France Paybook Medals Puzzle

[PKeating]

Some of the entries are obvious but does anyone have any ideas regarding the meaning of the "Franco-Britannique croix de commandeur pour services rendus à la cause des alliés" and the "Croix du Combattant de l'Europe". The "croix commémorative de la Libération" could be the Cross of Lorraine-style medal.

PK

[Paul L Murphy]

All three are awards made by certain veteran groups/organisations. It is unusual to see them written into a livret militaire since they are not official state awards. I will try to dig out some photos of them since I know for certain that I have at least two of them in Foreign Legion medal groups from the 60s.

[PKeating]

All three are awards made by certain veteran groups/organisations. It is unusual to see them written into a livret militaire since they are not official state awards. I will try to dig out some photos of them since I know for certain that I have at least two of them in Foreign Legion medal groups from the 60s.

Thank you very much, Paul. I would love to see them. I'll be posting the interesting pages from this paybook shortly. Lucien Barroy was quite an interesting chap, whose resistance pseudonym was "Ali Baba".

PK

[Chris Boonzaier]

I Would guess that the award entries to the paybook were made by the vetrans association after the war. no reason for the military to have a hand in it as he was no longer serving.

I bet there is some local historian somewhere who has some self published stuff about the resistence in his area.... now you just have to find them...

[Paul L Murphy]

Here is the document for the Croix du Combattant de l'Europe which shows what the medal looks like. I am still trying to dig out the others.

[PKeating]

Thanks, Paul. Very kind of you. I've seen this cross in a few medal shops and on a few blazers. Odd-looking thing.

You're absolutely right, Chris. The ORA/FFI entries were also verified by the veterans' association or amicale after the war, and Barroy remained on the reserve until 1953. The Croix de Combattant Volontaire de la Résistance was not instituted until 1954 so some of the entries for the medals were certainly made afterwards. There is a teacher in Le Mans who has published a book of photographs of some 200 members of the sarthois resistance, in which Barroy is included so I am going to order it.

I would have thought that Barroy was entitled to some other medals too, like the 1939-1945 War Medal with the LIBÉRATION clasp and the ordinary Resistance Medal. Anyway, there must be files on him and on his ORA unit and their actions.

PK

[Paul L Murphy]

Unfortunately I do not have photos of the other two medals. You might get lucky if you google them or if you stick the name into a search in ebay.fr since they do come up for sale quite a bit.