The medallion is in silver and lacquer, measures 36.6 mm in height incl. eyelet, 32.3 mm in width, 2.8 mm thick; weighs 22.3 g not including the suspension and connecting link. The suspension is in white metal, 25.1 mm wide at the top, 17.5 mm tall not including the lip for the connecting link.

In excellent condition, very uncommon for a Type 1 medal. The lacquer in the letters is original and perfect, free of even the smallest chips or flakes, although showing craquelure typical for the Combat Service medals of the period. There are some tiny, barely noticeable dings to

The medallion is in silver and lacquer, measures 36.6 mm in height incl. eyelet, 32.3 mm in width, 2.8 mm thick; weighs 22.3 g not including the suspension and connecting link. The suspension is in white metal, 25.1 mm wide at the top, 17.5 mm tall not including the lip for the connecting link.

In excellent condition, very uncommon for a Type 1 medal. The lacquer in the letters is original and perfect, free of even the smallest chips or flakes, although showing craquelure typical for the Combat Service medals of the period. There are some tiny, barely noticeable dings to the raised edge and a few minuscule contact marks elsewhere but no bumps, scratches or any other significant wear. The raised details of the artwork and lettering are perfect and exceptionally crisp. There is a very attractive patina to silver on both sides.

Comes on the original suspension device complete with the brass hexagon nut, rectangular back plate in white metal, and mint marked screw plate in brass. The perfectly preserved, clean ribbon is of the period and appears to be original to the medal; a remnant of its original celluloid wrapping is visible on the reverse near the bottom. The connecting link is probably original as well; its ends are still joined with solder. To summarize, in terms of its condition, this is a superb example of the Type 1 Medal for Combat Service - nearly impossible to upgrade!

Ipatiy Sorochan, a Moldovan national, was born in 1900. He joined the Red Army in 1941, apparently one of the thousands of civilian Soviet medics who were called up and given military ranks immediately after the start of the war with Germany. Sorochan obviously had a great deal of medical practice before the war, judging by the fact that he was instantly put in charge of the Mobile Field Hospital #599 attached to the 18th Army. As of the early May of that year, he had the rank of Military Physician 1st cl., an equivalent of lieutenant colonel.

According to the subsequent award commendation jointly submitted by the Chief Physician of the 18th Army and the army's Political Commissar, Sorochan had excelled as both the head of the hospital and practicing surgeon. When the 18th Army was deployed in the area of towns of Bershad and Rakhne-Lesovaya in the Vinnitsa region of Ukraine, he operated on his patients under constant aerial attacks. He personally performed the most difficult surgeries on internal organs, saving the lives of hundreds of soldiers. During the period of January - March 1942, the hospital under Sorochan's command had performed blood transfusions on 10% of its patients, while the average for similar field hospitals was just 6%. On 6 May 1942, Sorochan was awarded with the Medal for Combat Service- at that time of the war, an uncommon award even for an officer.

Later that year, during the German summer offensive, the 18th Army made a fighting retreat into the Caucasus and played a key role in preventing the Germans from capturing the Black Sea port of Tuapse. In early February 1943, it was deployed in an amphibious assault near Novorossiysk and subsequent half-a-year-long defense of the beachhead dubbed Malaya Zemlya. The operation would become very famous decades later with the publication of wartime memoirs by the same name of the Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev, the 18th Army Chief Political Officer in 1943. (The army was given so much publicity that even its veteran's badge was far nicer than those of most other WW2 Soviet units.)

Sorochan remained with the 18th Army at least through March of 1943, and in April of that year was decorated with the Order of the Red Star for treating a great number of wounded (clearly, most of them came from the Malaya Zemlya beachhead position.) As of June 1945, he was serving as the chief of the field hospital of the 46th Army. Interestingly, his rank at the end of WW2 was Medical Corps Major - which means that at some point during the war he was demoted from his 1942 lieutenant colonel rank equivalent.

Research Materials: b/w photocopy of the award record card, archival note showing the serial number and date of the Combat Service award, and award commendations for the Combat Service Medal and 1942 Order of the Red Star.
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