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WW2 Campaign Stars and War Service Medals World Naval Ships Forums Archive

WW2 Campaign Stars and War Service Medals

Posts 1 to 10

Can anyone please tell me, what the precise procedure was, for determining and awarding the officers and men of the Royal Navy; the stars and medals to which they were entitled to, for their service in the Second World War? jainso31

1939-45 Star - Six months service afloat in areas of active operations. For the Fleet Air Arm either six months service afloat or alternatively qualify under RAF terms (ie operations against an enemy - two months service in an operational unit). Qualifying period 3rd Sept 1939 - 2nd Sept 1945. Atlantic Star - Six months service afloat in the Atlantic or Home waters. Service with convoys to North Russia and in the S Atlantic west of longitude 20 E also counted. Qualifying period 3rd Sept 1939 - 8th May 1945. The 1939-45 Star had to be earned before the time counted for the Atlantic Star. Africa Star - Service at sea in the Med between 10th June 1940 and 12th May 1943 and / or service in support of campaigns in Abyssinia, Somaliland and Eritrea between 10th June 1940 and 27th Nov 1941. One or more days service was enough to qualify. Bar North Africa 1942-43 required personnel to have served inshore or on escort duty off N African coast between 23rd Oct 1942 and 12th May 1943. It was possible for Naval personnel serving ashore with Eighth or First Armies to qualify for the bar 8th Army or 1st Army. Pacific Star - Service in the Pacific Ocean, South China Sea and Indian Ocean east of a line running approx south of Singapore. The 1939-45 Star had to be earned before the time counted for the Pacific Star although it was possible to earn just the Pacific Star if a man served in theatre during the last six months of the war (in which case the 1939-45 Star was not given). Qualifying dates were 8th Dec 1941 - 2nd Sept 1945 Burma Star - Service in the Bay of Bengal from south of Ceylon for 300 miles south and 300 miles west of the southernmost point of Sumatra and east to the western side of Sunda Strait. Again the 1939-45 Star had to be earned first but service in the last six months of the war could earn just the Burma Star. Qualifying dates were 11th Dec 1941 - 2nd Sept 1945. Italy Star - Service in the Med and Aegean Seas and in and around the Dodecanese, Corsica, Greece, Sardinia and Yugoslavia after 11th June 1943 to 8th May 1945. Again the 1939-45 Star had to be earned first but the star could be earned alone in the man served in the last six months of the campaign. France & Germany Star - No prior qualification for this Star. Service afloat in direct support of land ops in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany in the North Sea south of a line from Firth of Forth to Kristiansand, in the English Channel or the Bay of Biscay east of long 6 W. Qualifying period 6th June 1944 - 8th May 1945. Service off the south coast of France qualified for the Italy Star. It was not possible to qualify for both the Atlantic and F&G Stars. The appropriate star was given for the campaign the man qualified for first and a bar given for the second star (typically RN got the Atlantic Star with the bar France and Germany). Similarly for the Pacific and Burma Stars - only one star could be earned and a bar was given for the second star (example Pacific Star with bar Burma) It was feasable for a man to earn more than one bar for the Africa Star but only the first one earned was given (usually North Africa 1942-43 for RN). The bars were just sewn onto the ribbon and not attached to the medal.

Defence Medal - complex conditions for this medal but mainly service in the RN in non-operational area subject to air attack or closely threatened, for three or more years (ie home service at UK bases etc would qualify if three or more years accrued). Period 3rd Sept 1939 - 2nd Sept 1945. War Medal - 28 days or more in the RN. Qualifying dates 3rd Sept 1939 - 2nd Sept 1945. If a man was mentiones in despatched the oak leaf emblem is worn on this medal. For many of the stars and medals the full qualifying period was not needed to earn the awards if the man's operational service was terminated by death, wounds or disability. Hope that helps but often it is hard to establish what a sailor earned in terms of medals if you look at just his service sheet. From the list of ships it often difficult to establish what that equates to in terms of which theatres he served in. For RM papers it is even more difficult as some show just command areas. Example - my Father's papers show Copra May 1944 - May 1946 (= Far East) in which time he qualified for three medals - 1939-45 Star, Burma Star and Naval General Service Bar SE Asia 1945-46.

Many thanks Odin for your invaluable assistance re. WW2 Campaign Stars,etc. but the nub of my question was more to do with validation of claim.How was a claim validated and by what process?? I know that Army personnel put in a claim; and I "assume" the "Medal Issuing Authority" validated the claim, prior to making an award. Was this process the same for naval personnel?? The rules being relatively complex,the validation would surely necessitate careful scrutiny of every claimants war service record?? PS I appreciate that a naval rating's S459 would not tell the whole story-therefore there had to be recourse to other records,etc.to establish exact service and where performed. jainso31

Odin- I do hope you can throw some light on how entitlements were determined re. the foregoing I am going off line now until 3/1/11. I wish you and yours all the best for Xmas and NY and hope to see you in print again, jainso31

I don't know the answer to your question but I can tell you the process that occurred for my Father who was a Royal Marine in WWII. I still have many of the letters that he received. I assume something similar would have occurred with RN personnel. My Father wrote to his Group HQ (Melville Barracks Chatham) at the end of 1946 asking about the issue of his campaign medals. I believe it was just a general enquiry without him specifying what he thought he was entitled to. He received a reply (dated 1st Jan 1947 - no day off for some then!) saying they believed he was entitled to the following: 1939-45 Star Burma Star Defence Medal War Medal 1939-45 This was based on a perusal of his service records. However a final check needed to be made at the Admiralty before the medals were issued. When his medals were issued he only received: 1939-45 Star Burma Star War Medal 1939-45 Clearly they weren't satisfied that he had recorded the three years needed to qualify for the Defence Medal. He had joined the Police in December 1946 (possibly why he applied for his medals in the first place - remember a lot of people never bothered to claim their medals). He told me that his Inspector encouraged all his men to ensure they claimed all the medals they were entitled to (possibly to make them look more impressive in uniform with rows of medal ribbons). So my Father then submitted an application for the Defence Medal. This time he had done his homework and furnished extra information. He sent his W3052 - Discharge Certificate from an Army Cadet Unit!!!! He had been in the Army Cadets before joining the Marines and his CO just happened to also be in charge of the local Home Guard Unit. The CO had completed the character section and added at the end. [I]'Besides being in the Army Cadets he also served under me in the Home Guard for over 18 months where he did useful work'[/I]. This extra time, taken with his time in the RMs was enough to qualify him for the Defence Medal. He actually wrote on 26th Nov 1954 and they replied on 30th Nov saying he did qualify for the Defence Medal and it was issued shortly afterwards. When I started getting interested in medals I noticed the General Service Medal was issued for SE Asia 1945-46. I knew he had served in Indonesia after the war (he didn't get home until mid 1946) and I asked him whether he was entitled to this medal - he thought yes but it would be the Naval General Service Medal rather than the GSM which the Army / RAF got. Again he submitted an application, this time for the NGS, in April 1969 and received a reply in June confirming his entitlement and saying the medal was being prepared for issue to him (the NGS is issued named); it was sent to him two weeks later. He was able to quote where he had served, on which ship, and knew the exact date he landed in Indonesia (he got this from his crossing the line certificate which happened a few days before they landed). My Father was on Landing Craft and actually did a full beach landing expecting large scale opposition from the Japanese but that never materialised. So in summary I think the process was you wrote in asking about your medals and the Admiralty made an assessment of what they thought you were entitled to based on your service records, If you thought you were entitled to extra medals then the onus was on you to demonstrate your entitlement with supporting information. In my Father's case the main pieces of evidence were a discharge certificate from the Army Cadet Force and a Crossing the Line Certificate! But clearly you would also need to understand the qualifying conditions for the medals you were claiming. And the moral of the story is 'don't throw any paperwork away. It may come in handy one day'.

I'm up betimes, as I go away for two weeks, early this morning.Thank you again for your help-the procedure does not sound as efficient as I thought. My father was RNR and served in the RN from 28/8/39-19/11/45. His medals are:-1939/45,Atlantic ,Africa,Pacific Stars,Defence and War Medals RNR LSGC+bar-I have an Admiralty Certificate for War Service awards and a letter for his LSGC bar.Plus a recent Arctic Star-these last 2-I got after his death. I think that I am going to let sleeping dogs lie; and not pursue enquiries about validity at this late date, as I have his medals and paperwork -none of which I have ever discarded--trick of the trade as you say-been there etc. Yours Aye Jim jainso31

[QUOTE=jainso31;144160]-I have an Admiralty Certificate for War Service awards jainso31[/QUOTE] Hi Jim. Is there any chance you could post an image of what that looks like? Robert.

Here is a copy of the front of the Certificates for WWII Medals (all three services) and the reverse which lists the WWII medals. The number of medals issued is shown and sometimes the actual medals awarded are ticked. For the RAF there is usually a separate slip with this information marked on it.
Attachments :

Hi Odin. Thank you for the pics. That's great. Robert.

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