32 JOMSA

A ceremonial item seen on both United States Army and United States Marine Corps uniforms is a braided colored cord, with a gold aiguillette suspended from the end, worn around the left shoulder.1

This item is the fourragère, a dress item originally established for the French forces in World War I, and then later extended to include World War II and conflicts other than the world wars.2 Fourragère are widely worn in the French forces as ceremonial items of dress, some not directly related to decorations. The aim of this article, however, is to discuss the system of fourragère that are worn to indicate various levels of collective decoration awards made to military units.

The fourragère itself consists of a braided double rope (except see below for the fourragère of the Order of the Liberation) in the colors of a particular medal ribbon, terminating in either one or two (depending on level of award) free ends to which are attached metal aiguillettes.

World War I – Croix de guerre 1914-1918

The fourragère as a unit award emblem grew directly out of the creation of the Croix de guerre (War Cross) in 1915. The Croix de guerre was created to fill a gap in the French honors and awards system that had been revealed by the outbreak of World War I and was specifically established as a visible sign that wearer had been cited in military

orders at a particular level for some act of gallantry or distinguished service in combat. The various levels of award were signified by attachments (of which more than one could be worn) for the medal ribbon, namely:

Brigade, regiment or other unit – bronze starDivision – silver starArmy Corps – gilt starArmy – bronze palm

As with individuals, so with units and formations, which could also be cited in military orders. On April 21, 1916, it was announced that a special insignia had been created to be awarded to units, formations or ships that had been cited in orders at Army level (i.e. equivalent to an award of the Croix de guerre with palm) more than once. This insignia was to take the form of a plaited shoulder cord in the color of the ribbon of the Croix de guerre, i.e. the fourragère.

The system was modified on February 22, 1918 with the issue of Memorandum No. 2156D. This document was issued in recognition that many units of the French Army and Navy had been cited at Army or Navy level so many times that there needed to be a system better than the original simple fourragère in the colors of the ribbon of the Croix de guerre. To address this issue, the memorandum decreed that for multiple citations, fourragère would be worn in the colors of the Croix de

ROPE OF COURAGE:A BRIEF LOOK AT THE FRENCH FOURRAGÈRE

GRAHAM WILSON

Figure 1: The various combinations of World War I fourragère based on the number of citations in Army level orders.

Vol. 62, No. 2 (March-April 2011) 33

guerre, the Médaille militaire (Military Medal) or the Légion d’honneur (Legion of Honor), depending on the number of citations in Army level orders, as follows:

Units cited 2-3 times, fourragère in the colors of the Croix de guerre (green and red)

Units cited 4-5 times, fourragère in the colors of the Médaille militaire (yellow and green)

Units cited 6-8 times, fourragère in the color of the Légion d’honneur (red)

Units cited 9-11 times, double fourragère in the colors of Légion d’honneur and Croix de guerre

Units cited 12-14 times, double fourragère in the colors of the Légion d’honneur and Médaille militaire

Units cited 15 or more times, double fourragère in the color of the Légion d’honneur

These combinations are illustrated in Figure 1. The regulations stated that members of a cited unit who were actually serving with the unit at the time of the award were entitled to wear the fourragère permanently. Persons posted into the unit subsequently could and can only wear the fourragère while actually serving on the strength of the unit.

One bit of confusion that needs to be cleared up at this point is the difference between the award of fourragère to a unit and award of an actual decoration. The fourragère simply recognises that the unit had or has been cited more than once in Army (or the equivalent Navy) level orders, i.e. a fourragère is equivalent to a unit having been awarded the Croix de guerre two or more times but does not mean that the unit has been physically presented with a Croix de guerre. Apart from fourragère, however, the French system does actually allow for units to be physically awarded a decoration, which is pinned to the unit color or flag. It is technically possible for a unit to have been or be awarded a decoration, say the Médaille militaire, but never receive a fourragère.3

A total of 792 awards of the fourragère 1914-1918 were made at the various levels, including 681 to the Army, 21 to the Navy, 62 to the Air Force and 28 to foreign units.

Between and After the World Wars – Croix de guerre TOE

While World War I ended physically in November 1918 and actually in June 1919, France still had numerous colonies in the Levant, Africa and Southeast Asia, and as is the way with colonies, the natives often got restless, meaning that the French forces in fractious colonies were not quite as at peace as the forces in the Metropole. Colonial commanders petitioned the government to extend the award of the Croix de guerre 1914-1918 to

allow its award for actions in the colonies. This request was rejected for several reasons. However, recognising the need for a similar award to be available for combat action in the colonies, on April, 30 1921 the French Government passed a law creating the Croix de guerre des Théâtres d’Opérations Extérieurs or the Croix de guerre TOE (War Cross for External Theatres of Operations).

The obverse of the Croix de Guerre TOE is identical to that of the Croix de Guerre 1914-1918 and the same system of stars and palms is used to signify the various levels of citations. The ribbon of the Croix de Guerre TOE is light blue with broad outer stripes of red. The Croix de Guerre TOE has been awarded for actions in the Levant from 1918-1919; Indochina 1918-1920; Morocco 1918; French Equatorial Africa 1919; French West Africa 1918-1921; Indochina 1918-1922; pre-World War II military missions to the Baltic States, Upper Silesia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Russia, the Caucasus, Siberia, Hungary and Rumania; Indochina 1945-1954; Madagascar 1947; Korea 1950-1953; Middle East (Egypt) 1956; Persian Gulf 1991-1992; Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1999; Lebanon 2006-ongoing; Afghanistan 2007-ongoing.

As with the Croix de guerre 1914-1918, the regulations for the Croix de guerre TOE allow for units to be cited at various levels, including at Army (bronze palm) level. In recognition of this, the French Government created a fourragère of the Croix de guerre TOE via Memorandum No. 14471M of July 9, 1926. The design of the new award was identical to that of World War I, with the exception that the colors are those of the ribbon of the Croix de guerre TOE, i.e. light blue and red. Again recognising that certain units might be cited quite a number of times, and to bring the Croix de guerre TOE into line with the Croix de guerre 1914-1918, Memorandum 2504M of 30 December 1926 authorised fourragère for the Croix de guerre TOE in different combinations, as follows:

Units cited 2-3 times, fourragère in the colors of the Croix de guerre TOE (light blue and red)

Units cited 4-5 times, fourragère in the colors of the Medaille militaire with an ‘olive’ in the colors of the Croix de guerre TOE above the aiguillette

Units cited 6-8 times, fourragère in the color of the Légion d’honneur with an ‘olive’ in the colors of the Croix de guerre TOE above the aiguillette

Units cited 9-11 times, double fourragère in the colors of Légion d’honneur and Croix de guerre TOE

‘Olives’ need to be explained, as they impact not just on the fourragère of the Croix de guerre TOE, but also on the Croix de guerre 1939. Olives are acorn shaped devices, approximately 2.5cm long and 1.5cm wide at their

34 JOMSA

widest point; olives may be made of woven silk, cotton, or synthetic fibre, of colored plastic or of painted metal and are hollow to allow them to be threaded onto the cord of a fourragère. When the fourragère for the Croix de guerre TOE was authorised, it was clear that some method of differentiating a fourragère of the Croix de guerre 1914-1918 from one of the Croix de guerre TOE was required. The solution, as seen from the list above, was to add an olive in the colors of the ribbon of the Croix de guerre TOE. Olives would be authorised once more following the end of World War II (see Figure 2).

Shown at Figure 3 is the basic fourragère in the colors of the Croix de guerre TOE and a fourragère in the color of the Légion d’honneur with the olive in the colors of Croix de guerre TOE authorised for a unit cited 6-8 times. A total of 152 awards of the fourragère TOE are known

Figure 3: Basic fourragère in the colors of the Croix de guerre TOE and the Légion d’honneur.

to have been made to date, including 90 to the Army, 28to the Navy and 34 to the Air Force. Since the fourragère TOE was for France’s colonial wars, obviously no awards were ever made to foreign units.

World War II – Croix de guerre 1939

At the outbreak of World War II a new version of the Croix de guerre was authorized. The subject of the Croix de guerre 1939 is incredibly complex, encompassing a large number of players, including the 1939 French Government, the Free French movement of General de Gaulle, the Vichy Government and even Admiral Darlan in North Africa, and is far too complex to go into in this article. Suffice it to say that the Free French movement triumphed and became the legitimate government of France. In 1945, in Ministry of War Memorandum No. 5.760 Cab:Mil:Dec of April 20, 1945, the French Government established a fourragère for World War II, but specified that it would be in the colors of the Croix de guerre 1914-1918. The Memorandum specified that in order to indicate whether a fourragère had been awarded simply for World War II service or for a combination of World War I and World War II service, a new system of ‘olives’ (see above) was to be adopted. The Memorandumdirected that units awarded a fourragère for World War II would wear the fourragère of the Croix de guerre 1914-1918 with olives in combinations of the ribbon colors of the Croix de guerre 1939-45, the Medaille militaire and the Légion d’honneur attached just above the aiguillette to signify numbers of awards. In the case of units that had already been awarded a fourragère for World War I, olives in the colors of the various grades for that war were also authorised, to be worn on the fourragère in combination with World War II olives, but worn closest to the aiguillette to signify seniority.4

The appendix to Memorandum 5.760 Cab:Mil:Dec showing the authorised arrangements of olives is recreated in the table at the top of the next page. Figure 4 shows, from left to right, a fourragère 1939 with olive indicating a World War II award; fourragère of the

Figure 2: Types of ‘olives’ for the fourragère 1914-1918 and 1939-1945.

Vol. 62, No. 2 (March-April 2011) 35

Mèdaille militaire with multiple olives indicating award of the fourragère for both the Croix de guerre and the Mèdaille militaire in World War I and the Croix de guerre in World War II; and fourragère of the Legion d’honneur with olives for fourragère for the Croix de guerre and Legion d’honneur in World War War One and fourragère for the Croix de guerre, Mèdaille militaire and Legion d’honneur for World War II. A total of 260 awards of the fourragère 1939-1945 were made, including 75 to the Army, 61 to the Navy, 38 to the Air Force and 86 to foreign units.

Figure 4: Fourragère with various ‘olives’.

l’Ordre de la Libération

The last and latest fourragère to be created and conferred is that of l’Ordre de la Libération (the Order of the Liberation). This decoration was created on November 16, 1940 by General de Gaulle. The aim of the Order was to “reward people, or military or civilian communities, who will have distinguished themselves in the work of liberating France and her Empire.” There are no criteria connected with the Order relating to age, sex, rank, origin or nationality, nor are there any specific requirements in the nature of the deeds, apart from their exceptional quality. The Order has a single grade, Companion of the Liberation (Compagnon de la Libération) and General de Gaulle, the founder of the Order, has been the only Grand Maître (Grand Master) of the Order.

The second highest French decoration, ranking immediately after the Légion d’honneur, and perhaps the most exclusive of modern French awards, it was awarded to only 1036 individuals before the last award was made on January 23, 1946 (the Order was re-opened twice to honor foreign personalities who helped liberate France, namely war-time British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill in 1958 and the late King George VI in 1960, bringing the total to 1038).

Apart from individuals, however, and in accordance with the original statutes for the Order, eighteen units of the French Armed Forces and five French communities had also been decorated with l’Ordre de la Libération, namely:

Army

Battailon de marche n°213e Demi-brigade de Légion étrangèreBattailon d’infanterie de marine et du PacifiqueRégiment de marche du Tchad2e Régiment d’infanterie coloniale1er Régiment d’artillerie coloniale1/3e Régiment d’artillerie coloniale1er Régiment de marche de spahis marocains

36 JOMSA

501e Régiment de chars de combat Air Force

1ére Escadrille de chasseRégiment de chasse ‘Normandie-Niemen’2e Régiment de chasseurs parachutistes de l’Armée de l’airGroupe de bombardement ‘Lorraine’Groupe de chasse ‘Ile-de-France’Groupe de chasse ‘Alsace’ Navy

Sous-marin RubisCorvette Aconit1er Régiment des fusiliers marins

Communities

GrenobleNantesParisVassieux-en-VercorsÎle de Sein

By a decree of February 23, 1996, the Minister for Defense of the French Republic created a fourragère for l’Ordre de la Libération, specifically as a means to ensure that the Order would have a permanent physical place in France. On June 18, 1996, in a ceremonial parade at Mont Valérien, the President of the Republic presented the fourragère of l’Ordre de la Libération to the commanders of seventeen units (or units that had inherited the traditions of previous units) that had been decorated with the Order and conferred upon those units the right to wear the fourragère.

Visually, the fourragère of l’Ordre de la Libération differs markedly from the other fourragère discussed in that instead of being a braided double cord it consists of two cords in the black and green color of the ribbon of the Order, stitched together (one cord is longer than the other and ends in a gilt aiguillette). Attached to the hanging end of the single cord, just below the ‘hangman’s knot’ and above the aiguillette is a miniature emblem of the Order. The fourragère of l’Ordre de la Libération is shown at Figure 5.

Entitlement to Permanent Wear

As with unit awards in United States, Australia, etc, the award of a fourragère to a unit is permanent to the unit, but not necessarily permanent to an individual. The rules roughly state that only those persons serving with a unit at the time it was cited may wear the fourragère

Figure 5: Fourragère of l’Ordre de la Libération.

permanently, while personnel posting into the unit at a later date may only wear the fourragère while physically posted to the unit. The rules for the fourragère 1914-1918 are a bit more stringent, however, specifying that to have permanent entitlement to wear a unit’s fourragère a person must have been serving with the unit during every engagement for which it was cited, i.e. for a basic fourragère awarded for two citations in Army orders, a soldier must have been present at both actions cited. If the soldier had been present for only one action, he was required to cease wearing the fourragère when he ceased to be a member of the unit. On transfer from the decorated a unit, a member entitled to wear the unit’s fourragère permanently would have this confirmed in writing by the unit commanding officer and the regulations stipulate that in such cases the fourragère would have a metal slider carrying the unit number attached above the aiguillette.

These stringent eligibility criteria and regulations for wear also pertain to the fourragère for both the Croix de guerre TOE and Croix de guerre 1939. Figure 6 shows a fourragère for the Croix de guerre 1914-1918 with the number 85 affixed to it, indicating that the wearer had earned the right to wear the fourragère permanently while serving with the 85e Régiment d’infanterie. The rather fancy aiguillette suggests that the original owner was an officer (see below).

Aiguillettes

Aiguillettes are silver for cavalry/armoured units and

Vol. 62, No. 2 (March-April 2011) 37

Figure 6: Fourragère for the Croix de guerre 1914-1918 with the number ‘85’ affixed.

gilt for all other units. Generally made out of metal, they can sometimes be encountered made of painted wood or even of colored plastic. Figure 7 shows fourragère for the Croix de guerre, Mèdaille militaire, Legion d’honneur and Croix de guerre TOE with aiguillettes in gilt and silver. Supposedly plain, it is not uncommon to encounter more expensive, privately purchased specimens where the aiguillette is decorated with various motifs, including images of the medal represented or by unit insignia. Figure 8 illustrates a very worn and faded fourragère for the Croix de guerre 1914-1918 awarded to an artillery unit and note the insignia of the French Army artillery on the aiguillette.

Figure 8: Fourragère for the Croix de guerre 1914-1918 with the insignia of the French Artillery.

Super Fourragère – 3e REI and RICM

While a number of units of the French Armed Forces are entitled to more than one fourragère, only two units are entitled to wear three, namely the 3e Régiment étrangère d’infanterie (3e REI or 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment)

and the Régiment d’infanterie-chars de marine (RICM or Marine Armoured Infantry Regiment) . The t r iple fourragère of these two units is shown at Figure 9, mounted for wear on the winter uniform jacket of a Corporal of the 3e REI, circa 1980. Both the 3e REI and RICM wear the double fourragère in the colors of Légion d’honneur and the Croix de guerre 1914-1918, with two olives on the fourragère of the Légion d’honneur, the lower one signifying nine to 11 citations in World War I and upper signifying two to three citations in World War II; and the fourragère in the colors of the Mèdaille militaire with an olive in the colors of the Croix de guerre TOE, signifying four to five citations. Besides its own honors earned after 1920, when the regiment was raised, the 3e REI

Figure 7: Fourragère for the Croix de guerre, Mèdaille militaire, Legion d’honneur and Croix de guerre TOE with aiguillettes in gilt and silver.

38 JOMSA

Figure 9: The winter uniform jacket of a Corporal of the 3e

REI, circa 1980 with a triple fourragère.

inherited the honors of the World War I Régiment de marche de la Légion étrangère or RLEM from which the 3e REI was formed in North Africa in 1920.5 For its part, the RICM inherited the honors of former Régiment d’infanterie coloniale du Maroc. At the time of Moroccan independence in 1956, the French Army was loathe to lose the honors and traditions of the RICM and in order not to do so, transferred the regiment to the French Army and renamed it Régiment d’infanterie-chars de marine to enable the title RICM to continue on and to ensure that the traditions of the most highly decorated unit of the French Army did not die out.

Conclusion

Fourragère are probably well known to members of OMSA, considering that the insignia is worn by a number of units of the United States Army and United States Marine Corps. However, the full story of the French fourragère is both interesting and complex, and I trust that members have enjoyed reading my small effort to make sense of the subject.

Except for Figures 1 and 2, which are excerpted from La Marque du courage, all items illustrated are from the author’s collection.

Endnotes1. Currently worn by the 1st and 3rd Infantry Divisions, 82nd Airborne

Division, 16th, 18th, 23rd and 26thInfantry Regiments, 5th, 7th and 12th Field Artillery Regiments and 1st Engineer Battalion of the United States Army and the 5th and 6th Marine Regiments.

2. The word fourragère comes from the French root ‘fourrage’, meaning ‘forage’ or ‘animal food’. It was originally a slang word for a cord or rope carried by cavalrymen to allow them to secure forage to their saddles to be later fed to their mounts.

3. Awards of the Medaille militaire have been made to the following French units:Februa ry 1918 : Bat ta i lons Chasseurs à p i ed . July 1919: 3e Régiment de marche de zouaves ; 2e Régiment de marche de tirailleurs ; Régiment d’infanterie coloniale du MarocAugust 1919: 1er Régiment de marche de la Légion étrangère, December 1983: 3e Compagnie du 1er Régiment de chasseurs parachutistes January 2002: le Centre d’Instruction Naval (CIN) de Saint-Mandrier; l’École nationale desSous-officiers d’Active de Saint-Maixent; l’École de Gendarmerie de Chaumont; l’École de Formation des Sous-officiers de l’Armée de l’Air de Rochefort.Only a few of these units, e.g. the 3e Régiment étranger d’infanterie (3e REI), inheritor of the traditions of the 1er Régiment de marche de la Légion étrangère, are entitled to wear the fourragère of the Médaille militaire as well as carry the Médaille militaire itself on the regimental or unit color.

4. Fourragère in the colors of the Croix de Guerre 1939 do exist (red with green stripes), however, these have never been officially approved and are forbidden for wear on French military uniforms.

5. Besides the triple fourragère worn by the members of the 3e REI, the regimental color is decorated with:

the Légion d’honneur the Médaille militaire the Croix de guerre 1914-1918 with nine palms the Croix de guerre 1939-1945 with three palms the Croix de guerre TOE with four palms the Ordre mérite militaire Chérifien the Portuguese Order of the Tower and the Sword the Spanish Médaille des volontaires Catalans

the streamer of the United States Presidential Unit Citationthe Médaille de vermeil du Centre national d’études spatiales de Kourou

6. Besides the triple fourragère worn by the members of the RICM, the regimental color is decorated with:

the Légion d’honneur the Médaille militaire the Croix de guerre 1914-1918 with ten palms the Croix de guerre 1939-1945 with two palms the Croix de guerre TOE with five palms the Portuguese Order of the Tower and the Sword the Ordre mérite militaire Chérifien the streamer of the United States Presidential Unit Citation

BibliographyKoundakjian, Vicken (editor). Laws and Regulations Pertaining to the

French Croix de Guerre (OMSA Monograph No.7). Glassboro, New Jersey: Orders and Medals Society of America, 1991.

Order of the Liberation (France), l’Ordre de la Libération www.ordredelaliberation.fr, 2001.

Service Historique de la Défense. La Marque du courage. Paris : Éditions LBM, 2005.