Lukasz Gaszewski

I am pleased to announce that Poland has a new military order. Yesterday, on the Independence Day of November 11, President of the Republic awarded first six individuals with the newly established Order of the Military Cross. The order, established on October 18, is intended to recognize outstanding military leadership or acts of valor during non-wartime operations and missions of the Polish Armed Forces outside the borders of the Polish Republic or counteracting terrorist attacks. The name refers to the Order Virtuti Militari, as it was called in the era of the Duchy of Warsaw (1807-15). The order is conferred in three classes: GC (neck decoration w. star), Commander and Knight. GC can be awarded to a unit commander for outstanding leadership or initiative combined with efficient commanding a military operation or action. Commander Cross - to a unit commander or another commissioned officer for meritorious leadership or deed, resulting in a successfully performed military operation or action, or to any officer, NCO or private who has been previously awarded the Knight Cross for an act of combat valor at a risk of life; in exceptional circumstances this class can be conferred to a staff officer for collaboration with the commander if the collaboration resulted in a success of the operation or action. Knight Cross - to any officer, NCO or private for an act of combat valor at a risk of life; this class can be conferred to a civilian or to a military unit. Soldiers of the unit awarded with the Knight Cross are authorized to wear a fourragere in the colors of the order's ribbon. Please note that it is the first fourragere in the Polish medallic history ever! In the future the reccommendations will be approved by a chapter of six, selected from recipients of the order. The initial idea to extend the highly respected Polish Order Virtuti Militari to be awarded for peacetime operations as well (as it is the case with the Victoria Cross and the Medal of Honor) faced strong disapproval from both WWII veterans and the order's chapter, which seemed to reflect general reluctance to Polish military presence in Afghanistan and particularly in Iraq. Hence the idea of an entirely new award. The President awarded five soldiers on the mission in Iraq with the 3rd class of the order, including one posthumous award to a soldier who had been killed as a result of a mine blow a day earlier. The only 2nd class went to MG Bronislaw Kwiatkowski, currently commanding the Multinational Division Central-South in Iraq. Enclosed are the drawings of the order's badges. I don't have any photo of the order at the moment. I will post it as soon as I have any availiable. More here: http://www.medals.lava.pl/pl/pl4a.htm#omc

Dear Eric, I deeply bow before you. You did a great job indeed to solve the mystery of the most unknown award system in Europe. Your name will be deeply imprinted in the history of medallic science. I would like to add Albanian ribbons to my http://www.medals.lava.pl site. I do hope you will not object if I use the information from your book, all credits to your work being given of course. I have been desperately trying to find out any images of current Albanian awards - all in vain so far. I have contacted various Albanian institutions, but they have all a strange habit of ignoring any letters directed to them Congratulations again on the excellent work! Lukasz

Beautiful photos! BTW: this is the second type of the order, issued under the Italian occupation (1940-43). While the badge remained basically the same as before the war, it has the distinctive 'love knots' (you can see them also in the Italian Orders of Annunciation and of the Crown of Italy), with letters 'FERT' and crossed fasces below. Also the Albanian crown in the medallion has been turned so that it faces East rather than West.