Another nice British medal bar

[Dave Danner]

Here is a nice medal bar documenting Britain's operations in the 1990s. It is a parade-mounted bar consisting of the General Service Medal 1962 with "NORTHERN IRELAND" bar, UN Medal for Cyprus, Gulf Medal with bar "16 JAN TO 28 FEB 1991", and NATO Medal for the Former Yugoslavia. The GSM and Gulf Medal are named on the rim.





Dave

[Tony Farrell]

That's quite a common group. Who's it to? I notice that the 'Pizza Medal' (NATO) is lacking the 'FORMER YUGOSLAVIA' clasp.
One the whole, they're a bloody disgrace, GET BACK TO THE BLOCK AND GET THEM POLISHED! SAR'NT MAJOR, GET THIS SPECIMEN OF MY SQUARE!

[Dave Danner]

I'm afraid to try cleaning and polishing them, as I've seen too many coins and medals ruined by that. No idea why no FY clasp. They're named to a gunner in the RA, but I want to preserve his privacy.

[Chris Boonzaier]

Tony, dont tell me you brits polish the UN medal !!!
Its funny, in France you would be punished if you polished up your medals !!

[Tony Farrell]

Now, I'm going to dispel a little myth here. There is a difference between 'cleaning' the gongs and taking a polisher to them! Even the odd polish won't do them any harm.
I make a habit of cleaning my medal collection as I aquire them. What I'm doing is cleaning them to an equal standard, so I know they aren't contaminated by alkaline and bad storage.
UN & NATO medals do not form part of my collection, so I don't care if they get ground to transparency - horrible things. Joking aside, UN & NATO medals are treated and do not get polished. Crown issued medals, however, do.
Most soldiers get them lacquered and court mounted to avoid having to clean them. Again, it does them no harm whatsoever. The lacquer can be removed later by a mild solvent if necessary
A dunking in Goddard's Silver Dip is the preferred method, as it chemically cleans rather than physical polishing.
Go on... do it, they look so much nicer!
I am rather perplexed as to how they ended up in the US? That is a contemporary group and could be found on a number of parade grounds today.
So Gunner whatsisname hasn't been out of the mob for that long. I wonder why he sold them?
Mind you, a chap I work with threw his in the bin when all the Provo's got released because of the Good Friday Agreement. He'd done 6 tours in Ulster and lost a few of his mates, so his pride was severley dented.

[McCulloh]

I thought the British campaign medals came first to the right, with UN and Nato medals coming last. Odd that he doesn't have a UN UnPRFOR medal too.
Cheers,
JeMc
Cambs. OTC

[Tony Farrell]

Well, that's a good observation. It also used to be the case - with non-Crown issued medals, i.e. foreign awards, being worn AFTER all British medals. There was an exception to this, and that was the Victory Medal of the Great War.

Somewhere along the line - and I'm having trouble determining exactly when - it was decided that these UN thingies were technically campaign medals (Korea not withstanding), and thus are worn BEFORE Long Service & Coronation & Jubilee gongs.

They are to be worn in the order of their award, therefore it's not uncommon to see two squaddies stood next to each other with the same medals - but worn in differing order.

Basically, if one got a UN Cyprus and then a Gulf, then they'd be worn in that order - with a non-Crown issued piece of rubbish being worn BEFORE the one doshed out by Auntie Betty. The other chap might have done his Gulf War bit and then got lumbered with Cyprus. Get it?

These non-Crown tat - in my opinion - are a cheap cop-out by the British government, that exonerates them of the responsibility of funding and minting their own medals.

It's all daft anyway, as the system of clasps - when used correctly and with logic (an asset noticable by it's absence in the corridors of power)- provides for every eventual operational requirement, without the need to issue seperate medals.

So now it's a bloody free-for-all. After over a century of using a system that worked, i.e. the system of using clasps (a system we invented), some clown decides it's time to make his bloody mark and scrap a system that is both logical and cost effective at the stroke of his Biro.

I've kicked up some **** over this and had some of my tirades published - one of which appeared in Soldier magazine - the journal of the British Army.

The issue of campaign awards by foreign governments is nothing new. Whether they've been permitted for wear is a different matter altogether. So make sense of this:

After the Gulf War, everyone who participated got a piece of tat from the Kuwaitis and something that resembled the Ark of the Covenant from the Saudis. Auntie Betty - quite rightly - says "I can't have my boys wandering about like a load of Guatemalan Generals! They shall wear but one! The one with my turnip on the front!"

This is the thinking behind it. A foreign medal (UN, EU or NATO) can be worn as a campaign award PROVIDING the British don't mint their own for the operation.

Now we haven't minted our own medal for UN deployments, as it's a UN commitment, so we can't technically produce a clasp for Cyprus (although there was one for the shooting there in the '50s) for wear on the GSM.

Likewise, the whole Bosnian affair was a UN thing, so no-go on that either. Kosovo? As far as I'm concerned, there is no reason why there should not be FORMER YUGOSLAVIA & KOSOVO clasps for the GSM.

Unfortunately, the powers that be have decided otherwise and chose to scrap the GSM entirely. They are still issuing it for Ulster and AIR OPERATIONS IRAQ - no doubt until stocks run out. After that? It's.....

The OPERATIONAL SERVICE MEDAL. This medal - when it finally appears - will replace the GSM and have different coloured ribbons to denote areas of operation - a la UN.

So there's going to be blokes "MARCHING UP & DOWN THE SQUARE?" with a chest-full of identical medals with pretty ribbons. Plainly, in my view, absurd. But then again, we are living in absurd times.

Right then, I'm off to play the piano!

[McCulloh]

Dear God!
An "Operational Service Medal"? When did this happen? Was it part of John Majors' attempts to Americanize the whole system? I am appalled!
The Cyprus thing makes sense, since the GSM was awarded for operations against EOKA as a counterinsurgency campaign and the island was at that time part of the Empire.The UN cyprus medal is for service with the peace-keeping force there, so if you are at Dikalia and don't wear a blue beret-no medal for you.
I see the point about the NATO medal though, but I thought just about everybody in the RA had served at least a month there at one time or another. I guess, given the liberal award 'requirements' of the Nato medal, that the gunner in question above must've served for a bit in the BAOR.
Cheers,
JeMc

[ 03 December 2001: Message edited by: J.E.McCulloh ]

[Rick Research]

But the British have ALWAYS been, well, face it, odd about awards. In the glory days of Empire, through both world wars, they were shockingly UNDER-decorated.

I don't know how many times I read what amounted to "So sorry, old man, but your battalion's had a gong this year, so nothing for you! Be a good chap and run along!"

If they have now, like the U.S. forces, gone in for a "Sovietization" of multiple basically meaningless awards that make almost anyone look like a South American junta contestant... well. The Guys Who Know which are the "kept kit clean and tidy" garbage can hunt through the rows of fruit salad for what really matters.

What REALLY bothers me is the embarassingly dreadful lack of QUALITY. Sure, it doesn't matter on the "spent a day transitting through" junk, but decorations for valor and the like still ought to be, gawddam it, made out of more than cast crud alloy with a flashed on finish.

"Budgetary resons" make no sense in these thank-God days of low casualties.

Anyone who has earned a Purple Heart DESERVES a silver medal made with hot baked enamel, not an extruded lump with a piece of plastic glued in.

Of course, the poor Brits don't even have an equivalent of a Purple Heart for wounds (not even using the sleeve stripes of WWI anymore for those?)--

now THERE'S a crusade for Tony--how about a visible sign of respect for wounded soldiers? If they can chalk up strings of "walk through" U.N. grunge...

[McCulloh]

Actually, there were small "wound badges" (of Sterling) awarded in WW2-for civilians or those who'd been demobbed.
Cheers,
JeMc
p.s. Next Year in Lowell I'll bring more British and other smaller imperial bars to scan.

[Tony Farrell]

They certainly did. They were actually called the Silver War Badge during the Great War and the Service Badge in WWII. Vary nice the Great War version is too. The later version wasn't hollow in design and isn't as attractive in my humble opinion.


As for the NATO Medal? Service in the British Army of the Rhine or RAF Germany did not count, as the NATO medal wasn't thought of until the mid-90s, and only then because it got lumbered with the Bosnian affair and had nothing to show for service - "Quick! Someone design a medal!"

Also, the Pizza Medal - as it's known in RAF parlance, has a 90 day service qualification. So, 89 days? Forget it. I actually know someone who was one week short of his Efficiency Medal (12 yrs). Guess what?

So Rick has a point. We are a bit stingy on the gong front. Having a bunch of clueless muppets deciding who gets what is one of the main problems - unless you're some arse buttering politico-type, then they'll bend over backwards... and forwards.

I was having a mooch through a rather excellent tome called Medals Will Be Worn by Lt. Col. Ashley R. Tinson. Now the Colonel's a bit of a whizz on the whole business and politics of medals and it's well worth having on yer bookshelf missus.

He highlights the inconsistancies in award criteria throughout the last fifty years mainly, although he goes back further. The whole business of medals is not so much a science (although understanding it is) rather than a total cake & arse party!

What is good enough for the goose, aint necessarily good for the gander, if you 'knaow wot ah meen?' Anyhow, well worth having.

And yes Rick, the quality is shyte to say the least, although thankfully, British medals have remained reasonably consistent. I have a friend with a beautiful group: GSM (Northern Ireland & Air Operations Iraq), Accumulated Campaign Service Medal and RAF LS&GC. He's also in line for the new OSM and the new Queen's Jubilee Medal. The only turd in the salad is a bloody Pizza Medal. He hates it!

And as for a Brit equivalent of a Purple Heart? I've got enough trouble with the crusades I'm already on. And anyhow, it's all in the line of service dear boy

[McCulloh]

...... a classic thread now. I wonder who has Dave's bar?