WW11 Medals and awards

[Peter-RB]

Good morning,

Yet again going through the sad task of sorting out my fathers effects( the last four boxes) I have come across a small piece of paper that say's my Dad was awarded his medals from that conflict, having read this I have now matched it up with the medals he had, but the paper says a Clasp was awarded with his Africa Star,

Could one of you chaps explain what is a clasp, what should it look like, and why would the War office mention it in this very official countsigned paper?

Many regards

Peter RB
Lancashire

[Um... lifting...]

Specifies his service, be it 8th Army, 1st Army, or N. Africa 42-43. The clasp itself will be a narrow horizontal metal bar sewn to the suspension ribbon of the medal.

In undress for this particular medal the clasp would be signified by either a numeral 1, numeral 8, or a rosette.

Wrong medal here, of course, but you get the idea. Actual clasps below.

http://www.awardmedals.com/images/arabian-medal-clasp-lrg.jpg

http://www.awardmedals.com/images/1st-army-clasp-med.jpghttp://www.awardmedals.com/images/8th-army-clasp-med.jpghttp://www.awardmedals.com/images/north-africa-clasp-1942-1943-med.jpg

[Peter-RB]

Thank you Um... for that, sadly I cannot find anything that resembles those bars, but assumption would be it should be the 8Th army due to I know he was at Tobruk in 1942 and in Scilcily at the end of 42, as far as I can see from his pictures and little bits.

sad isn't it when those who took part didnt really tell us youger(well I was once) people what why and where. It would have made things easier.

My regards

Peter R-B
Lancashire

[Tankertrashnav]

You are almost certainly correct about it being the 8th Army clasp. The trouble with the way these medals were issued was you had to get the clasp sewn onto the ribbon after the medals were mounted, and a lot of people never bothered. The clasps, being small, were easily lost as is the case with your father's medals. It is quite easy to obtain a replacement (copy) clasp for a few pounds from one of the many dealers in medals (PM me for a recommendation if you want), or you may find some medal dealer may have a genuine one for sale for a bit more.

[Peter-RB]

Good evening Tanks,

Thank you, any help you could give me would be appreciated, I am trying to put a sort of big frame picture together along with dads medals in it somewhere to give to my boy, who is going back to the sandpit in a couple of months time.

many regards

Peter R-B
Lancashire