Awards of
World War IIThe Combatant's Cross (French: "Croix du combattant") is a French military decoration created to recognize those who took direct part in the battles for France.
After the end of World War I, the French infantry began working on a special insignia for those who took direct part in the fighting of 1914-1918. The law of December 19, 1926, created a combatant's certificate for veterans of the 1914-1918 wars, as well as veterans of the colonial wars before World War I. Three years later, on June 28, 1930, a commemorative award, the Fighter's Cross, was created.
A decree of January 29, 1948, amended the award's statute, extending its validity to participants in World War II, and a decree of July 18, 1952, extended it to participants in the Indochina and Korean Wars. On December 9, 1974, the award's statute underwent further changes, and it could now be awarded for operations in North Africa in 1952 and 1962, and, with the changes that came into force on January 12, 1994, for participants in operations in Cambodia, Cameroon, Lebanon, Madagascar, Somalia, the Central African Republic, Chad, Yugoslavia, Zaire, and Iraq.
There are a number of criteria for receiving the Combatant and Fighter's Cross:
- for military personnel of both conscript and contract service subordinate to the Ministry of Defense: ninety days of service on the front lines, being wounded, or being captured for more than 90 days.
- for other persons: being mentioned in reports for valor, or direct participation in five combat operations with fire contact with the enemy, being wounded, or being captured without the use of the Geneva Conventions.
The award is made of bronze, in the form of a cross pattée, measuring 36 x 36 mm. The cross is superimposed on a laurel wreath, visible between the arms of the cross. On the obverse, in the center of the medallion, is the head of Marianne (the symbol of the French Republic), wearing a helmet decorated with laurel leaves, surrounded by the inscription REPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE (French Republic).
On the reverse of the award, a medallion contains a vertical sword, point downwards. Rays of the sun radiate upward from the sword's handle. Along the bottom edge, in a semicircle, is the inscription CROIX DU COMBATTANT (Combatant's Cross).
The cross is attached to a 36 mm wide silk moiré ribbon. The ribbon is blue, with seven vertical red stripes, each 2 mm wide.