help with 2 medals please
Posted:
Sat Jan 22, 2011 3:13 pmby uthminsta
Can anyone give me some information about these medals? I looked up Joffre and found out he was a French general in WWI, but I sill have very little knowledge about medals. Are they of any value?
Re: help with 2 medals please
Posted:
Sat Jan 22, 2011 4:02 pmby AGgressive Metal
The reverse of the medal says "The terror of the boches, the 75". 'Boches' is a deragatory French word for German soldiers and the 75 refers to the 75mm Model 1897 field gun that is pictured. It was a bad mamma-jamma that could fire very rapidly compared to other artillery of the time and was used by the Allies, including America. In fact, French 75s remained in service in many nations well into WW2. The fact that the medal uses an un-PC word tells me it is an original period medal, not a modern souvenir. Whether or not it is valuable is a different story, but you could check around the WWI French militaria section of Ebay for hints.