Bonjour à tous,

un petit essai en anglais sur la croix de guerre. Merci à l'encyclopédie Wikipedia.


The Croix de Guerre (sometimes lowercase in French, Croix de guerre, meaning "Cross of War") is a military decoration of both France and Belgium, where it is also known as Oorlogskruis (Dutch). It was first created in 1915 in both countries and consists of a square-cross medal on 2 crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts. The Croix de Guerre was also commonly bestowed to foreign military forces allied to France and Belgium.
The Croix de Guerre may either be bestowed as a unit award or to individuals who distinguish themselves by acts of heroism involving combat with enemy forces. The medal is also awarded to those who have been "mentioned in despatches", meaning a heroic deed was performed meriting a citation from an individual's headquarters unit. The unit award of the Croix de Guerre was issued to military commands who performed heroic deeds in combat and were subsequently recognized by headquarters.
The Croix de Guerre medal varies depending on which country is bestowing the award and for what conflict. Separate French medals exist for the First and Second World War, and the French medals are different in appearance from the Belgian design.
For the unit decoration of the Croix de Guerre, a fourragère is awarded which is suspended from the shoulder of an individual's uniform.
Because the Croix de Guerre is issued as several different medals, and as a unit decoration, situations typically arose where an individual was awarded the decoration several times, for different actions, and from different sources. Regulations also permitted the wearing of multiple Croix de Guerre, meaning that such medals were differentiated in service records by specifying French Croix de Guerre, Belgian Croix de Guerre, French Croix de Guerre (WWI), etc.
The Croix was created by a law of April, 2, 1915, proposed by deputy Émile Briant. The croix reinstated an older system of mentions in dispatches, which were only administrative honours with no medal. The sculptor Paul-André Bartholomé created the medal, a bronze cross with swords, showing the effigy of the republic.
The French croix represents a mention in dispatches awarded by a commanding officer, at least a regimental commander. Depending on the officer who issued the mention, the ribbon of the croix is marked with extra pins.

• Mentioned in Despatches
  
• a bronze star for those who had been mentioned at the regiment or brigade level.
  
• a silver star, for those who had been mentioned at the division level.
  
• a silver gilt star for those who had been mentioned at the corps level.
  
• a bronze palm for those who had been mentioned at the army level.
  
• a silver palm steeds for five bronze ones.
  
• a silver gilt palm for those who had been mentioned at the Free French Forces level (World War II only).
  

The croix des guerres des TOE was created in 1921 for overseas wars. It was awarded during Indochina War, Corean War, etc up to Kosovo War, in 1999.
In 1939 a new croix de guerre was created by PM Edouard Daladier. It was abolished by Vichy Government in 1941, which created a new croix de guerre. In 1943, General Giraud in Algiers created another croix de guerre. Both Vichy and Giraud croix were abolished by General De Gaulle, in 1944, who reinstaured the 1939 croix.
The croix de guerre takes precedence between the Ordre National du Mérite and the Croix de la Valeur Militaire, the World War I croix being senior to the World War II one, itself senior to TOE croix.

War cross 1914-1918, 1939-1945, TOE.


To be continued...

Regards.

Guillaume