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Old 05-08-17, 12:38 AM
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tcrown tcrown is offline
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I enjoyed very much reading 'Arnhem spearhead' by James Sims.
It is very interesting and provides good details about patches worn in spring 1944 by members of 2nd Bat.

Quote: 'A scot produced a razor blade. "You're improperly dressed,' he said and whipped off my bought Parachute Regiment shoulder flashes and Pegasus divisional signs and handed them to me. In the 2nd Battalion we wore only the issue flashes, which were drab in comparison. I was also wearing on each arm flashes with 'Airborne' on them, which made these terrible men hoot with laughter, as only glider-borne troops were entitled to this particular flash.'

This is a piece of evidence that probably very few paras adopted the Airborne stripes within the 1st Brigade. This confirms what I suspected by looking at group photos of the 3rd Bat as previously stated in this thread.
The details also re the shoulder title are informative: Sims was probably wearing the ceiling blue 'Parachute Regiment' titles when he completed his Para training before joining 2nd Bat, possibly private purchased like the Peggies (so embroidered versions).
They had to be replaced with the red 'Parachute' shoulder titles that everybody was wearing at the time in the 2nd Bat (and also in the 3rd Bat considering photo evidence and this BD example http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/for...ad.php?t=60579)

In annex of the book, Sims add a presentation of Airborne insignia. The 'Parachute' title is there.

Thanks for everyone's contribution, particularly Colin & Thomas.

Cheers
Pierre
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File Type: jpg Sims Annex.jpg (41.8 KB, 27 views)
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