OAN order for Lt. Col. BALASHOV, the THREE times OAN cavalier.

[Egorka]

A bit special OAN # 27795, bestowed to Lt. Col. BALASHOV, the commander of 144 mortar regiment of the Supreme Command reserve, for the action in MArch 1945 near Ostrava (Moravia).
The special about this OAN is that the cavalier was bestowed in total with THREE orders of Aleksander Nevsky. There were only 5 men like him ever.
Citation:

"He provided fire support to 315 Guards rifle regiment, 128 Guards rifle division in the operation for enemy defence breakthrough north-west of Ostrava (Moravia) and commanded the infantry artillery support group.
He arranged for efficient operation of the artillery support group and the coordination with the supported rifle units. As the result of this effort, the fire delivered by the support group on 14 April 1945 completely disabled the enemy firing positions on the first line and in to the close depth of the enemy defence: destroyed 10 machine-guns, 2 mortar batteries, 2 guns on open sight positions, suppressed 105mm artillery battery, annihilated 50m of trenches. Our rifle units took control of the settlement Gorzyce practically without any losses, and later on crossed the river Olza.
He acted bravely and courageously during the engagement.
He was severely wounded while being present at his commander post in immediate vicinity of our rifle combat formations.
He deserves a state award - order “RED BANNER”.

"

The initial recommendation for ORB was changed to OAN. He was bestowed by the decree on 04 June 1945 by 4 Ukrainian front.

[Marcel Banziger]

Congrats Igor, this is a very nice Nevsky in great condition...and really rare. Well done!

Can you explain why the Record Card only mentions one Nevsky and not all three? Can it be a clerical error perhaps? I know clerical errors did happen but to forget not one but two Nevskys puzzles me.

[Egorka]

Hey Marcel!
It is indeed a clerical/procedural error of certain kind.
If you have seen the info on Matt's SovietOrders.com , then you might have noticed there were 2 register cards.

The first one with several veteran's award. This one mentions only one (this) OAN.Signed by the veteran on 26.08.1946 at his military commissariat office in Chernovtsy region, Ukraine.

The second register card covers only his first OAN from 1943 (for the action near Ponyri, north face of the Kursk bulge battle). This register card indicates that there was an attempt to locate the veteran in town Tashkent (quite far away from Chernovtsy). The military commissariat left note on the register card:"The bestowed has no relatives and his current address cannot be determined". And there is a stamp on it: "To be returned". There is not date on this register card, so not clear if this problem with handing out occurred during or after the war.

So, I see it this way: The veteran, unfortunately, got only to wear one OAN on his chest... The fist OAN from 1943 was not possible to hand out to him (wrong address?). The thirst OAN from June 1945 was also not handed to him before 27.08.1946. So likely, the third OAN has never been handed out to him. I also suspect BALASHOV died shortly after 27.08.1946. So, nothing could be handed to him anyway even if the problem would be discovered.

Another reason contributing to such errors could appear when personnel, like BALASHOV, were moved from unit to unit or served in the "separate" units being only temporary attached to armies/fronts. It is not unheard of awards reaching veterans 30-40-50 years after the war.

But BALASHOV, no doubt, is one of the 5 men who got honour of being bestowed with 3 OANs.

BTW, I have an ORS for a veteran who was bestowed with OAN order, but was killed shortly after the decree was issued. So, he never got OAN order in his hand. Nonetheless, he an AON cavalier too.
Red Star 42359 - OAN cavalier

[Marcel Banziger]

Thanks a lot for clearing this up. I did see two Record Cards on Matt's site but not the third one. There are three awards sheets shown though so it was clear he was entitled to wear three Nevskys. I never questioned that. I just wondered why not all three were shown on the Record Card. Your explanations make a lot of sense since these things can be read in the many memoires out there. These books give perfect examples of how chaotic things sometimes went and that awards never reached the awardees due to many different circmstances.