page_title: Médaille militaire
section_title: Recipients
hierarchical_section_title: Médaille militaire / Recipients
caption_attribution_description: Original caption: Corporal Eugene J. Bullard EARLY YEARS -- Eugene Jacques Bullard, the first African-American combat pilot, was one of 200 Americans who flew for France in World War I. This picture comes from the gallery at this URL: http://www.af.mil/photos/index.asp?galleryID=160&amp;page=5
context_page_description: The Médaille militaire is a military decoration of the French Republic for other ranks for meritorious service and acts of bravery in action against an enemy force. It is the third highest award of the French Republic, after the Légion d'honneur, a civil and military order, and the ordre de la Libération, a Second World War-only order. The Médaille militaire is therefore the most senior entirely military active French decoration.
  During World War One, 230,000 médailles were awarded, when 1 400 000 French Army soldiers were killed and 3,000,000 wounded. For comparison, the UK Military Medal was awarded on 115,000 occasions in World War One, when 673,375 British Army soldiers were killed and 1,643,469 wounded.
  The award was first established in 1852 by the first President of the French Republic, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte who may have taken his inspiration from a medal established and awarded by his father, Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland.
  After the First World War, the Military Medal was also temporarily awarded for wounds received in combat.
context_section_description: The Médaille militaire was awarded in some number to British and allied forces (allies of the French Empire) during the Crimean War of 1854-56 and in reasonably large numbers to allied forces in the 1914-18 war. During the Second World War, the Médaille reached its highest numbers of foreign bestowals, most often to members of the British Army as well as to the United States military. The general's médaille was awarded to Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Josip Broz Tito, as supreme commanders of the UK, US and Yugoslav military forces, but to also effective military leaders, such as General of the Army Dwight Eisenhower, and to Admiral of the Fleet Andrew Cunningham, 1st Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope.
caption: WW1 African American fighter pilot Eugene Bullard, a recipient of the Médaille militaire
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