Hi all!
I would like to share two "National Services Awards" of the Greek Civil War era, that I found recently. These were instituted in 1949, the last year of the war and were awarded to the armed volunteers of the M.E.A., the "National Security Units".
The M.E.A. were auxiliary units of armed civilians, mainly consisting of nationalists. Many of those were ex-collaborators who found a means of self-protection and revenge against the communists. Belonging to such a unit or the M.A.Y., the "Land Security Units", meaned certain privileges, such as being part of or actually being the local authority, also in charge of distributing the foreign aid. There were several cases mentioned even by the military during the time, that the men of these units exercised this authority without any limit against the unarmed population in several occasions and even systematically.
The awards were designed and awarded after Field Marshal A. Papagos took over the command of the Armed Forces, in an effort to boost the morale for the final year of the war. They are often referred to as badges, in the context of unit insignia, but they are actually awards, in the fashion of the Sacred Band and 3rd Mountain Brigade ones.
These 2 present some very clear differences in their details, diameter and thickness, one of them had also a coat of varnish applied.
I hope you 'll find them interesting!
Best regards,
Giorgos
I would like to share two "National Services Awards" of the Greek Civil War era, that I found recently. These were instituted in 1949, the last year of the war and were awarded to the armed volunteers of the M.E.A., the "National Security Units".
The M.E.A. were auxiliary units of armed civilians, mainly consisting of nationalists. Many of those were ex-collaborators who found a means of self-protection and revenge against the communists. Belonging to such a unit or the M.A.Y., the "Land Security Units", meaned certain privileges, such as being part of or actually being the local authority, also in charge of distributing the foreign aid. There were several cases mentioned even by the military during the time, that the men of these units exercised this authority without any limit against the unarmed population in several occasions and even systematically.
The awards were designed and awarded after Field Marshal A. Papagos took over the command of the Armed Forces, in an effort to boost the morale for the final year of the war. They are often referred to as badges, in the context of unit insignia, but they are actually awards, in the fashion of the Sacred Band and 3rd Mountain Brigade ones.
These 2 present some very clear differences in their details, diameter and thickness, one of them had also a coat of varnish applied.
I hope you 'll find them interesting!
Best regards,
Giorgos