I have already shown medals or other items, which do not belong to this group: WW1 German History, but I am sure we can look at other direction today…
And yes, the Americans were also in Verdun, even in 1916 flying above the heads of the poor German infantry soldiers and French “Poilus”, with the famous “Lafayette Escadrille”.
Today I am showing a beautiful Inter-Allied Victory Medal from the USA with 2 Clasps: “Meuse-Argonne” and “Defensive Sector”. The other allied countries also gave the Inter-Allied Victory Medal but changing the design, depending on the Land. In total we hay 14 Different ones (per country): Great Britain, USA, France, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Greece, Siam (Thailand), Japan, Portugal, Brazil, South Africa, Romania and Cuba.
For my own collection, I am interested in getting pieces, which are related to Verdun. It is clear this medal has nothing to do with the battle of Verdun in 1916, but I decided to get it, because the soldier or officer, who received it, fought in that area in 1918. This can be clearly seen in the Clasp “Meuse-Argonne”, which was given, if the person was active in that area between the 26th of September and the very end of the War.
The clasp “Defensive Sector” was a general one, given to all of those units, who fought in defensive positions, without being part of a specific battle.
Going back to Argonne or Verdun, the Meuse-Argonne offensive was a massive American mobilization of troops along with over 30 French Divisions. It is estimated, that the American Armies, under the command of General Pershing, made a total of 1,2 Million Men. It has been always said, that the huge amount of their casualties was caused by their lack of war experience. Depending on the sources, we may find the number of loses between 125.000 and 200.000.
In the other hand, we should also mention, that there were also “1st Class” Troops, like for example, the 32ndDivision. There are 2 things, that indicates, the huge value of the them: their nickname, “Les Terribles”, given by the French (I believe, they were the only US unit with a nickname given by the French). The other characteristic, which defines the quality and attitude of them, is their own Insignia: A red Arrow with a line in the middle. This is the representation of the Division piercing the Hindenburg Defensive Line. In fact, it was the very first Allied unit to do so.
This is the 4th of the Inter-Allied Medals, that comes into my collection, for sure it won’t be the last one. Having said that, in the last few months, their prices have gone massive up.
Sources:
Maps and part of the Info from Wikipedia.