WW2 Japanese, Rumanian, and Finnish awards to German officer

[Rick Research]

Here is a sew on ribbon bar, on Feldgrau and with Feldgrau threads where it was removed from presumably that color tunic.

The four German awards are nothing exciting (note the absence of a 1941/42 Ostmedaille, though), but then we have--

Japanese Order of the Sacred Treasure (could be pre-WW2),

TWO Rumanian Orders on their generic "war ribbon," I have no except the bullion barrette on the first one normally used under a French style "Officer" grade rosette,

the Order of the Lion of Finland (created 1942) with gold swords, and the Finnish Order of the Cross of Liberty 2nd Class military ribbon with oakleaf for second award of the same class--

SIX Axis awards: 1 Japanese, 2 Rumanian, and 3 Finnish!

I have never encountered the Lion of Finland with swords in a German group before.

[Daniel Krause]

Hi Rick,

outstanding bar! Do You know more about the owner?

Best regards

Daniel

[Rick Research]

I have NO idea at all! This is entirely the "wrong" war for me, but could not resist the Finnish awards on the end.

[Ville Ruokonen]

Odd... The Oak Leaf for the Cross of Liberty was largely an ad hoc award, inspired by the Germans (who else?) and used to reward conspicuous gallantry where a higher CoL was not appropriate. It was introduced fairly late in the war, and as I recall it was necessarily not a 'repeat-award' device. A CoL might be awarded with the oakleaf present (IIRC disclaimer).

In any case, I find it odd that the officer has the Order of the Lion of Finland, mostly used for non-combat action awards, preceding the CoL 2nd Class. The Order of the Cross of Liberty outranks the order of the Lion of Finland, and should always be the first award in a bar.

Well, this all is from memory. I'll try to do a bit of research. I'll get back to y'all.

[Daniel Krause]

Hi Rick,

it is indeed very nice!

I have this bar with the Finnish White Rose, Italian Crown and Hungarian merit order in my collection.

ALL foreigh orders are grand commanders, but unfortunately the 2 attachments are missing. This came from a group together with the medal bar and the original crosses and stars!

The owner must have been officer in WW1 and some Beamter or Diplomat in the 3rd reich.

Best regards

Daniel

[Rick Research]

On the medal bar, what is the dark blue long service ribbon for? Is it a Prussian long service award? I'd have expected the Third Reich 25 Years Loyal Service Cross, but there is no mini cross device.

Here's the "Kleindekoration" ribbon bar mini for the Hungarian Merit Order-Commander, at 500 percent size:

[Daniel Krause]

whow! Nice attachment!

On the big bar was the 25 years long service cross. I don´t know, why this guy didn´t use the miniature on the ribbon bar.

Is it possible that Your bar had the rosette over the swords and the silver bar? The french style rosettes and bars to denote a higher award were also used in Germany, but rarely to see.

Best regards

Daniel

P.S. have You seen my "Some more colonial stuff"- thread?

[Rick Research]

The "Super Axis" bar is only the half-height style, so I suppose there was just no room for a rosette. Or it had one on the bullion barette but that was swapped for the swords.

I agree--your group here must have belonged to a diplomat. Somewhere there is a photo of a guy standing next to von Ribbentrop wearing these awards...

I'm hoping somewhere there is a photo of my ribbon bar officer too, staff of XX. Armee or something like that.

[Daniel Krause]

Hi Rick,

Why not the rosette sewn over the swords and barette? I´ve seen this bevore and think, the rosette was lost.
what rank Your guy might have been? I think minimal a full- colonel.

Look at this: I borrowed the pic from a German dealer

Best regards

Daniel

[Rick Research]

That could be why the two Rumanian swords are corroded! I think this man ended up as a major, because the length of long service means he went into the army 1922-27. One Rumanian Order has silver swords, so a "Knight," while the other was "Officer" grade. The Cross of Liberty in 2nd Class would normally have been given to Majors and Lieutenant Colonels, but I have a 1918 issue 2nd Class that was given to a German Rittmeister--they may have gotten a "courtesy bump" up a grade. I think the Finnish Lion's gold Swords also indicate the Officer grade, not sure how that Order was bestowed (Ville?...), but a Hauptmann/Major seems likeliest.

I'm assuming someone like a divisional General Staff officer got this. (Do you think he got an EK1? )

[Daniel Krause]

Hi Rick,

the silver buillon barette would indicate a commanders degree, not an officer! Thats why I think, minimal colonel. In WW2 the promotions were much faster if an officer was "good enough" So from 1941 to 1945 I see no problem to get promoted from Oberleutnant to Oberst.

If he could have an EK1? Of course possible, even a Deutsches Kreuz or Ritterkreuz. On this leven also the general staffers could get higher awards. Only on the highest Oberkommando level it was nearly impossible to get something higher awards.

Best regards

Daniel

[Dave Danner]

So now I just need to know about the ribbon bars here:



The first I would guess was someone who went from military to government service. There were presumably other rows with lower awards and service medals.

The second bar has three CoLs: 3rd Class w/swords, 4th w/OL, and 4th w/swords.

The third is a nice War of Liberation bar.

Dave

[Ville Ruokonen]

Okay, looks like I was partly wrong about the order of precedence. Dave's first bar is a good example of a Commander of the Lion of Finland, which outranks the (peacetime) CoL 3rd class. The recipient is, most likely, a wartime junior officer who stayed on after the war, and was awarded the LoF during his staff officer years. Incidentally, that's the only major Finnish award our Chief of Defense (Adm. J. Kaskeala) has.

The LoF does not have any rank requirements, and no longer comes with swords (only during wartime). It's the jack-of-all-trades award, both for civilian and military merit during peacetime.
The Cross of Liberty is given out far more sparingly.

Ah damn, gotta get to work.

[Ville Ruokonen]

I've compiled the following text from Juha Tetri's Kunniamerkkikirja. It should provide the basics for Finnish orders, as well as the correct ranking order of Finnish military and civilian awards.

Here's the link.

Kunniamerkkikirja at Amazon.

No images available, because I'm close enough to breaching copyright as it is.

By the way, does any book in English cover Finnish orders and decorations at all decently? Is there a market opening? Should I write one?

[Rick Research]

Thanks Ville! You have made Finnish information available to a wider audience. I can manage Swedish, but everything I have EVER seen on Finnish awards except 1980s monographs by Tom Bergroth have been in FINNISH.

That is too tricky a language for almost all of us!

An ENGLISH language book/article on Finnish awards... hmmmmm!

Sounds like a good idea to me!!!! Rick