History
The award was established on 3 June 1918. It was originally awarded to Air Force commissioned officers and Warrant Officers, but this was expanded after the Second World War to include Army and Navy aviation officers, and again in 1993 to other ranks after the discontinuation of the Air Force Medal.
During the First World War, approximately 680 were awarded. During the Second World War, 2,001 medals were awarded, 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 from other non-Commonwealth countries.
Read more about this topic: Air Force Cross (United Kingdom)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“America is, therefore the land of the future, where, in the ages that lie before us, the burden of the World’s history shall reveal itself. It is a land of desire for all those who are weary of the historical lumber-room of Old Europe.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause, as, for instance, the black man’s right to his body, or woman’s right to her soul.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)