QUALIFYING DETAIL
Service with a weapon or as a stretcher bearer. Any time spent sick or detached from the unit was subtracted. Vacation and time away from the frontline (in reserve or training) did not count. For the wounded, only the first four months in hospital counted. Service as a clerk, cook or soldiers attached to the supply columns only counted for specific time periods. Exceptions (Days which counted towards the 24 Months for men in functions which did not directly qualifying for ‘Combat Days’): (a) For Feldwebel – 22.09.1916 - 08.01.1917, 06.08.1917 - 12.09.1917, 24.10.1917 – 17.12.1917, 12.04.1918 – 09.05.1918, 09.08.1918 – 25.09.1918, 06.10.1918 – 31.10.1918 (b) For telephonists in the battalion, regiment and brigade staffs and runners of the battalion and regimental staffs – 07.08.1914 – 30.09.1914, 1.11.1915 – 20.03.1916, 14.06.1916 – 10.08.1916, 22.09.1916 – 08.01.1917, 06.08.1917 – 12.09.1917, 24.10.1917 – 17.12.1917, 12.04.1918 – 07.05.1918, 09.08.1918 – 25.09.1918, 06.10.1918 – 21.11.1918 (c) For mule and horse team members, the same as (b) but without the period 14.06.1916 – 10.08.1916
(The same regulations for sickness, attachments, vacation and rest apply to those above in categories (a), (b) and (c). )
The Regimental rest time periods which did not count towards the 24 months are listed below. This includes time spent training, recuperating or held in reserve: 03.05.1916 – 15.06.1916, 10.04.1917 – 20.05.1917, 24.05.1917 – 08.06.1917, 19.09.1917 – 23.10.1917, 17.12.1917 – 09.04.1918, 07.05.1918 – 08.08.1918
In the original statute, awards at a later date were not excluded for officers, NCOS and other ranks under the following conditions: (a) Men who had fulfilled the above requirements but were no longer part of the field regiment (b) Invalids who were no longer able to serve due to wounds received while part of the field regiment.
Note: The published history of the Leib Regiment states that, after much consideration, no awards were made under the two statutes shown at (a) and (b) at the end of the criteria, above.
It was a bitter pill to swallow for men who had served the 24 months but who had been later transferred to a different regiment, or ‘Leiber’ who had gone into the field in 1914 but were among the seriously wounded and who never returned to qualify.