The Allied Victory Medals

[leon21]

It was agreed at Versailles at the end of the war that the Allies would award a standardised Victory Medal

to their own personnel, each awarding basically the same medal to their forces.

Below are examples of the medals produced by the Allied Nations.

1st The American Medal.

2nd The Cuban Medal.

3rd The Belgium Medal.

4th The Czechoslovakian Medal.

[leon21]

Here are the next four medals.

1st The French Medal.

2nd The Portugal Medal.

3rd The Siam ( Thailand ) Medal.

4th The Japanese Medal.

[Fritz]

Do you have all these? As ever, the whole world ganged up on Germany. Same every time, after which, they divided up the spoils of war, esp. the former German colonies.

[leon21]

No Paul, these are only examples for anybody who have not seen them.

Below are four more.

1st The Brazil Medal.

2nd The Romania Medal.

3rd The Italy Medal.

4th The Greece Medal.

The only one I have not found is an example of the Spanish Medal.

[Fritz]

If you ever come across a Spanish Victory Medal for WW1, then you'll  know there's something wrong somewhere. Spain did not take part in the Great War, unlike Portugal, which hoped to gain some of the German colonies in Africa and elsewhere. Holland also remained neutral.

I remember seeing all Victory Medals complete in the Imperial War Museum London many years ago.

[leon21]

This is a page from the book British Campaign Medals 0f the First World War by Peter Duckers.

Section Allies and Enemies some Foreign Campaign Medals.

Opinions is the Author completely wrong or does he know something that nobody else knows ?.

[Fritz]

Here is a map showing all belligerants in WW1 - the orange marded territories are the Central Powers, the green are the Allied (Entente), the grey are neutral - does not quite balance with such an overweight on the Allied side - the chances for the Central Powers (being surrounded), were almost nil from the very beginning, demonstrated by the almost immediate loss of all colonies worldwide, especially due to lack of sufficient sea power.

Have never seen the medal illustrated, the ribbon if correct to the medal displayed on, is certainly reminiscent of the victory ribbons - Spain immediately declared its neutrality on the outbreak of war in 1914. I can't imagine Spain issuing a medal for Spanish volunteers to the Allied side, that would be against all neutrality principles. Spain even offered exile to Kaiser Wilhelm II., but Holland was more befitting.

It would be desirable to find out more on this. Here is the Wikipedia explanation of neutrality of Spain and its overseas posessions:

Spanien / Spanische Kolonien – wirtschaftlicher Aufschwung durch Rohstofflieferungen an die Kriegsparteien, vornehmlich an die Entente. 

Spanisch-Guinea (heute Äquatorialguinea) – Rückzugsgebiet der deutschen Schutztruppe für Kamerun.

Spanisch-Sahara (heute Westsahara).

 

[Gildwiller1918]

As I recall, Spain was neutral, unlike Portugal. I can't remember reading anything to the contrary. Maybe the author meant Portugal instead of Spain. Portugal did send a small contingent to the western Front, with disastrous results. 

[Sumserbrown]

Here is an example of a fantasy piece - the Polish WWI Victory medal. I have no idea who produced them, when, where and it what quantities but there are three different varieties. I have two of them, the third is too expensive for me!

Rob

[Sumserbrown]

This is my Brazilian WWI victory medal. I bought this one with an original brevet, which was issued to sub-official (later Admiral)  Prado Maia, although I cannot prove that the brevet goes with the medal.

[Sumserbrown]

Some people (including Laslo in his book) also include the Philippine Constabulary Medal with the WWI Allied Victory Medals. I do not have the ribbon, but here is the medal. If you know where I can buy a piece of the medal ribbon, even if it is a modern repro, then please let me know.

 

[Sumserbrown]

A closer look at Siam's interallied victory medal, in case you are lucky enough to see one for sale and want to check authenticity before buying. If you get to actually hold it, it feels surprisingly light when compared to those of the other countries.

[Sumserbrown]

This is a close-up of another of the less common victory medals, that of Cuba

[Sumserbrown]

France had an official victory medal, but two other versions were issued unofficially. The official type is very common, unofficial type I is uncommon and type II is rarer, although you regularly see all of them on auction sites.