SCARCE WW2 FRENCH MEDAL OF THE RESISTANCE 1940-1945 ANTI NAZI FIGHTERS

Description

Offered is an original French Medal of the Resistance.

33mm wide circular bronze medal with integral bar for ribbon suspension; the face with the Cross of Lorraine, symbol of the Free French, and dated ‘XVIII.VI. MCMXL’ (18 June 1940); the reverse inscribed on a streamer ‘PATRIA NON IMMEMOR’ (The country will not forget), with Paris Mint cornucopia bronze assay mark below; on original ribbon.

The medal was created on 9 February 1943 by ordinance of the Comité National Français to recognise the ‘remarkable acts of faith and courage which, in France, in Europe and abroad contribute to the resistance of the French people against the enemy and his accomplices since 18 June 1940’. The date 18 June 1940 is that of the famous appeal by General de Gaulle to the French People. In all, some 48,000 medals were attributed by the Commission de la Médaille de la Résistance which alone had charge of the medals. It ceased to be awarded on 31 March 1947 except for deportees and the interned to whom it could be awarded posthumously. A good example of an increasingly hard-to-find medal.