ANOTHER REQUEST FOR HELP TO AUTHENTICATE BADGES

[Harry Katyn]

As threatened in my previous upload on my Canadian Airborne cloth insignia- here are my Canadian Para Bn cap badges that I would appreciate more of your expert opinions on.

I am always loathed to start a new post were previous threads on the subject matter are in existence but the variety of threads on this unit’s cap badges and the diversity of opinions on what is real or repro means it is probably easier for me to start a new thread.

As I have said before Canadian A/B insignia is not my primary interest and my main reference source has been Grimshaw’s book on the subject. I noticed in at least one of the previous threads that a commenter mentioned that the Para Bn cap badges always had lugs and were never made with sliders, which is contrary to Grimshaw’s descriptions on Pg 6 of his book. It appears from these earlier threads that Joyce had more access to archive material for his book – was this able to disprove Grimshaw’s narrative?

All the badges I have collected have sliders but the 1st and 2nd badges cannot be ‘new’ reproductions as I have had them for circa 30 and 40 years respectively. (I can’t remember when or where the 3rd one came from.) The ‘slider attachment’ on the 1st badge is particularly strong, weaker on the 2nd example and very weak and flimsy on the 3rd.

Thanking you again in anticipation of your feedback.

[Bill A]

Garbage. Cdn Para Corps cap badges other ranks were brass and plastic and had lugs not sliders. Officers' pattern were bi-metal. These white metal ones show up continuously but were never worn by the Cdn Para Bn. These fantasy badges have been around for a long time, one suggestion being that they were made in the UK for the Bn, but nothing in archive docs indicates that took place. The Cdn Para Bn was perhaps the first unit repatriated to Canada, and they were back by mid-June 1945, preparing to join the CAPF. When the Pacific war ended they were disbanded.

[Phillip Herring]

I've had my fake white metal slidered Canadian Para cap badge since the late 1970s. It came from a UK dealer, Ray Bennett.
It was crap then and it's crap now.

Phil

[Tanker Mike]

All badges with sliders are post war made, I even had a silver (not two piece) cap badge with slider, it was still made post war.

These early badges with slider were most likely all made in UK. If you compare your badges to a real OR badge you will also see that the die these are made from are copied from the officers two piece badge. Look at the thick edge of the wings and the detail behind the scroll.

I have included a recent copy of the OR's cap badge which has lugs, this one is very hard to tell unless you know what to look for.

The last picture is the real deal.

[RoyA]

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in 1 Can Para...

http://www.servicepub.com/maelstrom.htm

Roy

[Bill A]

Mike, may I use a copy of the labelled image on some other Fora/Facebook pages?

[Bill A]

Roy, the repros were not covered by Ken. He made the decision to leave those out.

[Tanker Mike]

Yes, no problem..

[Harry Katyn]

Thanks for your all feed back. It seems fairly definite that any Canadian Para Bn badges with slide fixings are of post war manufacture. I was hopefully that the first badge was the genuine article as it came from a reputable dealer in the UK but he was probably as ignorant of the fixing types on genuine examples as myself at the time of purchase 30 plus years ago.

[Luc]

There is an original one for sale over at the Wehrmacht Awards forum.

[Bill A]

Post war is a bit of a conundrum with these Cdn Para Corps badges. The unit was disbanded in the late summer of 1945 after having been rushed back to Canada for participation in the Pacific campaign. Some personnel continued to wear the badge at the Shilo training centre, but technically there was no unit to wear the badges and no badges were procured after 1945.