, stationed in Warsaw.

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Russian Imperial Medals, Orders, Uniforms & Militaria / Re: Need Help to Identify Imperial Uniform Pictures

« on: April 22, 2013, 10:23:37 AM »

Quite an impressive military family of yours! My grandfather and father were both officers in the Soviet Army. I myself was a Soviet reserve officer and later an Israeli reserve soldier.
Here're two images relevant to Jacob:
First Sergeant's shoulder board (colors might vary): http://russiamilitaria.ru/uploads/post-238-1289390413_thumb.jpg
Cap award strip for Sevastopol: http://cossac-awards.narod.ru/Lenta/Sevastopol1.jpg
Still no comments on the Hussar.

86

Research Russian Roots / Re: George Barber

« on: April 20, 2013, 12:41:39 PM »

Post it elsewhere and give a link here.

87

Russian Imperial Medals, Orders, Uniforms & Militaria / Re: Need Help to Identify Imperial Uniform Pictures

« on: April 20, 2013, 07:01:23 AM »

The printed text in Russian is the photographer Reichmann's atelier address etc. in Kishinev, which fits the regiment's location.
To better understand the First Sergeant's place in the command hyerarchy, this is the list of infantry non-commissioned ranks:
Private -> Corporal -> Second Sergeant -> First Sergeant -> Sergeant Major -> Sub-Ensign.
In infantry units, there were usually 4 First Sergeants per company of 235 men, 75 per regiment of 4245 men. For a soldier drafted from a non-priviledged class of population, it was a hardly attainable and highly esteemed rank. In the wartime, many First Sergeants and Sergeant Majors were promoted to the first CO rank, the Ensign.
There's no need to further enlarge the pictures. 

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Russian Imperial Medals, Orders, Uniforms & Militaria / Re: Need Help to Identify Imperial Uniform Pictures

« on: April 20, 2013, 02:05:12 AM »

Jacob is pictured as a First Sergeant [starshiy unter-ofitser] of 54th His Majesty Tzar of Bulgaria's Infantry Regiment, stationed in Kishinev and commanded, at that time, by Colonel Alexander-Carl Baron von Heiking. The award device on his cap says "For Sevastopol 1854, 1855" [За Севастополь 1854, 1855]. The chain and the token belong to Jacob's pocket watch.

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Russian Imperial Medals, Orders, Uniforms & Militaria / Re: Imperial Russian Air Force Info Needed Badly

« on: April 19, 2013, 12:20:28 PM »

Nice photos but too small to say something. Scan and post larger images - at least 1200 pix the longer side.

90

Research Russian Roots / Re: George Barber

« on: April 19, 2013, 02:00:18 AM »

Please post a photo of this inscription.