Is it possible to find out what the Military Medal was awarded for?

[Lisajb]

Is it possible to find out why someone was awarded the Military Medal? If there are any such records existing, would these detail exactly what the recipient had done to merit the award, or would it merely say “for gallantry and acts of devotion to duty under fire”?

Earlier thread here - https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=694882.msg5384752#msg5384752

My son was wondering what Michael O’Hara might have done to merit the award.

Thanks
Lisa

[MaxD]

It may be possible to find something in the relevant war diary but therein lies the problem. The MM card has him as Royal Munster Fusiliers attached to " 41st Infantry Brigade Signal Section Royal Engineers".  The LG listing simply has R M Fusiliers.  Dilemma is was he serving with his own battalion who in 1917 (when his MM is gazetted) were in 47 Brigade in 16 Division or was he with 41 Brigade who were in 14 Division or is the card in error as far as the brigade is concerned?

In general, when an award appears in a very long list of awards such as the one he appears in, they cover a particular longish period of action so a LG entry in September 1917 would in all likelihood relate to action in the Flanders offensive June onwards.
More work needed.

MaxD

[Lisajb]

Hi Max

Thanks for your efforts. By the time Michael died, He was with the Royal Engineers. I'm very unfamiliar with military records, so would be grateful for any guidance.

[Creasegirl]

At a remembrance service I went to yesterday the speaker was trying to find out what his great grandfather got medal for and said that the records office had been destroyed by bombing in ww2.

[MaxD]

A bit lost in translation.  About 60% or so of individual service records were indeed lost to bombing in WW2.  MM citations were among them.


It is always worth trying the war diary and even newspaper reports route.  Not entirely impossible but not straightforward either.  I wonder whether the speaker had tried to other routes?
MaxD

PS Still looking.

[Regorian]

I used to know a man who had won the MM in Korea, for taking out two Chinese machine gun positions single handed. He didn't mean too. What happened was he was a sergeant leading a section attack. As he related it, he never spoke much about his various war experiences, Korea, Vietnam, Algeria in the FFL.

He was horrified to hear only his own boots on the hard ground. His section had not followed him. He thought, what's safest, run back or continue. He decided to go on. He threw a grenade at one MG position and sprayed the other with his Sterling? sub machine gun. He knocked them out, and after returning to their foxholes had to be restrained. British grenades were defensive and could not be thrown far enough to avoid being in the splinters area. He spent a year in hospital in Japan from eye injury, and was still suffering in the 80's and 90's in danger of going blind in one eye.

 

     

[Lisajb]

Thank you Max

[MaxD]

Lisajb

I've had another look at the war diaries relevant to both the Royal Munster Fusiliers in 16 Division and to 41 Brigade in 14 Division in the three/four months prior to the publishing of the award in September 1917.  I find no specific actions that could be pin-pointed as the one for which he was recommended for the award, his name certainly doesn't appear (unless I missed it and in each case I looked at diaries from Division downwards).

It should be borne in mind that an MM could be awarded not necessarily for just one single act, bayonet between his teeth, grenades in each hands storming pill boxes single handedly but also for sustained bravery during a period of action following which the commanders would review the action of men under their command and make recommendations up the chain.  His may well have been one of these.

MaxD

[Regorian]

Might be worth noting, MM was for other ranks, officers were awarded the Military Cross, same distinction.  Since 1993 only the Military Cross is awarded to all ranks.