Croix de Guerre

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The Croix de Guerre is a military decoration of both Belgium and France which was first created in 1915. The decoration was awarded throughout the First World War and again during World War II. The Croix de Guerre was also commonly bestowed to foriegn military forces allied to France and Belguim.

Table of contents

1 Criteria
2 Apperance
3 United States issuance
4 See also
5 External link

Criteria

French Croix De Guerre

The Croix de Guerre may either be bestowed as an individual medal or as a unit award. The Croix de Guerre medal is awarded to those 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 dispatches", 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. During the First World War, France was the only nation to issue the unit award of the Croix de Guerre. In World War II, both France and Belguim provided a unit decoration.

Apperance

Belguim C.D.G. Medal and Ribbon

The Croix de Guerre medal varies depending on which country is bestowing the award and for what conflict. Separate French medals exists for both the First and Second World War, and the French medals are different in apperance to the Belguim design.

For the unit decoration of the Croix de Guerre, a FourragÃÂ©re is awarded which is suspended from the shoulder of an individual' 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 Guerres, meaning that such medals were differentiated in service records by specifing French Croix de Guerre, Belguim Croix de Guerre, French Croix de Guerre (WWI), etc.

The unit award of the Croix de Guerre was typically referred to as the "FourragÃÂ©re of the Croix de Guerre". The unit award was only authorized for wear while an individual was assigned to the particular unit which had earned the award. In addition, the Belguim FourragÃÂ©re was only authorized for those who were permanently assigned to a unit, meaning temporary duty personnel, who may have participated in the action which had earned the FourragÃÂ©re, were not entitled to wear the decoration.

United States issuance

In the United States military, the Croix de Guerre was commonly accepted as a foriegn decoration. In the modern age, however, it remains one of the most difficult foriegn awards to verify entitlement. This is since the Croix de Guerre was often presented with original orders, only, and rarely entered into a permanent service record. The unit award was virtually never entered into U.S. records, especially since it was considered a temporary decoration which was surrendered when an individual departed a unit. An added complication is that the 1973 National Archives Fire destroyed a large number of World War II personnel records, meaning that there are very few sources from which to verify a veteran's entitlement to the Croix de Guerre.