Welcome to our guide to French  medals.

       The expansion and contraction of the French Colonial Empire, like that of Britain, required a large, globally mobile military force, which in turn necessitated a numerous and varied array of medallic decorations and commemoratives for reward to the hundreds of thousands of individual participants. These medals chart the history of the French struggle to maintain an empire across North Africa, the Middle East and the Far East - and numerous other zones of influence the French chose to exert. This "medallic history"  is enriched by the awards of the Great War and the Second World War - the latter which would define the dark years of the occupation of France by Germany, with the Vichy, Free French and Resistance Commemoratives - and the Great War medals recording some of the most horrendous struggles in the history of warfare such as the German attempt to "bleed France white" in the hell they called Verdun.
 

 
 
 
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Legion of Honour
(page under construction)
Medaille Militaire
         
         

 Order of the Academic Palms.

Ordre des Palmes Académiques.

 

St Helena Medal.

 Médaille de Ste. Hélène
 

         
         
The Italy Campaign Medal
 1859
  Mexico Expedition Medal
1862 - 1867

Expédition du Mexique
 

         
         
The Franco-Prussian War Medal 1870-1871.

 

  Geneva Cross 1870- 1871 
         
         
Tonkin Medal (1883 - 1885)   Madagascar Medal 1883-1886  (1st expedition)
         
         
Madagascar Medal 1895  (2nd expedition)   China Medal 1900 -1901 
         
         
Morocco Medal 1909

 

  Croix de Guerre
1914-1918
 
         
         
The Commemorative medal of the War
of 1914 - 1918
  The Victory Medal 
         
         
The Escaped Prisoners Medal
Medaille des Evades
 
  Croix De Guerre TOE
Théâtres d'Opérations Extérieurs
(External Theatres of Operations)
 
         
         
Orient Medal    Dardanelles (Gallipoli) Medal 
         
         
The Marne Medal
 
  Croix du Combattant  &
Vichy Croix du Combattant
 
         
         

Upper Silesia Medal

  The Colonial Medal and Overseas Medal
( Medaille Coloniale,  Medaille d'Outre-Mer )
 
         
         
Gembloux Medal 1940   Croix de Guerre 1939
         
Vichy Croix de Guerre.    Dunkirk Medal 1940
         
The Syria - Cilicia and Levant Medal
 
  Medal For Voluntary Service in the
Free French Forces
 
         
         
Cross of the Combatant Volunteer
 of the Resistance
 
  1939-1945 War Commemorative Medal
 
 
         
         
The Italian Campaign Medal 1943-1944    The Order of the Liberation
 
         
         
French Korea Medal (1952)   The Commemorative Medal for the Indochina Campaign
 
         
         
The Commemorative Medal for
Operations in the Middle East 1956
 
  Medal for Operations in North Africa.
 1958
         
         
Cross of Military Valour.   The National Defence Medal
         
         
more to come.... pages are designed for 1024 x 784 resolution
         
 

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