UK and Commonwealth Awards
Valor Friday
Today I present something a bit different. If you haven’t discovered the YouTube Yarnhub channel, you’re missing out. They do 3D animated military history videos that are overall very good. A recent video highlighted the actions of Andrew Mynarski. He was a Royal Canadian Air Force airman who was mortally wounded when his Lancaster bomber […]
Valor Friday
BBC (by way of AOL), has a story about a museum appealing for donations to purchase medals related to a grizzly WWII battle I’m ashamed to say I was unfamiliar with. It is the Battle of Geilenkirchen, which was a British-led endeavor, but was the first combat action of the war for the American 84th […]
Valor Friday
Earlier this week, SecDef Hegseth re-renamed Fort Bragg. Instead of naming it after the legendarily bad Confederate General Braxton Bragg, the sprawling facility (one of the world’s largest by population with more than 52,000 military assigned) is now named for a WWII hero of the Battle of the Bulge. Private First Class Roland Bragg earned […]
Valor Friday
I’m once more letting Military Times do my week’s work for me. They posted up an article the other day about the five Americans who have received Britain’s highest honor, the Victoria Cross. For comparison’s sake, here’s the breakdown for foreign born recipients of the Medal of Honor; Out of 3,536 total awards, 568 were […]
Valor Friday
Last week we looked at the heroism of Australian Richard Norden. He recently received a Victoria Cross, the highest award given to those in British or Commonwealth service. The actions for which he was awarded this in 2024 happened decades earlier in the jungles of Vietnam. I briefly mentioned that the Aussies had only once […]
Valor Friday
We’ve highlighted the delayed awarding of high valor awards many times. The American awards system is nothing if not malleable to the whims of later generations that seek to right the wrongs of the past. The British (and by extension Commonwealth) system of awards and decorations is much more rigid. The British system is complex, […]
Valor Friday
I’ve explored the complicated British system of awards and decorations before. Even after having delved into it for several years, it’s still confusing. The Brits have both medals as well as dynastic and fraternal orders. The orders come in various grades, with the upper grades generally coming in the form of a knighthood which grants […]
Valor Friday
I’m currently reading Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart’s memoirs Happy Odyssey, so I figure it’s as good a time as any to refresh everyone on the story of this amazing chap. I also learned a new bit of old British slang. While at an all-boys school, he complained about “fagging“, which is not what you might […]
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