War Memorial Medal 1915/1918
In memory of the First World War , the Bulgarian Tsar Boris III donated. the 1915/1918 War Memorial Medal by decree of December 9, 1933 . The award could be given to surviving combatants , non-combatants and survivors. It could also be awarded to members of allied armed forces who had fought alongside Bulgaria during these years.
Appearance
The fire-gilded round medal with a diameter of 31 mm and a thickness of 3 mm shows in the obverse the raised embossed coat of arms of Bulgaria , underlaid by two diagonally crossed swords pointing upwards . The symbol is surrounded by two branches of laurel and oak leaves crossed below. In contrast, the reverse shows the embossed year of the war or in the middle 1915 - / 1918. The year numbers are enclosed by two branches that are crossed at the bottom, which first consist of rose branches, then of oak leaves and turn into ears at their ends.
Carrying method
The 1915/1918 war memorial medal was worn on the upper left side of the chest on a 39 mm wide red triangular ribbon , the hem of which was red, white and green and white on both sides for those involved in the war . The ribbon for non-fighters also had a vertical white central stripe, and a black central stripe for the bereaved. Female persons wore the medal on a ribbon. Incidentally, the 1912/1913 war commemorative medal had to be worn before that of the 1915/1918 campaign.
Others
The right to be awarded was limited to deeds and merits that had to be accomplished or acquired in the period from October 1, 1915 to November 30, 1919.
The last awards were made on December 31, 1939. A total of around 280,000 medals were produced by the three commissioned manufacturers, the Gloerfeld brothers in Lüdenscheid , Huguénin Fréres et Cie in Le Locle and Otto Schikle in Pforzheim . Of these, 30,000 were awarded to Bulgarian nationals for the Balkan War and 50,000 for the First World War. German soldiers received almost 200,000 awards. The cost of issuing a German certificate of ownership was around 200 lev (approx. 6 Reichsmarks) and had to be paid out of pocket.
literature
- Todor Petrov: Bulgarian Orders and Medals. Military Publishing House Ltd., Sofia 2005, ISBN 954-509-317-X .
- Dimitri Romanoff: The Orders, Medals and History of the Kingdom of Bulgaria. Balkan Heritage Publishers, Rungsted Kyst 1982, ISBN 87-981267-0-9 , pp. 152-153.