The Air Force Cross is a military decoration awarded to personnel of the United Kingdom Armed Forces, and formerly also to officers of the other Commonwealth countries, for "an act or acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty whilst flying, though not in active operations against the enemy". A bar is added to the ribbon for holders who are awarded a second AFC.
The award was established on June 31918. It was originally awarded to air force commissioned officers and to Warrant Officers. Since World War II the award has been open to army and naval aviation officers, and since 1993 to other ranks as well; the Air Force Medal, previously awarded to other ranks, has been discontinued.
During World War I, approximately 680 were awarded. During World War II, 2,001, with 26 bars awarded. One unique second bar was awarded to Wing Commander H J Wilson in 1944.
58 honorary awards were made to aircrew of other non-commonwealth countries.
Recipients of the Air Force Cross are entitled to use the post-nominal letters "AFC". A bar is added to the ribbon for holders of the AFC who received a second award.
Description
- The medal is a silver cross 60mm high and 54mm wide, representing aircraft propeller blades, with wings between the arms. The obverse depicts Hermes riding on the wings of a hawk holding a laurel wreath. At the top of the upper arm is the royal crown while the other three arms bear the Royal Cypher of the reigning monarch at the time of issue.
- The suspender is straight and decorated with laurel wreaths.
- The ribbon was originally white with red broad horizontal stripes, but changed in 1919 to the current white with red broad diagonal stripes at a 45-degree angle.
Notes
See also
- British and Commonwealth orders and decorations
- Recipients of the Air Force Cross
- Page including text from the London Gazette dated 5 December 1919 establishing DFC, AFC, DFM and AFM
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Saturday July 12, 2008 at 06:10:06 PDT (GMT -0700)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation
Copyright © 2008, Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.