War Cross for Military Valor of the Kingdom of Italy – Xª MAS Version with Engraving over VEIII

The Croce di guerra al valor militare was an Italian military decoration awarded for acts of valor. In its Kingdom of Italy version, the cross retains the traditional Greek-cross form, with the inscription AL VALOR MILITARE on the horizontal arms, a Roman sword with laurel branches on the lower arm, and the crowned monogram of Vittorio Emanuele III, shown as VEIII, on the upper arm.

This version reproduces a distinctive alteration known in collecting circles and associated with the context of the Xª MAS after the armistice of 8 September 1943. On such examples, the royal monogram was altered by engraving “Xª” over VEIII. The modification had a clear symbolic meaning: the royal cipher was visually rejected or overridden and replaced by the mark of the Decima, which became a central identity symbol for those members who followed the post-armistice path linked to the Italian Social Republic.

This was not an official issue and not a regulation pattern introduced by decree, but a field or personal alteration connected to the political and military rupture that followed the armistice. Its historical interest lies precisely in this contrast: the original royal decoration remains visible, while the added Xª engraving transforms the object into a material trace of the Decima’s 1943–1945 period. The result is a War Cross that differs from the standard Kingdom version not in its basic form, but in the symbolic reworking of the royal monogram.