Decree #222-46 of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. is probably a top secret document within the borders of Russia, for in this decree the communist leaders refuted their own claim that the Russian people, and they alone, defeated Nazi Germany.
The decree awarded one-hundred-and- twenty orders and seventy medals of the U.S.S.R. to men of the United States Navy and Coast Guard, for “outstanding military activities aiding the delivery to northern ports of the Soviet Union during the war against the common enemy of the U.S.S.R. and the United States—Hitlerite Germany— of transports with military cargo and for valor and courage displayed while performing this duty.”
Recognition by Russia of the role of United States sea power in the Atlantic in World War II is completely at odds with the party stand that the Soviet Union crushed Germany unaided by the United States or any other nation. The glowing terms in which the Presidium described “the feats of valor that defeated the German undersea fleet” would certainly puzzle Ivan if he had access to the document. Should the existence of these medals become known to him the status of the United States as an ally in World War II would be clear. The source of the guns, tanks, vehicles, and materials of war that flowed into western Russian ports would be apparent. The “arsenal of democracy” would be identified, and once discovered would be found to have had a military as well as a supply function. The “non- combatants” would gain combatant status in Russian eyes.
The Orders and Medals presented to American Naval and Coast Guard personnel run the scale of Russian decorations. They include in order of precedence the Order of the Patriotic War, Order of the Red Star, Order of Glory, Medal of Ushakov, Medal of Nakhimov, Medal of Valor, Medal for Distinguished Service, and the Medal for Bravery. The elaborate nature of these decorations, together with the benefits which they carry are astonishing.
The author received the Order of the Patriotic War, First Class. The Order resembles in size the Department of the Army General Staff emblem. It has no suspension ribbon of the type normal to the decorations of our nation. On the back of the order is a heavy stem, to which a large threaded nut attaches. It cost one American officer a hole in his number one uniform coat on the occasion of presentation, to learn that the Russian method calls for attaching the nut from inside the coat. He received first the “punch hole” treatment, then the decoration.
The Order of the Patriotic War leaves little doubt as to its nation of origin. It consists of a gold sunburst background, on which is mounted a large red star. Projecting between sunburst and star are a rifle and sword, crossed upon each other. Superimposed on the star is a white disc on which are pyramided a gold hammer and sickle.
Accompanying the decoration are two booklets, one an identity book, the other a book of chits. A translation reveals the amazing benefits which accrue to recipients of the award.
Twenty rubles per month, for life, is to be paid to the holder of the award. He will be entitled to free passage on the railroads and water transportation of the Soviet Union. All city street cars are his to ride free, including the Moscow subway system. The government will pay part of the person’s rent, and certain tax exemption is granted. The booklet concludes with the statement that the family of the recipient will inherit the award, and its privileges upon his death.
The second booklet is a book of chits, which the frontal page informs the recipient he is to surrender upon receipt of his monthly pay. This pay is far from idle promise. On the 27th of May 1946 a letter was received by the author in Destroyers Atlantic from the Embassy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in Washington, D.C. It contained a check drawn on the Riggs National Bank in the sum of $165.28. The letter stated that this amount represented the payment for the months August, 1945, through May, 1946, as a holder of the Order of the Patriotic War. In considerable haste the check was sent to the Secretary of the Navy, and returned to the Soviets. The Constitution prohibits an officer of the United States from accepting any present emolument, office, or title from a foreign state without the consent of Congress. The Congress had authorized the acceptance of the decorations, and directed their presentation to the members of the Navy and Coast Guard recognized by Russia, but certainly had no intent of authorizing such payment.
The incident is not without its humorous side, however. There is considerable pleasure in contemplating the prospect of the Soviet Government officially subsidizing our Navy and Coast Guard.
In awarding these decorations the Russian government disclosed the type of American assistance for which they were grateful. An analysis of the types of duty and achievement of the officers listed in the Decree gives a clear pattern.
Names of the men who fought the convoys through to Murmansk first strike the eye. Men who in the endless daylight of far northern latitudes beat off the relentless waves of Luftwaffe aircraft which harassed the plodding merchantmen with bombs, machine guns, and torpedoes. Men who fought with gun and depth charge the German submarines that tracked them relentlessly on the long northern march, leaving a trail of life rafts, frozen bodies, broken hulls, and spars. Unfortunately it does not recognize the merchant seamen who experienced this same danger and death. It does however include the names of destroyer personnel who constantly matched their weapons to a superior strength of U-boats and aircraft. It points up the heavy reliance the Russians placed on the materials which these convoys brought— weapons, machines, equipment.
Then there are names that speak of the hunter/killer groups that pitted themselves against the German submarines and turned the tide of battle from defensive to offensive, that made the hunter the hunted. These groups led by such men as Captains (now rear admirals) Dan Gallery, Massey Hughes, Logan Ramsey, and screen commanders with such outstanding records as Captains Frank Giambattista and George Parkinson performed under the command of Admiral Royal Ingersoll, Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet. They brought to bear upon the enemy a new concept of search and attack weapons, combining air and surface power.
Many of the men recognized by awards in the list are the naval aviators who flew from the decks of the CVEs Bogue Card, Block Island, Casablanca, Croatan. In some of the dirtiest operational conditions of the war they proved to the U-boat commanders from Iceland to the Cape Verdes and Gibraltar to the Virginia Capes that no square mile of Atlantic was free from carrier air attack.
Other names reveal the personnel of the destroyers and destroyer escorts that formed the surface attack units of these killer groups and teamed with the carrier pilots to break the morale and shatter the vessels of Admiral Doenitz’s undersea fleet. Since much of the hunter/killer work was in support of the pre-invasion convoys, the awards are an indirect acknowledgment of the necessity of invasion in the west. The order of' the Presidium is a tribute to maintenance of control of the seas by the allies, without which victory would have been impossible.
The orders and medals recognize every facet of war against the enemy submarines. Captain (then lieutenant commander) John Corbus commanding the United States Submarine Herring fought a duel with an enemy submarine under conditions which gave the initial tactical advantage to the enemy. By skillful conning he gained the upper hand and torpedoed the enemy. The German was met in his own medium and defeated. Seaman Francis P. Perret was a member of an armed guard crew aboard the SS Bellingham that drove off a submarine that had placed a torpedo (which did not explode) into the ship. During the nerve-wracking days that followed, the crew shot down one of a flight of Focke-Wolf raiders that attacked them. Commander (then lieutenant) Doug Hodson led his squadron from CVE decks in attacks against enemy submarines that took an impressive toll. Destroyer and destroyer escort skippers Charles Hutchins, Norman Hoffman, Bob Baughn, and Dave Kellogg made dogged attacks that ended in destruction of U-boats.
The significant contribution of the United States Coast Guard to the destruction of enemy submarines is typified by the award made to officers of that service. Commander (then lieutenant commander) Robert Wilcox, U.S. Coast Guard, sought out a submarine that had torpedoed a tanker in convoy. With accuracy he straddled the sub with depth charges causing the undersea craft to lose control and surface, where the destroyer escort under Wilcox’s command and others of the escort group destroyed it. Lieutenant Commander Sidney Hay, U. S. Coast Guard Reserve, commanding a DE, contributed to this feat which sent another U-boat to the bottom. Perhaps the most striking performance for which the Russians recognized the work of the Coast Guard was that of the attack in which Lieutenant Commander Francis Pollard, U. S. Coast Guard, succeeded in sinking a U-boat off Iceland with the ice breaker Northland. Despite limited equipment and a scant number of depth charges, he skillfully executed attacks that sent the submarine into its final plunge.
The list is no respecter of rank. Names such as those of Seaman Grandey, Gunners Mate Houghton, Aviation Machinist’s Mate Haycroft, Coxswain Schwartz, Machinist’s Mate Pagnotta, meet the eye as quickly as names preceded by Lieutenant or Ensign.
We will hope that the day may come when recipients of these awards will wear them with pride as recognition from a respected neighbor in the community of nations, rather than cast them aside in anger. At present, as in the past few years, there remains the inconsistent position of men honored by a nation, standing at sword’s point against that nation from one part of the globe to another. The Korean conflict witnessed communist approved shelling of many of the very men whom the communists decorated.
FROM DECREE #222-46, PRESIDIUM OF THE SUPREME SOVIET OF THE U.S.S.R.
For Outstanding Military Activities Which Facilitated the Sailing of Transports with War Supplies to Ports of the Soviet Union During the War Against the Common Enemy of the USSR and the U.S.A.—Hitlerite Germany—and for the Valor and Gallantry They Displayed, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Awards Decorations to the Following Servicemen of the Navy, Naval Reserve, Coast Guard and Coast Guard Reserve of the United States of America;
The United States Navy:
Order of the Patriotic War, First Class, Commander JOHN CORBUS, Lieutenant Commander HOWARD M. AVERY, Lieutenant SHELDON H. KINNEY.
Order of the Patriotic War, Second Class, Lieutenant ROBERT I. BAUGHAN, Chief Boatswain J. H. HAR- SHAW.
Order of the Red Star, Lieutenant NORMAN DOUGLAS HODSON, Lieutenant (j.g.) ROBERT B. HOPGOOD, Chief Ship’s Clerk JOHN A. MCGINNIS, Seaman First Class PAUL NEIL WEBB.
Order of Glory, Third Class, Lieutenant WILLIAM COLE, Lieutenant DONALD F. MASON, Lieutenant ROBERT C. MILLARD, Lieutenant LEONARD E. HARMON, Lieutenant (j.g.) JOHN SULTON, Aviation Chief Ordnanceman DALLAS HARDING JONES, Aviation Chief Machinist’s Mate CECIL R. HAY- CRAFT, Aviation Machinist’s Mate, First Class, WILLIAM B. C. SMITH, Machinists Mate, Second Class, CHARLES IRVING RANDOLPH SAUM, Seaman First Class N. RATZ, Seaman Second Class FAUSTIN GALLEGOS, Seaman Second Class GARNETT CURRY DEBAUM. Medal of Ushakov, Signalman First Class FLOYD EUGENE RICHARDS, Apprentice Seaman JUNIOR WISHON.
Medal of Nakhimov, Gunner’s Mate, Third Class, GEORGE CLIFFORD COOPER, Seaman First Class EMMETT DOTSON ANDERSON.
Medal for Valor, Boatswain’s Mate Second Class FRANCIS MARION SHIPLEY, Coxswain HARRY MADISON GOSSMAN, Seaman First Class FRANCIS PETER PERRET, Seaman Second Class ALBERT ONEY YINGLING, Seaman Second Class RAYMOND PETER PEER, Seaman Second Class CHARLES CLAYTON HARRIS.
Medal for Distinguished Service, Radioman Second Class BERNARD ALOYSIUS MALLOY, Gunner’s Mate Second Class THOMAS EDWARD BROWN, Seaman First Class EDWARD THOMAS ANDERSON, Seaman First Class FRANCIS LEE DUNCAN, Seaman First Class ALLAN ANTHONY THOMPSON, Seaman First Class HUBERT WILLIAMS.
The United Stales Naval Reserve:
Order of the Patriotic War, First Class, Lieutenant Commander DAVID M. KELLOGG, Lieutenant Commander WILLIAM A. SESSIONS, Lieutenant Commander ROBERT H. WANLESS, Lieutenat Commander NORMAN C. HOFFMAN, Lieutenant CHARLES HARRIS HUTCHINS, Lieutenant (jg) WILLARD W. BROWN, Lieutenant (jg) MORTON E. WOLFSON, Lieutenant (jg) WILLIAM A. CARTER, Lieutenant (jg) ALBERT MAYNARD, Lieutenant (jg) ROBERT B. RICKS, Lieutenant (jg) BRIAN C. WELCH, Ensign ROY M. BILLINGS, Ensign WILBUR P. COLLINS, Ensign KENDALL H. CRAM Ensign RUDOLPH H. KROETZ, Ensign ARTHUR D. MADDALENA, JR., Ensign DANIEL J. ROOKER, Ensign MERRILL R. STONE, JR., Ensign CHARLES S. FINK.
Order of the Patriotic War, Second Class, Lieutenant Commander JOHN H. CHURCH, JR., Lieutenant PHILIP BAUSCHE BROWN, Lieutenant WESLEY NORTON MILLER, Lieutenant ROBERT A. NIS- BET, Lieutenant RICHARD M. STONE, Lieutenant (jg) WALTER R. DALEY, Lieutenant (jg) MICHAEL L. MERLO, Lieutenant (jg) WILSON D. RUTHERFORD, Lieutenant (jg) HARRISON SMITH, Lieutenant (jg) MILTON A. STEIN, Lieutenant (jg) PAUL W. THOMPSON, Lieutenant (jg) JAMES B. WILLIAMS, Lieutenant (jg) BLAKE HUGHES, Ensign NORMAN O. W. ADAMS, JR., Ensign JULES H. BLOCH, Ensign JOSEPH T. GILLEN, Ensign WALTER J. GUDAT, Ensign MARCEL DES- GALIER, JR., Ensign JOHN T.. MCNAUGHTON, Ensign HOWELL S. MURRAY, Ensign GEORGE T. SMITH, Ensign BLAKE C. HOWARD.
Order of the Red Star, Lieutenant Commander HOWARD STOWE ROBERTS, Lieutenant ROBERT EDWARD BUCKBEE, Lieutenant GERALD G. HOGAN, Lieutenant (jg) LETSON S. BALLIETT, Lieutenant (jg) JOHN G. GROTENRATH, JR., Lieutenant (jg) PAUL BRUCE KINNEY, Lieutenant (jg) LOUIS D. MARKS, Lieutenant (jg) DAVID O. PUCKETT, Lieutenant (jg) HERBERT M. SONNE- BORN, JR., Lieutenant (jg) WILMA S. F. FOWLER, Lieutenant (jg) ELBERT S. HEIM, Lieutenant (jg) DAN R. SCHWARTS, Lieutenant (jg) GILBERT S. YOUNG, Ensign HOWARD E. CARRAWAY, Ensign WILLIAM R. KIRBY, Ensign DAVID A.PICKLER, Ensign DENNETH W. TIPPING, Ensign WILLIAM FARRAR, Ensign JOSEPH D. HORN, Gunner’s Mate Third Class WILLIAM A. SCHILBE.
Order of Glory, Third Class, Lieutenant LOWELL L. DAVIS, Lieutenant WILLIAM TEPUNI, Lieutenant JOHN B. WATSON, Lieutenant C. RORNEY, Lieutenant STEWART B. HOLT, Lieutenant GEORGE ALBERT ENLOE, Lieutenant (jg) ALEX X. BROKAS, Lieutenant (jg) JAMES JOSEPH DEL- HOM, Lieutenant (jg) THOMAS KINASZCZUK, Lieutenant (jg) WALLACE S. PORTER, Lieutenant (jg) KENNETH LEON WRIGHT, Lieutenant (jg) BERNARD C. SISSLER, Lieutenant (jg) JACK HOWARD STEWARD, Lieutenant (jg) THEODORE STANLEY THUESON, Lieutenant (jg) ROBERT W. HAYMAN, Lieutenant (jg) MILTON JOHN SHERBRING, Ensign PHILIP RANDOLPH ANDERSON, Ensign BRADFORD M. DYER, Ensign ROY WALTER JOHNSON, Ensign WILLIAM M. MCLANE, Ensign BERT J. HUDSON, Ensign HAROLD L. HANDSHUH, Chief Machinist’s Mate WILLIAM J. GRENDL, Machinist’s Mate Second Class MARIO JAMES PAGNOTTA, Gunner’s Mate Second Class NORMAN ERWIN HYMAS, Boatswain’s Mate Second Class JOSEPH JOHN CHATTERTON, JR., Coxswain JOHN H. CURRANT, Coxswain ARTHUR LATNEY FARMER, Coxswain NORBERT LEWIS SCHWARTZ, Coxswain CHARLES EDGAR WALTERS, Seaman First Class DONALD LEE VANDIVER, Seaman First Class CLARENCE HENRY MARI- HUGH, Seaman Second Class LOUIS DEGENNARO.
Medal of Ushakov, Boatswain’s Second Class WILLIAM ROBERT ABBOTT, Gunner’s Mate Third Class MASON MINOR HOUGHTON, Coxswain PAUL L. HUNTSINGER.
Medal of Nakhimov, Radioman Second Class JOSEPH DONALD LEAHY, Radioman Second Class ROBERT GLENN HENDERSON, Gunner’s Mate Third Class GEORGE CECIL GODDARD, Gunner’s Mate Third Class CECIL BILLY GRAFF, Gunner’s Mate Third Class FRANK C. GAY, Gunner’s Mate Third Class ALBERT DELLOYD FRIDAY, Gunner’s Mate Third Class JOHN HENRY HARMON, Boatswain’s Mate Second Class ARTHUR LESLIE ADLER, Signalman Second Class JAMES NATHAN GUYTON, JR., Seaman First Class VAUL OSCAR LESSARD, Seaman First Class REX ELDON ROBERTSON, Seaman Second Class WILLIAM M. THOMAS HARKINS.
The Medal for Bravery, Gunner’s Mate Second Class RONALD H. BLAKE, JR., Gunner’s Mate Third Class LUTHER WILLIAM PERDUE, Radioman Third Class JOHN WALLACE MCDOLE, Boatswain’s Mate Second Class JOSEPH OSAVAGE, Coxswain JOHN JACOB OURS, Coxswain THOMAS NIGHTINGALE, Coxswain JAMES WILLIAM PERNELL, Coxswain HARRY PARKS WILSON, Signalman PERCY LEON SPAN, Seaman First Class HARRY JONES, JR., Seaman First Class MILTON PARKER, Seaman First Class WILLIE H. PHILLIPS, Seaman First Class LEONARD DURWOOD HORTON, Seaman Second Class EARNEST E. GRANDEY, JR., Seaman Second Class OSWALD IRWIN CASSIDY, Seaman Second Class LEWIS WILLIAM KROEGER, Seaman Second Class ANDREW OLIVER MATHSON, Seaman Second Class LELAND HALL.
Medal for Distinguished Service, Chief Boatswain’s Mate EATON PLEASANTS DECOTTES, Gunner’s Mate Second Class THOMAS JACKSON DIXON, Gunner’s Mate Second Class EDWIN B. NEWMAN, Gunner’s Mate Second Class CLIFFORD HARMON STARNES, Gunner’s Mate Third Class ELI PHILIP BOURG, Gunner’s Mate Third Class EDWARD C. HOBAN, Gunner’s Mate Third Class GUSTAV W. SCHILL, JR., Boatswain’s Mate Second Class ALEXANDER LAGUE, Boatswain’s Mate Second Class HARVE CARROLL SMALLEY, JR., Coxswain WILLIAM STEWARD SHARP, Seaman First Class DONALD SHERMAN BIGGS, Seaman First Class ELDEN SAMUEL KIRBY, Seaman First Class JOHN W. CANNON, Seaman First Class MILTON CLAYTON CASSEY, Seaman First Class MAURICE EL- VIN LARSON, Seaman First Class OMAN AMBROSE NELSON, Seaman First Class SENVA TRAHAN, Seaman First Class MERLIN G. HOUNDESHELL.
The Coast Guard Service:
Order of the Patriotic War, First Class, Lieutenant Commander FRANCIS C. POLLARD, Lieutenant Commander ROBERT WILCOX.
The Coast Guard Reserve:
Order of the Patriotic War, Second Class, Lieutenant Commander SIDNEY M. HAY.