UKRAINIAN AMERICAN'S MEDAL OF HONOR

 

Baldwin's Auctions brings to sale an extremely rare Congressional Medal of Honor, to be offered in a single-lot auction on Thursday 8 August at 399 Strand, London. The only such medal ever to have been granted to a Ukrainian American soldier, it was posthumously awarded to Nicholas Minue following a brave attack against the Germans in Tunisia, Africa, during which he lost his life on 28th April 1943.

The project is being led by Mark Smith, a medals and militaria specialist often seen on the Antiques Roadshow as well as at Baldwins.co. The auction house is working with charity United 24 to help fund Ukrainian humanitarian relief efforts. The item is expected to sell for £250,000–300,000.

Congressional Medals of Honor – the equivalent of the British Victoria Cross – is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians, and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valour. Often awarded in extraordinary circumstances or posthumously, they are incredibly rare to come by, and are illegal to be bought or sold by Americans, unless to be gifted to an American institution. So high is their prestige – and so many the social and financial reward – that they must be returned, on the death of their recipient, to congress for safekeeping. Rarer still is to find a Medal of Honor such as this one, awarded to a Ukrainian soldier. Nicholas Minue was and still is the only Ukrainian born recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Nicholas Minue was born on 13th March 1905 in Sedden, in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, in what was then Austria-Hungary, also known as Zaluzbe or Yezupil in the western area of Ukraine, he being born to ethnic Ukrainian parents. A Ukrainian born young volunteer from the Russian Civil War with the White Russian forces, Minue fought against the Bolsheviks, before emigrating with his family to the United States of America, where he settled in Carteret, New Jersey.

He then enlisted into the United States Army in 1927, and by the outbreak of the Second World War was a Sergeant. For his part, Minue wanted to serve overseas in a combat unit. To do so, he volunteered to give up his rank of sergeant for the lower rank of private. In December 1942, he was assigned to a rifle platoon of Company A, 1st Battalion, 6th Armoured Infantry Regiment, a unit of the 1st Armoured Division, and shortly afterwards joined it in North Africa.

To read the complete article, see:
London auction house Baldwin's to sell unique Congressional Medal of Honor in aid of Zelenskyy's charity United24 (https://artdaily.cc/news/172353/London-auction-house-Baldwin-s-to-sell-unique-Congressional-Medal-of-Honor-in-aid-of-Zelenskyy-s-charity-United24)

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