Orders, Decorations and Medals

A rare Great War D.C.M. group of twelve attributed to Captain F. Novak, a Czech Legionnaire who went on to win further accolades for his bravery in the Prague uprising of May 1945

Czech War Cross 1918; Czech Medal for Bravery 1939; Czech Revolutionary Medal 1918; Czech Commemorative Cross for Volunteers 1918-19; Czech F.I.D.A.C. Medal for Veterans of the Great War; Czech Victory Medal 1918, official type 2 issue; Czech Memorial Medal for the 2nd National Resistance; Czech Zborov Memorial Medal; Czech Bachmac memorial Medal; Austrian Empire Bravery Medal, Franz Joseph, bronze; Great Britain, Distinguished Conduct Medal, G.V.R., unnamed as awarded to foreign nationals; Italian War Medal 1915-18, generally very fine (12) £1000-1200

As is nearly always the case, no verification has been found for this particular award of the D.C.M., but it is worth noting that Abbott & Tamplin state some 290 such decorations were issued to Czech Legionnaires.

Frantisek Novak was born in Prague in March 1886 and appears to have enlisted in the Austro-Hungarian Army prior to the outbreak of the Great War. Having served in that capacity on the Eastern front in the early days of the conflict - where he won his Bravery Medal - he deserted in the Spring Offensive of 1915 and, after a period of captivity, joined the Czech Legion that November, in the rank of Gunner - his ‘mother unit’ was the 3rd Regiment although he would serve for a short time in the 6th Regiment at Vladivostock. Novak subsequently witnessed considerable action, not least at the battle of Zborov in July 1917, when he was wounded - he was also present at Bachmac, Domamorzc, Celjabinsk, Argajas, Troick, Jekaterinburg, Perm and Ufa; the unusual addition of the Italian War Medal 1915 to his accolades must presumably stem from service in the Czech Volunteer Corps established at a camp near Naples in January 1917, a corps that went on to carry out patrols on behalf of the Italian 1st Army and participate in the fighting on the River Piave.

On his return to his homeland, Novak was advanced to Warrant Officer and remained a regular soldier until his retirement in 1932, in the rank of Captain. Thereafter, he appears to have served as a railway officer at Prague, once more returning to the fray in the 1939-45 War, when he commanded a barricade in Prague’s Zizkov suburb during the uprising there in May 1945 - work that resulted in him being awarded the Czech Medal for Bravery 1939 and the Memorial Medal for National Resistance. He died in 1961 and is buried in Olsany Cemetery, Prague.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including a Prague Certificate of Citizenship, bearing official stamps and signatures, and dated 14 June 1948; a Czech Ministry of National Defence statement of services, with similar stamps and signatures, this dated in 1938 (but pertinent to his time as a Legionnaire 1915-20); assorted Great War period photographic postcards of a military nature (approximately 20), three of them inscribed and one of these signed ‘Frantik’; the recipient’s epaulette with Captain’s rank insignia and a uniform flash with Czech Lion, this last believed to have been used during his employment as a railway officer at Prague in the 1930s; together with assorted photocopied award documents, etc.