1871 FRANCE Siege of Paris 75mm silvered bronze medal by J-C. Chaplain BDM I, 402 EF

Obv: a figure of Paris with the mural crown, holds city shield and points to a balloon.

Rev: within oak wreath, EMPLOINDES AÉROSTATS POUR LA DEFENSE DE PARIS (Using tethered balloons in the defence of Paris).

by J-C. Chaplain, probably struck after 1880

75mm

Silvered bronze

The Siege of Paris, lasting from 19 September 1870 to 28 January 1871, and the consequent capture of the city by Prussian forces, led to French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. Air medical transport is often stated to have first occurred in 1870 during the Siege of Paris when 160 wounded French soldiers were evacuated from the city by hot-air balloon and this is commemorated by this medal. However this myth has been definitively disproven by full review of the crew and passenger records of each balloon which left Paris during the siege.