Italy Partisan Medal

[medalman90]

One more for today. I know these were issued to military as well as civilian personal, but something tells me he was a resistance fighter.

[claudio2574]

Actually the medal and the diploma are not strictly linked.

The diploma was defined by the law of 16 march 1983 no. 75, without any medal. This document was given to three groups of people: soldiers in service, "deportati politici" (should be partisans) and the IMIes (Italian military internees = Italian POWs in Germany, who were not recognized by the Nazies as regular prisoners). In this case the word "Patriota" confirms your statement about a partisan fighter.

The medal with "VL" (Volontario per la Liberta') comes first, 1945. Actually it should be simply a ribbon, but this ribbon is usually mounted on the standard medal for volunteers, as it is in your case. The rules for the badge are more or less the same than the ones for your diploma.

So you have two different awards, given in different times for the same reasons, and your deduction is correct.

[medalman90]

Thanks Claudio for the clarification. I didnt know that the document woukd specify in whst way the veteran was involved in the war. My guess was patrisan because the document didnt mention anything about prior military service.When I first askasked the seller about the group, he didnt know anything about it.