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		The George Cross
	GREECE 1940 The following is a brief excerpt from a letter written by King-Emperor George VI to King George II of Greece, dated December 13, 1940 ".....I must tell you how overjoyed we have all been at the way in which your forces have dealt with the Italian agresssion. It does your people the greatest credit, and it is also a remarkable tribute to your own unsparing efforts to build up a first-class fighting force. From the reports of my Military Attachés, I well know how much is due to your own personal attention to everything down to the smallest detail. The stand made by Greece and the example she has set have had a most encouraging and stimulating effect in this country and in every part of the world where people pray for the overthrow of Hitler and Mussolini. Certainly England will never forget what Greece has done this Autumn and Winter." Only three months before sending this letter , the King-Emperor and his family had experienced the terrors of modern warfare, first-hand (Although the King himself had seen action during the first world war at the naval battle of Jutland on May 31st, 1916) the following article describes this harrowing experience. + + + + (a brief excerpt from: King George VI, His Life and Reign by John W. Wheeler-Bennet. Courtesy: The MacMillan co. of Canada Limited, P.1958) + + + + On September 9th, 1940, a Luftwaffe bomb fell on the north side of Buckingham Palace, lodging itself under the stone steps outside the Regency Room. It did not explode and the King continued to use his study which was immediately above it. It went off, however, at 1:25 the next morning. No damage was done to the main structure, and there were no casualties as that part of the Palace had been evacuated for the night, but all the windows on all floors, including those of the Royal apartments, were shattered. Three days later the enemy struck again, and this time the escape was narrower. The following is an excerpt from the King's diary from that day. ~~~~~~GVI~~~~~~ "..........We went to London and found an Air Raid in progress. The day was very cloudy & it was raining hard. We were both upstairs with Alec Hardinge (the King's Private Secretary) talking in my little sitting room overlooking the quadrangle; (I cannot use my ordinary one owing to the broken windows).....All of a sudden we heard an aircraft making a zooming noise above us, saw two bombs falling past the opposite side of the Palace, and then heard two resounding crashes as the bombs fell in the quadrangle about 30 yards away. We looked at each other, and then we were out into the passage as fast as we could get there....The whole thing happened in a matter of seconds. We all wondered why we weren't dead. Two great craters had appeared in the courtyard. The one nearest the Palace had burst a fire hydrant and water was pouring through the broken windows in the passage. 6 bombs had been dropped....." ~~~~~~GVI~~~~~~ This experience created a new bond between the Monarchy and the British people.....The Queen remarking: "I'm glad we've been bombed....It makes me feel I can look the East End in the face." If at this moment King George could not guarantee to his subjects a better furture, he could at least formally recognize their gallantry in the present, but he was exercised in his mind as to what form this recognition should take. There existed many decorations and medals instituted by his predecessors for the reward of gallantry and meritorious conduct, but these, by their terms of reference, were restricted in the main to members of the armed forces and only one of them, the Victoria Cross, was open to award of all ranks. It was to meet this evident need that the King created the George Cross and Medal. It was the fruit of long deliberation and much careful study, both as to reference and design. The study of decorations was among King George's hobbies, and his collection of medals and ribbons at Windsor was among the most complete in the world. The planning of the George Cross and Medal was therefore of particular pleasure and interest to him, and the final design was almost entirely his own work, for he had sketched out an original device and had studied and amended with meticulous care the subsequent drafts presented to him. The decoration consists of a plain silver cross, with the Royal cipher "G.VI" in the angle of each limb. In the centre is a circular medallion showing St. George and the Dragon, and surrounded by an inscription, "For Gallantry". The reverse is plain and bears the name of the recipient and the date of the award. The cross, which is worn before all other decorations except the Victoria Cross, is suspended from a dark blue ribbon threaded through a bar adorned with laurel leaves. + + + + The King announced the creation of the George Cross in a broadcast to Britain and the Empire on September 23. He reminded them that they now stood in the front line, "to champion those liberties and traditions that are our heritage". ~~~~~~GVI~~~~~~ "Winter lies before us, cold and dark....But after winter comes spring, and after our present trials will assuredly come victory and a release from these evil things. Let us then put our trust, as I do, in God, and in the unconquerable spirit of the British peoples". ~~~~~~GVI~~~~~~ To View PHOTO of the George Cross, please visit our website dedicated to Princess Noor-un-nisa Inayat Khan, George Cross, MBE, Croix de Guerre (with gold star)...Choose link to GEORGE CROSS

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