Turkish Iron Half Moon

[Angel Farré]

I'm a Third Reich documents collector and a Wehrpass from a WW I veteran has landed in my collection and make me ask myself a question, this soldier was awarded on the same date the EK I and the Turkish Iron Half Moon and all the books I have consulted put this two medals at the same level, my questions are, all ranks could be bestowed this medal or just officers? always were awarded together or you could receive one early? you must receive first the german or could receive first the turkish?

Thanks for helping a poor nazi collector

Angel

[McCulloh]

Angel'
The Harp medal was awarded to all ranks for war merit. A lot of men who got the Ek in Palestine were also awarded the star, but one could receive either award independently.
Cheers,
JeMc

[Angel Farré]

Angel'
The Harp medal was awarded to all ranks for war merit. A lot of men who got the Ek in Palestine were also awarded the star, but one could receive either award independently.
Cheers,
JeMc

Thanks Jeff, my knowledge about imperial awards is below zero and I need some help. Now all clear, do you have any example of the medal or the document to show me/us?

Angel

[McCulloh]

Angel:
If you look over in the archives for Iron Halfmoon or Eiserner Halbmond you'll find the most complete selection of European made examples (and a couple of Turkish) in the world.
There are also a couple of documents illustrated in this long and famous thread.
There were actually a couple of docs used-the turkish award citation (in Arabic script -but phonetically Turkish) as well as the usual panaply of German docs..
I should note that this was given out so freely that some authors have claimed it was a campaign medal. It was also awarded to civillians in aid of the war effort.
Better still-look at the related threads below-I count 4 examples.

[Angel Farré]

Angel:
If you look over in the archives for Iron Halfmoon or Eiserner Halbmond you'll find the most complete selection of European made examples (and a couple of Turkish) in the world.
There are also a couple of documents illustrated in this long and famous thread.
There were actually a couple of docs used-the turkish award citation (in Arabic script -but phonetically Turkish) as well as the usual panaply of German docs..
I should note that this was given out so freely that some authors have claimed it was a campaign medal. It was also awarded to civillians in aid of the war effort.

Thanks a lot, I see a lot of variants and interesting discussions regarding this medal.

Angel

[Dave Danner]

"Harp medal"? What is that, the Turkish version of Spanglish?

It is officially called the War Medal. In Turkish, that is "harp madalyasi" (literally, "war its-medal"). The English name "Gallipoli Star" and the German name "Eiserne Halbmond", or Iron Crescent, are just nicknames.

And can I get people to at least stop saying "half moon"? When referring to the symbol, and not the astronomy term, Halbmond translates as crescent.

Dave

[Rick Research]

"crescent" doesn't work any better for a STAR than "Halfmoon." that's why I always use "Turkish War Medal star" in talking about it-- since it wasn't a "medal" either.

I'ze witchu, Dave. I've been waging a lonely similar struggle with the Soviet Military Merit Medal maddeningly called "Combat Service Medal" when it was almost entirely NOT. And if I see "service" (Dienst) instead of "Merit" (Verdienst) as false English for German one more time, why ....

But anyway, back to the Turkish War Medal star and AWARD DATE: if it claims to be "30 October 1918" chances are very good it was backdated in a flurry of basically phony "let's all give ourselves medals" at the end of Turkey's part in the World War. That was their Armistice Day, and technically the cut off for awards. Those 30.10.18s are really nothing but campaign medals for Germans (self award by officers as low as Leutnants in independent platoons, of which there were many)-- I've seen them to Germans with as little as 30 days "in theater" by then.

An earlier award date-- and the earlier, the more significant-- was far more likely to have been an actual DECORATION for something. Of course, the Turkish fronts were collapsing in utter chaos from September 1918 on-- there was extreme and often "Rorke's Drift" sorts of fighting that last 2 months of the war (entire platoons simply vanished) so it is not as if no hard, bitter fighting was going on. But a 30 October always raises the likelihood of a sitting in internment camp December 1918 bestowal of a great looking (if non-Turkish made) pinback award that all the Germans coveted.

[Angel Farré]

My soldier was bestowed this medal on March 26th, 1.918 alongside with the EK I with the rank of Unteroffizier and Offizier Antwarter while serving with Inf.Rgt.376

Thanks for all

Angel

[Dave Danner]

The "crescent" in question is that silver thingy on the star. How about the "Order of the Iron Gallipoli Crescent on Red Star"?

As I think about it, though, even Turkish War Medal, the term I usually use, isn't correct - it ought to be the Ottoman War Medal. And a medal doesn't have to be a medallion; the formal name of the Silver Star is the Silver Star Medal; same goes for the Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart Medal (the DFC's not the Distinguished Flying Cross Medal, though).

Anally yours,
Dave

[McCulloh]

Dave:
RE: "Harp medal" nomenclature, I was being a sensitive new age guy.

However, the award could properly be called 'Turkish" as the Republican government continued to award them through 1923, including for service in the Greek 'ethnic cleasing' campaigns and for activity against the imperial powers operating in the Med. at the time.

[Rick Research]

And it wasn't-- ever-- "iron" either! I blame those thilly Germans!!!

[W McSwiggan]

How about the “East of Greece Red Pointy Thingy with Phased Lunar Device & other non-metalic Squiggles”

[Ed_Haynes]

Why not the Harp Madalyasi?

That was, after all, the name of the award, as least as it came to be rendered in Romanized Turkish after the language reforms.



Ed Haynes

[Dave Danner]

My first thought was, "because this is an English language forum," but that's not satisfactory. We switch back and forth between German and English names for German awards, but given the primary focus of the forum, most members are sufficiently familiar with either as makes little difference (except for that Dienst/Verdienst thing ).

I do prefer, for example, the use of Légion d'Honneur and Médaille Militaire to Legion of Honor and Military Medal. I suppose it is simply bowing to the reader's likely unfamiliarity with Turkish and other "exotic" languages. After all communication is about the listener/reader as well as the speaker/writer, and if the message is lost because the reader would understand "Order of St. Hermenegildo," but might not understand Real y Militar Orden de San Hermenegildo, then the writer has failed to communicate. But that doesn't mean education stops; it just means more care. So "Turkish War Medal" is at least a baby step improvement over Gallipoli Star and Eiserne Halbmond.

BTW, I think Harp Madalyasi might not be technically correct anyway. I have to go back and look at the Ottoman statutes to see how they actually phrase it, but my vague recollection is that in Osmanlica (Ottoman Turkish), rather than post-language reform Turkish, the name would have been rendered using Persian ezafe, so it would be something like Madalya-i-Harp.

Osmanlica was characterized by a great many Persian loan words and the use of Persian grammatical constructions. This is analogous to English borrowings from French such as sergeant major, attorney general and court martial, where French grammar is used and the noun precedes the adjective.

One of Atatürk's reforms was to get rid of ezafe and use Turkish grammatical forms. Thus, for example, the Nishan-i-Osmani became the Osmani Nişani and the Nishan-i-Mejidi became the Mecidi Nişani.

I have noticed, however, that the other two commonly encountered Ottoman awards, the Liyakat and Imtiyaz Medals, get half-translated most of the time, so maybe Jeff's "Harp Medal" wasn't so unusual after all. The Liyakat should be the "Medal of Merit" or the Liyakat Madalyasi or the Madalya-i-Liyakat.

But at some point one is just chasing ones tail. Some compromise needs to be made. If I tell you I just got this cool Krzyz Walecznych, Kyokujitsu-sho and Nemzetvédelmi Kereszt, have I really opened up a dialog, or would I have been better off saying <a href="http://home.att.net/~ordersandmedals/PL_Cross_of_Valor_1.jpg" target="new">Cross of Valor</a>, <a href="http://home.att.net/~ordersandmedals2/JP_Rising_Sun_1.jpg" target="new">Order of the Rising Sun</a> and <a href="http://home.att.net/~ordersandmedals2/HU_NDC_1.jpg" target="new">National Defense Cross</a>?

Regards,
Dave

[Ed_Haynes]

Sorry. I shall not enter into a distracting linguistic battle.

Just trying to suggest (a) that all our alternatives are flawed and (b) that the real name might be an alternative to silly foreign nicknames, regardless of the language in which they were rendered. My Turkish medal knowledge -- in which realm I am guilty of having no linguistic knowledge -- is based on published books (partially in English, sometimes) and reliable web sites (Tim Tezer's for example, cited in the other recent thread on this same award -- http://www.turkishmedals.net/ -- and if I am in error, then I consider myself in error in good company.

I, for one, would never refer to a Maha Vir Chakra as anything other than that, but ....

Ed Haynes