Original Item: Only One Available. While the United States remained a neutral power up to April 1917, American volunteers contributed a total of over 3,500 personnel to ambulance work between 1914 and 1917, primarily serving with the French army. Three principal ambulance corps were involved: the American Field Service, the Harjes Formation, and the ‘Anglo-American’ Corps. Around one-third went on to serve in the American Expeditionary Force and other Allied armies and air services.

The Croix de guerre 1914–1918 is a French military decoration, the first version of the Croix de Guerre. It was created to recognize French and allied soldiers who were cited for valorous service during World War I, similar to the British mentioned in dispatches but with multiple degrees equivalent to other nations' decorations for courage.

Soon after the outbreak of World War I, French military officials felt that a new military award had to be created. At that time, the Citation du jour ("Daily Citation") already existed to acknowledge soldiers, but it was just a sheet of paper. Only the Médaille Militaire and Legion of Honor were bestowed for courage in the field, due to the numbers now involved, a new decoration was required in earnest. At the end of 1914, General Boëlle, Commandant in Chief of the French 4th Army Corps, tried to convince the French administration to create a formal military award. Maurice Barrès, the noted writer and parliamentarian for Paris, gave Boëlle support in his efforts.

On 23 December 1914, the French parliamentarian Georges Bonnefous proposed a legislative bill to create the Croix de la Valeur Militaire ("Cross of Military Valor") signed by 66 other parliamentarians. Émile Driant, a parliamentarian who served in the war zone during much of this time, became its natural spokesman when he returned to the legislature. On 18 January 1915, Driant submitted this bill but the name of the military award was renamed to Croix de guerre ("War Cross"). After parliamentary discussions, the bill was adopted on 2 April 1915.

World War I began in 1914 and ended in 1918, so the final name adopted is "Croix de guerre 1914–1918".

Every Croix de guerre awarded carries at least one citation for gallantry or courage to a member of any rank of the French military or of an allied army. Ribbon devices indicate the importance or degree of the soldier's role during the action cited. The lowest degree is represented by a bronze star and the highest degree is represented by a bronze palm. The cross is only awarded once and subsequent actions worthy of citations will be limited to additional ribbon devices on the originally received insignia. The number of ribbon devices on a Croix de guerre is not limited, some awards, especially to ace fighter pilots, had extremely long ribbons with dozens of stars and palms.

The Croix de guerre 1914-1918 was attributed to:

-French and allied soldiers individually cited for a wartime act of gallantry;
-Civilians and militarized personnel individually cited for a wartime act of gallantry;
-Automatically to soldiers and civilians not specifically cited for a Croix de guerre but awarded the Légion d'honneur or Médaille militaire for the highest acts of wartime valour and gazetted in the Official Journal of the French Republic;
-Collectively, to army units, ships or air squadrons;
-To cities and villages, martyrs of war, destroyed, ravaged or bombed by the enemy (2952 towns received the Croix de guerre 1914–1918, in this case, always awarded with palm).
Soldiers who were/are members of units recognized by a collective unit award of the Croix de guerre may wear the Fourragère of the Croix de guerre 1914-1918 as long as they remain members of that unit. Soldiers who actively took part as members of units during repeated feats of arms recognized by more than one collective award of the Croix de guerre may continue to wear the fourragère even after leaving the meritorious unit. Battle streamers in the colors of the Croix de guerre 1914-1918 are affixed to the colors of recipient units.

This Croix de Guerre and Citation was awarded to the American Sanitary Section Number 623, which was known as Section 65 before reaching the front and was led by Lieutenant Campbell. Unfortunately, we have not been able to locate any service information on Campbell, making this a wonderful research opportunity.

The cross was designed by the sculptor Paul-Albert Bartholomé. It is 37 mm wide, Florentine bronze cross pattée, with two crossed swords pointing up between the arms. The obverse center medallion bears the relief image of the French Republic in the form of the bust of a young woman wearing a Phrygian cap surrounded by the circular relief inscription RÉPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE (FRENCH REPUBLIC). Not knowing how long the war would last, the reverse center medallion bears the dates 1914–1915, 1914–1916, 1914–1917 and finally 1914–1918 (like this example).

The cross is suspended by a ring through a suspension loop cast atop the upper cross arm. It hangs from a 37 mm wide green silk moiré ribbon with seven narrow 1,5 mm wide vertical red stripes evenly spaced and two 1 mm red edge stripes. There is a Silver Star fixed to the ribbon for those who were cited at the division level.

The 12 ½” x 8 ½” citation is in great condition with minor tearing and wear to the edges and corners. The text and images are still highly visible and easily read. The unit stamp at the bottom in blue is still clear and can be read as U.S. ARMY AMBULANCE SERVICE WITH THE FRENCH ARMY / SECTION 623.

This is a wonderful pair of items that come more than ready for further research and display!

Section 623 (Section 65)
Section 623 went from Paris to the training-camp at May-en-Multien in June, 1917 where it became known as Section 65. It left there for Courcelles, between Braisne and Fismes, on the Vesle, on July 4, taking over a section of French cars and being attached to the 68th French Division of the Tenth Army. Its station was Vendresse, about three miles from the Aisne, with halfway stations at Longueval and Cuissy, with Paissy as advanced poste de secours, as well as serving at Œuilly by taking blessés to points farther in the rear. On July 11 the entire Division moved into line, and the Section was cantoned at Villers-en-Prayères. In addition the Section made call trips to Madagascar Hill, an artillery poste, and evacuated from Longueval, Saint-Gilles, Courlandon, Mont Notre Dame, and other hospitals.

Following this it went en repos at Bézu-Saint-Germain, and then for a week at Ronchères. On August 20 it returned to the old sector, with the same cantonment and postes. It was enlisted in the United States Army on September 8 and subsequently became Section Six-Twenty-Two.