Jump to content
News Ticker
  • I am now accepting the following payment methods: Card Payments, Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal
  • Latest News

    A NEIN BIEN PHU BAR FOR THE INDOCHINA CAMPAIGN COMMEMORATIVE MEDAL?


    Gordon Craig

    Recommended Posts

    Gentlemen,

    In researching the battle of Dien Bien Phu I have found an Indochina Campaign Commemorative Medal with a bar for DIEN BIEN PHU and a bar for LEGION ENTRANGERE.  Was there a bar for DIEN BIEN PHU or a LEGION ETRANGERE?  Were any bars worn on the Indochina medal?

    Regards,

    Gordon

    DSC00742.JPG

    DSC00745.JPG

    DSC00748.JPG

    DSC00750.JPG

    DSC00753.JPG

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Hello Gordon,

    No bars were authorised for this medal. The Dien Bien Phu bar is, to my knowledge, unofficial and the Légion Etrangère bar belongs to the "National Defence Medal". Below an example of the latter on a 1st class medal :

    FM003-NatDef1Cl-3.thumb.JPG.754833d7520f9028d1d83b7c52857288.JPG

    Regards,

    Hendrik

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Hello Gordon,

    French manufacturers have a long history of producing unofficial medals and bars. I think the motive is financial gain rather than veterans wanting to embellish their members' medal displays but that is just my personal opinion.

    Regards,

    Hendrik

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    • 1 year later...

    Dear Members,

     

    The "Médaille Commémorative de la campagne d' Indochine" is official, it was created by the decree n°53-722 of August 1 1953. It is intended to reward all French soldiers who participated for at least 90 days in the Indochina campaign between August 16 1945 and August 11 1954.

    It was attributed without bar.

     

    The bar "Dien-Bien-Phu" is a fantasy, it as no historical value, only a mercantile one.

     

    Yours sincerely,

    Patrick

    Edited by No one
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Create an account or sign in to comment

    You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

    Create an account

    Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

    Register a new account

    Sign in

    Already have an account? Sign in here.

    Sign In Now
    ×
    ×
    • Create New...

    Important Information

    We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.