Bulgarian Ribbon Bar

[STEBALIN]

Hi Greg,

As you can tell in the picture of the ribbon bars, colors in enameled/painted ribbon bars do not always exactly match its original (and thus blue may look gray and vice-versa). I really think it´s the order of the red star. One of those and a Victory over Germany medal following it makes it more likely than a mongolian low level award (comparing it to other awards and other countries´) after a soviet one.

Yes, we may not know regulations of each and every WP country, but if we take a look closely to high ranking armed forces personnel photos when wearing their ribbon bars, soviet ones are, most of the times, placed before the other foreign awards´ ribbons.

You´re right about the partisan star ribbon, but I´d rather think of the St. Alexander/Merit Order since he already got two War Merit Awards.

Here are the links where we can see both ribbons.

http://www.medals.lava.pl/yu/yu2.htm
http://www.medals.lava.pl/bg/bg12.htm

[Greg Collins]

Actually, those were the links I was using to make the first "educated guess". And again, as this type of bar will have a certain element of error built into it because it is, after all, an artist's rendering of the ribbons rather than the actual ribbons themselves, and given that so many countries have ribbons that look nearly if not exactly like those of other countries, the only way to positively identify the awards on many ribbon bars of this type is to either see the documents or see a photo of the same individual with his/her medals on. Otherwise, it's just an educated guess, open for debate. Thanks for the friendly argument, though- it opened doors I had not considered.

[Valter Gorenc]

about yugoslav awards...

About Teodors bar: No.9 could be yugoslav partisan star 1st class, but you have keep in mind this award was reserved only for higher partisan commanders (brigade and above level); partisan stars were not awarded for political and non-partisan achievements; however, it was possible to be awarded to some Bulgarian officer too, as Bulgarian army participated in final stages of liberation of Yugoslavia; I'm not familiar enough with Bulgarian awards so I can't tell if the other awards on the bar suggest a higher rank officer in WW2 - a major or above.

No 6 and 7 are not yugoslav national liberation orders, the ribbons are wrong, and that was a high ranking and rare award in Yugoslavia. It would be highly unlikely to be awarded twice to a foreigner. Also, national liberation was a decoration for non-combatant liberation merit (high-ranking politicians, heads in rear areas of liberated territory and the like), so it could not go together with partisan star, which was combat award.

Gregs bar: no.6 could be yugo medal for merit to the people (not state), but the colors are wrong (should be red and blue, not black). It's possible, however, that Bulgarian maker messed that up.

[Greg Collins]

Valter,

The colours on the sixth ribbon are dark blue (not black) and red. Easier to see when you look at the thing itself rather than a scan. The title I used comes directly off the "Orders and Decorations of..." website. As I do not (yet) collect Yugoslavian awards and hence have no real knowledge of them, I used terminology readily available. Thanks for the info!