British Troops - foreign medals

[Pete1052]

Trenchtrotter, I was in the U.S. Army. I read that many of the fourragere unit awards the French gave the U.S. Army for valorous service in World War II were for no specific organization and it was left up to us to decide which units to give them to. The tapered brass tip on one of the ends of a fourragere is said to be fashioned after the nails once used to "spike" the enemy's muzzle-loading cannons.

[ItemCo16527]

In Goodbye To All That, Robert Graves mentions that he had been recommended for a Russian award by his commanding officer for one reason or another, but never received it because it was right around the time the Russians sued for peace with the Germans and pulled out of the war.

This leads me to believe that while x number of foreign medals were given to a British Army unit, one would still have to be recommended for them. On the other hand, this may have varied between units or even at certain periods during the war, and soldiers could just get the foreign medals at the discretion of their commander.