SCARCE WW2 EASTERN FRONT SERVICE MEDAL ROMANIA GERMANY PAPER AWARD PACKET 1942

Medal for the Eastern Front (Medal for the Crusade against Communism - Medalia Cruciada Împotriva Comunismului), 1942.

32mm wide circular bronze medal with loop for ribbon suspension; the face with a hand holding an upright sword, rays emanating from the hilt, imposed on a Greek cross and with the date ‘1941’, circumscribed ‘CRUCIADA IMPOTRIVA COMUNISMULUI’ (Crusade against Communism); the reverse with a female head facing left, representative of Romania, circumscribed ‘ROMANIA RECUNOSCATOARE’ (Romania recognisant), signed ‘P. GRANT.’; on correct ribbon, inn the Romanian mounted style. Medal comes with the scarce paper award packet, showing use, a few tears, etc.

The medal was created on 1 April 1942 and awarded to military who distinguished themselves in combat on the Eastern Front. Caught in 1940 between the USSR, which had forced the cession of Bessarabia, and Germany, which imposed the return of northern Transylvania to Hungary, the presence of almost 500,000 German troops on Romanian soil proved decisive and, King Carol II having abdicated, Romania under the new government of General Ion Antonescu entered World War II on 23 November 1940 on the side of the Axis powers. When Germany invaded the USSR in June 1941, Romania’s contribution of troops was greater than that of all other German allies combined. However, when the tide turned after Stalingrad, King Mihai staged a successful coup on 23 August 1944 and the Romanian army then fought with the allies to drive the Germans back through Transylvania, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.