Kiwi Medals

This is one of my favourite of the stars from WW2. This is because it is part of my grandfathers entitlement as he fought in the Solomon Islands against the Japanese.

The medal was awarded for operational service in the Pacific Theater between 8 December 1941 and 2 September 1945, and also for certain specified service in China, Hong-Kong, Malaya and Sumatra:

Hong Kong – between 8 December 1941 and 25 December 1941
China and Malaya – between 8 December 1941 and 15 February 1942
Sumatra – between 8 December 1941 and 23 March 1942
Second World War service in China, Hong Kong, Malaya and Sumatra after the above end dates was recognised by the award of the Burma Star.
The qualifying sea areas for the award of the Pacific Star are the Pacific Ocean (including the South China Sea) and the Indian Ocean east of a line running due south from Singapore round the South-East coast of Sumatra, through Christmas Island, and southwards along the meridian of 110 deg East.
The Pacific Star was authorized for immediate bestowal to any soldier or sailor who had been killed or wounded in combat.
British uniform regulations stipulated that Burma Star would not be awarded to a recipient of the Pacific Star. Subsequent entitlement to the Burma Star was denoted by the award of the Burma Star clasp.

This entry was posted on February 14, 2010 at 11:05 PM and is filed under 1939-1945 Service Medals with tags United Kingdom, WW2. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.