Cross of the combatant

the cross of the combatant is a French Médaille .

“They have rights on us”, famous sentence of Georges Clémenceau which expresses all the philosophy of this decoration.

The Poilu S of the Great War wanted to make recognize by the nation, a particular status with those which had taken part in the hard combat of 1914 - 1918. The law of the December 19th 1926 created the chart of the combatant for those of 14/18, but also for those of 1870/1871 and of the colonial wars former to the First World War. Decoration will be created only three years later by the law of the June 28th 1930.

The March 28th 1941, the Vichy government created a Cross of the Combatant 1939-1940. The badge was rigorously the same one as that of the Great War, except the dates “1939-1940”. The ribbon on same blue bottom horizon, only the vertical bands changed of number. By ordinance of January 7th, 1944, the port of the Cross of the Combatant 1939-1940 was prohibited. A decree of January 29th, 1948 stipulates that the provisions of 1930 relating to the attribution of the chart of combatant and the Cross of the Combatant were applicable to the participants of the war 1939-1945. The law of July 18th, 1952 will extend the benefit of the attribution of the Cross of the Combatant to Indo-China and Korea. The law of December 9th, 1974 extended the attribution of the Cross of the Combatant to the operations of North Africa between on January 1st, 1952 and on July 2nd, 1962. More close to us, a decree of January 12th, 1994 opened the right to the chart of combatant (thus with the Cross of the Combatant) to those which took part in the operations of the Kampuchea, Cameroun, Golfe, Iraq, Lebanon, Madagascar, Suez, Somalia, Chad, Yugoslavia, Zaire, Central African Republic.

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Source

French decorations ,
very complete Site treating military and civil decorations French

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