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France, Alphonse Juin, 1975, a silver medal by R. Corbin, bust half-left in cap, rev. map of Italy and North Africa, arms of the Corps Expéditionnaire below, 81mm (CGMP p.442). Extremely fine and very rare (£70-100)

Illustrated on the Plates. Alphonse Juin (1888-1967), Maréchal de France, the son of a gendarme at Bone, Algeria, graduated from St Cyr in 1911 and following a posting in Morocco served on the Western Front in France where he was badly wounded in 1915. As Maréchal Lyautey’s ADC in Morocco he took part in the Rif campaign in 1923 and played a major part in the pacification campaign against the tribes in the Atlas mountains from 1929 to 1933. Promoted to General in 1938, he commanded the 15th Motorised Division but was captured at Lille in 1940 and incarcerated. Freed in June 1941 at the request of Maréchal Pétain, he took charge of the Vichy forces in North Africa but changed sides after the Allied landings in November 1942. In the Italian campaign he commanded the Corps Expéditionnaire in the US Fifth Army, winning an important battle at Garigliano and taking part in the liberation of Rome. After the War he served in positions of authority in Morocco and at NATO