Croix de guerre

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

Appearance

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.

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For the unit decoration of the Croix de guerre, a fourragère is awarded which is suspended from the shoulder of an individual's uniform.

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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 specifing French Croix de guerre, Belgian Croix de guerre, French Croix de guerre (WWI), etc.

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