PFrance - Médaille Journée du Poilu 1915
After the Battle of the Marne, the conflict bogged down and the soldiers lived in very difficult conditions in the trenches. The figure of the “poilu” then becomes an important image at the back. Permissions are starting to be authorized but according to an unfair and unequal system.
When a soldier obtains leave, he does not necessarily have the funds necessary to rejoin his family and some of them have nowhere to go, for example when they come from devastated departments. Thus the “Poilu Day” of December 25 and 26, 1915, with its raffle, allowed these “Poilus” to spend a leave in the shelter or to join their families. According to the regulations, the provincial permittee could only stay in Paris if he had a certificate of accommodation from a resident in the capital and, from 1917, only from close family.
