Medaille Militaire

[Nacho]

Ive read in places that during ww1, that the Medaille Militaire was the highest french medal that could have been awarded to someone. Is this true? If not which medal was the French quivalent of the Victoria Cross, Blue Max, or Medal of Honor.

[Graeme]

Nacho

The Medaille Militaire is a strange award. The information I have is that it ranks second to the Legion d'Honneur and was awarded to general officers in charge of armies, admirals in charge of fleets, or non-commissioned officers who distinguished themselves in war; it was not awarded to other commissioned officers.

Graeme

[tamerlane]

Yes, it's rather strange. It was created as an award for other ranks (enlisted men and non-coms), but was later made available to general officers, probably out of sheer vanity. In spite of its high rank, however, it was awarded quite frequently in both World Wars. It is often compared to the VC or the U.S. Medal of Honor, but there is no direct equivalent to those awards, or the Prussian Pour le Merite, in the French awards system.

Tim

[mboro]

Originally Posted by Nacho

If not which medal was the French quivalent of the Victoria Cross, Blue Max, or Medal of Honor.

I would rather say, that Legion d'Honour is equivalent to VC or MoH.
It's just the highest military and civilian, state award of the French Republic.
It combines british VC with GC; or polish (for example) Virtuti Militari with White Eagle Order...

Cheers