Did Russians really wear all those medals in combat?
Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 1:17 pm
With the boon of my new fibre broadband connection, ( 
)I've been vegetating to Amazon Prime streams of Russian made WW2 movies- along box sets of Russian WW2 TV series. Luckily, Vlad doesn't ride bare-chested through any of them, on horse nor even in the turret T-34. 
In the main though, I've found them highly entertaining- and quite addictive, as many of them sport T34s and IS2-s, as well as early Soviet-era military equipment, and beautiful landscapes ( here and there)
One thing I noted, though (apart from the prevalence of the ' Nasty German Spy' theme) is that all combat troops are required to wear their medals, and decorations, in combat situations. I wonder whether this really was the case?
We're all familiar, I guess with the haughty and strutting Prussian militarists proudly wearing the Knight's Cross (Ritterkreuz) in combat, but were German troops actually required to sport medals in combat?
I would have though that wearing medals would make one sniper-bait, just as wearing badges of rank on sleeves made British officers sniper bait in WW1 (that's the reason they switched to shoulder-board rank badges
later).
from the point of view of having Tank Riders and Tank Commanders with our models, I guess it's important to get the details right.
Would going into combat with this lot be a help or a hindrance? Maybe it would make for a partial defence against intrusive unwanted bullets?
Of course, all of these would have had to be won before the end of the War...
)I've been vegetating to Amazon Prime streams of Russian made WW2 movies- along box sets of Russian WW2 TV series. Luckily, Vlad doesn't ride bare-chested through any of them, on horse nor even in the turret T-34. In the main though, I've found them highly entertaining- and quite addictive, as many of them sport T34s and IS2-s, as well as early Soviet-era military equipment, and beautiful landscapes ( here and there) One thing I noted, though (apart from the prevalence of the ' Nasty German Spy' theme) is that all combat troops are required to wear their medals, and decorations, in combat situations. I wonder whether this really was the case?
We're all familiar, I guess with the haughty and strutting Prussian militarists proudly wearing the Knight's Cross (Ritterkreuz) in combat, but were German troops actually required to sport medals in combat?
I would have though that wearing medals would make one sniper-bait, just as wearing badges of rank on sleeves made British officers sniper bait in WW1 (that's the reason they switched to shoulder-board rank badges
later).
from the point of view of having Tank Riders and Tank Commanders with our models, I guess it's important to get the details right.
Would going into combat with this lot be a help or a hindrance? Maybe it would make for a partial defence against intrusive unwanted bullets?
- Russian bullet magnet, or bulletproof vest?
