COLLECTING 101

Jeffrey B. Floyd

Orders, Decorations and Medals

Most of us start off collecting “medals” because that’s and they can be quite inexpensive or run to stratospheric the easiest way to describe what we do. The fact that levels of pricing. all “medals” are not actually medals usually eludes us initially. But, there are clear distinctions we need to be The insignia of many orders are now often used as aware of as we proceed through our collecting lives. decorations, i.e., awards for specific actions meriting What we are actually collecting are orders, decorations recognition. Decorations may rank above or below the and medals, and each of these categories has unique insignia of orders. In Britain, for example, the Victoria characteristics that are not always clear at first glance. Cross is the paramount decoration, ranking above the various orders. The British Distinguished Service Order When we say that we collect “orders,” we actually mean serves a dual purpose. It is awarded for merit when that we collect the insignia of orders. Orders of chivalry awarded to senior officers and for gallantry when awarded were originally groups of knights aligned with a ruler, The to junior officers. Most countries will have a range of members were distinguished by various types of insignia decorations, providing the opportunity to recognize all or markings. These could be as simple as a colored ribbon levels of gallantry or merit. Just consider the range of or as elaborate and intricate as a collar of precious metal. actions recognized in the United States by the Medal Over time these insignia evolved to the medallic forms of Honor at one end of the spectrum to the service we see today. A knight of an order may wear a simple Achievement Medals at the other end. Some decorations breast badge in silver; a more senior member, an officer, are specific to a single service, while others can be might wear a similar badge in gold, or with a rosette awarded to members of all the services. In collecting or other device on the ribbon. When promoted within terms, decorations can provide tremendous opportunities the order, a commander might wear a badge similar in for research about an individual recipient and can be style to the lower degrees, but larger and worn on a neck collected in a wide range of values. ribbon. A grand commander or grand officer might wear a neck badge and a breast star, while the grand cross Strictly defined, medals are those awards given to all member will wear a breast star and sash, with a badge for service in a particular time and place. No merit and of the order pendant from the sash. Usually, these ranks gallantry is required, just being located in a specified within the order are numbered from the top down, with area for the requisite amount of time. Many American the grand cross being the first class, down to the fifth campaign medals require only one day’s service within class of the knight . These grades are not universal, as a war zone, while others have more extensive award countries developed their own unique systems of awards. criteria. Medals are generally at the lower end of price For example, Spanish orders are graded from the bottom ranges in the collecting world, although there are up, with the first class being the lowest class. And, there some obscure and very rare medals that pose financial are one-class orders, where all members wear the same challenges for most collectors. insignia. Whether you consider yourself a “medal collector,” a Individuals may be admitted to orders for service, phalerist, or some other term that fits your collecting gallantry or merit at a level commensurate with their habits, knowing the differences between orders, grade or rank. Lord Palmerston, referring to Britain’s decorations and medals can come in handy. senior order, reportedly said: “What I like about the Garter is that there’s none of this damned merit about it.” So, you often see medal groups to senior officers with grand crosses or grand officer insignia. Because the statutes of many orders require that a member advance through the SUPPORT grades, an individual who is admitted to an order at the OUR grand cross level will often receive award documents for each of the lower grades of the order at the same time. For ADVERTISERS collectors, order insignia can form a beautiful collection

14 JOMSA “EMDEN BEACHED AND DONE FOR.” A COMMEMORATIVE ITEM CONNECTED WITH THE ’S FIRST VICTORY

GRAHAM WILSON

The Royal Australian Navy was established as the had been active in Asian and Pacific waters since the very Commonwealth Naval Forces on March 1, 1901, two first days of the war. months after the federation of the several independent British colonies on the Australian continent to form the German interest in China had waxed and waned over the Commonwealth of Australia. The new navy utilised the years, however, it was significantly heightened by the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies that first Sino-Japanese War in 1894 and a Far East had previously existed.1 On July 10, 1911, His Majesty Division was raised and despatched to China waters in King George V gave Royal Assent to the title “Royal that year to “protect German interests.” Originally without Australian Navy” (RAN) for Australia’s navy. Two years a home port and reliant on British and Japanese facilities after this, on October 4, 1913, the new RAN “Fleet Unit,” for maintenance, the German naval force secured a home consisting of an Indefatigable class battle cruiser, His in 1896 with the annexation of the northern Chinese port Majesty’s Australian Ship (HMAS) Australia; two Town of Tsingtsao. The Far East Cruiser Division was renamed class light , HMA Ships Melbourne and ; the East Asia Squadron in 1897 and embarked on a a Challenger class light cruiser, HMAS Encounter; program of building, modernisation and consolidation. and three River class torpedo boat destroyers, HMA At the outbreak of the squadron, under the Ships Parramatta, Warrego and Yarra steamed into command of Vice Admiral Maximillian Reichsgraf von Sydney Harbour. The surface unit would be joined the Spee, consisted of the armoured cruisers Scharnhorst following year by the RAN’s first two submarines, HMA and Gneisenau and the light cruisers Emden, Dresden, Submarines AE1 and AE2.2 Leipzig and Nürnberg. When hostilities commenced the bulk of the squadron sailed for the eastern Pacific, but Although small by world standards, at the outbreak of Emden was detached to engage in a raiding campaign in World War I in August 1914 the RAN was a balanced and the Indian Ocean. relatively powerful force. When war broke out the young Australian Commonwealth immediately pledged itself Emden (Figure 1) was a light cruiser of 3,600 tons fully to the cause of the “Mother Country.” An offer of displacement and a rated top speed of 24½ knots, built an expeditionary force to serve anywhere in the world, at Danzig and commissioned in the autumn of 1908. Her initially of 20,000 men organised as an infantry division armament consisted of ten 4.1 inch guns and she carried and a light horse brigade with supporting units and to a crew of 361. At the end of July 1914 she was lying in be known as the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), was Tsingtao Harbour, and on July 30th her captain, Karl instantly accepted by the British authorities and Australia Friedrich Max von Müller (Figure 2), having privately set about raising, training and despatching the force. told his officers the latest news, ordered the ship put into fighting trim, ostensibly for practice. On July 31stEmden At the same time, the RAN, in accordance with pre- left Tsingtao to cruise the Korea Strait, thus avoiding existing agreements, passed under the operational control of the and moved to its pre-arranged war stations.

Recruiting for the AIF (and for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force or NZEF) was brisk and successful, and by October 28, 1914 the troops prepared to depart Australian waters in a large convoy (26 Australian and ten New Zealand transports) which had gathered at St George’s Sound, Albany, in Western Australia.3 This convoy had taken some time to assemble as great fears were held in New Zealand and, to a lesser extent, Australia, of the German East Asian Squadron, which Figure 1: The Emden.

Vol. 64, No. 6 (November-December 2013) 15 In the first week of October von Müller took his ship through the Sunda Strait towards the Cocos Islands, where he planned to destroy the wireless station at Direction Island, thereby crippling Allied communication in the Indian Ocean. He then planned to sail for Socotra Island and attack Allied merchant shipping on the Bombay- Aden route.

In Western Australia, meanwhile, the great convoy of ships carrying Australian and New Zealand troops had gathered. With news that the bulk of the East Asian Squadron was now in the eastern Pacific and not a threat ,and with a strong naval escort consisting of two Australian cruisers (HMAS Melbourne and Sydney), one British cruiser (HMS Minotaur) and one Japanese cruiser (IJN Ibuki) on hand to deal with Emden if it attempted an attack on the convoy, the ships departed St George’s Sound on November 1, 1914, bound for Ceylon (Sri Figure 2: Captain Karl Friedrich Max von Müller. Lanka), Aden, Suez and (so everyone thought) England.4 the risk of being shut up in harbor. Definite news of the By now, with the first convoy on the high seas, no fewer outbreak of war between Germany and Russia reached than 60 Allied warships were combing the Indian Ocean her on August 3rd and she made at once for the passage in the search for Emden. She reached Direction Island between Tsushima and Japan, intending to raid the trade on November 9, 1914 and von Müller sent a landing route between Shanghai and Vladivostok, and possibly party ashore under Lieutenant Helmuth von Mücke to draw enemy ships away from Tsingtao. On the morning of destroy the station’s radio tower and equipment. The August 4th Emden intercepted and captured the Russian British civilians, aware of the gallant conduct of Emden’s volunteer cruiser Riasan, a brand-new steamer of 3,500 captain and crew, did not resist. Emden’s landing party tons, capable of being transformed into an auxiliary even agreed not to knock the radio tower down over the warship (though she had not yet been so transformed). island’s tennis court. Upon learning that night that England was in the war von Müller decided to head back to Tsingtsao, in order to Unfortunately for Emden, Superintendent Dover Farrant safeguard his prize and avoid enemy ships. Tsingtao was of the telegraph company had noted the ship’s lack of a reached early on August 6 and Riasan was handed over fourth funnel when she had first been sighted and had sent for conversion to an auxiliary cruiser (named Cormoran). out a general call of a strange warship in the area. This message was picked up by the Australian/New Zealand Departing Tsingtsao again (for the last time) on the convoy and at 6:30 am the Australian cruiser HMAS afternoon of August 6th, Emden originally joined the rest Sydney was despatched to investigate. of the squadron. However, on August 8th she departed for an independent raiding cruise in the Indian Ocean. In Sydney (Figure 3) was a Town class light cruiser of a remarkable war cruise that would last from August 3, 1914 to November 9, 1914, Emden sank or captured 23 enemy merchant ships (of which four were released for humanitarian and legal reasons), detained and released five neutral ships (from which she received supplies and valuable intelligence), critically damaged the oil fuel storage facilities in the southern Indian port of Madras, and carried out a raid on the British port of Penang off the west coast of the Malay Peninsula during which she sank a Russian cruiser and a French destroyer. This remarkable cruise made Emden probably the most hunted ship in the world at the time and effectively closed the Indian Ocean to Allied shipping for several weeks. Figure 3: HMAS Sydney.

16 JOMSA