christine liava'a Posted 12 July , 2003 Share Posted 12 July , 2003 Does anyone know where and how to access French military records, particularly medals? They don't seem to have anything much on line. I am trying to find a list of all those, particularly foreigners, who were awarded a Croix de Guerre in WW1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle bill Posted 12 July , 2003 Share Posted 12 July , 2003 The French ' service des archives militaires ' is based in Vincennes , Paris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Reed Posted 12 July , 2003 Share Posted 12 July , 2003 It's impossible to get copies of French service records unless you know which Departement a man was from; some local record offices seem to have them, but not all. There also doesn't appear to be any record of issue of medals that is in the public domain either. Vincennes has the operational records; war diaries and the like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fair Posted 15 July , 2003 Share Posted 15 July , 2003 Christine, have you tried posting this query on the website of the Association 14-18? Someone may know if such a list exists in France. I havent heard of one myself. One possible source might be the Ministere des Anciens Combattants et Victimes de Guerre in Rue Bellchasse, Paris. They deal with all matters relating to pensions, war graves. It is possible their remit might cover honours and awards too. You could go some way to compiling a list of British recipients by looking in the various divisional histories since many of them have appendices listing all honours and awards. For example the 47th Div History lists 17 recipients (2 with palm leaves), and there is one in the history of the 2/19th London Regt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Burns Posted 15 July , 2003 Share Posted 15 July , 2003 Hello, The Croix de Guerre will be difficult to track as it was often awarded to entire units, for example US Marines who served with the 2nd US Division were entitled to wear the Fourrager (pardon the spelling!) of the Croix de Guerre which is still worn to this day by those Marine units that served in the 2nd division. I think the 82nd US (now Airborne) is also entitled to the Fourrager. The fourrager is a braided cord worn under the arm in the colors of the Croix de Guerre ribbon. The cross itself had a combination of devices for the ribbon: a palm for individual award and stars for brigade or division mention in dispatches. Americans alone were awarded 11,589 Croix de Guerres!: http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/documents/wwi/23awd.htm Unfortunately the only way to really track them is through Division Histories as previously posted. Good Luck, Neil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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