French Criox De Guerre / MID

[27thBN]

As the French Criox De Guerre is supposed to be the equivalent to the British MID .Do you feel that the just an MID emblem is cutting the award short compared to getting a medal with various stars and palms for further awards as per the French Criox De Guerre ?

Or do you think the French award is over the top.

Thanks MC

[rksimpson]

Hi

I agree with you, if someone has done something of mention, then a separate medal, with the ability to note further mentions would be more appropriate than a little oak leaf, but it has been done the way it is so it is a bit of a dead end.

I remember seeing a discussion where a guy had 3, so he put 3 on his victory medal!

regards

Robert

[Nigel Marshall]

Horses for courses really, I think. The British have always taken pride in understatement so to have a Mention in Despatches which itself is sub-divided according to the level of despatch your name appears in is a bit too much. It also doesn't really suit the British/Empire method of reporting despatches, which generally come from the Commanding Officer of an expedition or force.

I think the French method suits the French, but wouldn't easily translate to the British system. It would probably end up with soldiers being awarded a badge of some type for getting their name in the War Diary.

Cheers,

Nigel

[Cameron2165]

[Horses for courses really, I think. The British have always taken pride in understatement]

Hi,

I think a medal would be a better idea, but as Nigel says we take pride in understatement. Just look

at the Americans who get a Purple Heart for being injured, what do we get? A pat on the back and off you go. We've struggled to get a medal for campaigns, Suez being an example, so I think an Oakleaf would be the best you could get.

Regards

Cam.

[Nigel Marshall]

The Great War was the first war in which the British produced and issued a tangible symbol that a person had actually been mentioned. Up until then you had to be content with finding your name in a long, long list. In the period of the mid 19th Century, around the Crimea and Indian Mutiny it was customary to list everyone who had taken part in a particular action. I don't know if a certificate was issued prior to the Great War, but if one wasn't, that really was a poor show!

Cheers,

Nigel

[MACRAE]

The Brittish have always been lacking with awards, like it has already been said the MID leaf is what we have and will always have. Currently there is a campaigne for a National Defence Medal like the Suez Canal Medal I think it will be a long road http://nationaldefencemedal.webs.com/apps/...age?id=41377693

Dan

[per ardua per mare per terram]

Equating medals/ awards over different cultures is a hiding to nothing. Both the French Légion d'honneur and Russian Order of St George inspired the Victoria Cross, but the latter only has one class - to state one of the differences.

As it too two years of was to produce the MM for other ranks and the MID oakleaf appeared post war; I doubt there was the desire for a medal and post war there not the finance.

[27thBN]

Equating medals/ awards over different cultures is a hiding to nothing. Both the French Légion d'honneur and Russian Order of St George inspired the Victoria Cross, but the latter only has one class - to state one of the differences.

As it too two years of was to produce the MM for other ranks and the MID oakleaf appeared post war; I doubt there was the desire for a medal and post war there not the finance.

I read somewhere ? that there were 148,000 MIDs in WW1 if so really not that many(well 115000 MMs) ,I wonder just wonder really what would have been the price to make up a medal for the winners .Its more of how members feel about the emblem verses a medal we will never change what there is but I feel looking at a the few criox de guerres in my collection how nice compared to an emblem.And after the war well the men probably really didn't care ,just glad to be alive.

MC

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

Logically a Mention in Dispatches is just that the recipient was noted as being worthy of a "Mention",not a Medal,to give out baubles just for the sake of it is to demean the System,the MiD certificate & Oak Leaf Spray were both afterthoughts.during the conflict the recipients of said Mentions were content to have had their name published....

[27thBN]

Logically a Mention in Dispatches is just that the recipient was noted as being worthy of a "Mention",not a Medal,to give out baubles just for the sake of it is to demean the System,the MiD certificate & Oak Leaf Spray were both afterthoughts.during the conflict the recipients of said Mentions were content to have had their name published....

Well when you put it in those word it does sound logical .Quite often after another MID then a medal would be awarded or in the case of an officer a Brevet or promotion came as well in a great many cases.Thats not to say promotion did not come to ORs as well for MIDs

MC

[Michael Johnson]

Just to muddy the waters, if you were killed as a result of your heroism, but the powers that be decided it wasn't sufficient for a V.C., the only thing you could be awarded was a Mention.

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

...Quite often after another MID then a medal would be awarded

But then again there was no guarantees..I have the 1914 Star/Bar trio LSGC trio a Mechanist Staff Sergeant William Buckle ASC/RASC;who served prewar right through the Great War was MiD Four Times,yet never received ANY meritorious/distinguished service award other than the MiD despite service of over twenty years!!!