I’ve always thought of the entire BC offensive from 39/45 as a “Campaign” and the individual “Battles” were battles taking place within that Campaign. Hence a Campaign medal.
Precisely so. Bomber Command was just that, a single Command within the much wider orginisation of the RAF. WWII medals were campaign medals only, i.e they recognised participation in the wider effort of war regardless of the inderviduals role (or rank).
Medals were not awarded to commands. This is true across the services (exception the 1st and 8th Army clasp to the Africa Star)
Only two battle clasps were awarded the BoB on the 39-45 Star and the North Africa 42-43 clasp on the Africa Star. These were singled out as significant turning points as the first defeats Germany suffered.
In my mind there should have been a whole range of Battle Clasps awarded, as this would indicate how and where a serviceman served. I also think it is a crying shame that WWII medals were not named before issue. The great thing about all other British medals is that they carry the recipients details so long after they have died there is a small token of what they did. WWII medals once no longer held by the recipient are meaningless. Given that the proposal of a BC clasp has come so late very few will get to wear it, and after they have gone it will just be a piece of metal with no story attached like the vast majority of WWII medals are now.
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