SPECIAL BOAT SERVICE??

[Mike Jackson]

Is this the same variant on the FS Fighting Knife flash - as worn by LCpl Artie Horner?
Cdo_FS_01.1.jpg

[tynesideirish]

Originally Posted by Mike Jackson

That's an outstanding image. Note the parachute wings worn by one soldier on the right forearm - very unusual. Mike

Mike, not unusual at the time, when they were a trade badge.

They were certainly wild times full of opportunity for anyone wanting to volunteer for hazardous duties.

[Mike B]

Originally Posted by Mike Jackson

Is this the same variant on the FS Fighting Knife flash - as worn by LCpl Artie Horner?
Attachment 163702

Well it certainly looks very similar (given a bit of wear) the stand out features to me are the twisted ends of the cross guard - going up on one side and down on the other; also the 'line' just below the pommel. As you know, there are so many variants it is difficult to be definitive.
Mike

[Belly]

Certainly an unusual pattern. Just working out the scale, on the basis of the length of the tommy gun on a std comb ops being 57mm, I calculate the length of the dagger on the badge to be ~49mm.
The 'standard' embroidered dagger badge dagger measures 53mm. The only smaller one I have (which also has a wavy cross guard) the dagger measures a tiny 34mm. Also it appears to have embroidery on the hilt and cross guard which is different again to both my examples, so this looks like a new variant I've not seen before.

[Mike Jackson]

And the length of the dagger portion of the printed late-War Commando Group formation sign was 55mm ((the sign being 72mm overall (measured to fold lines). Mike

[Belly]

I can hear the dealers now, thumbing through their boxes, trying to find the 'special SBS' pattern dagger patch and adding a 0 to the price

[Mike B]

Given the Cash tape in the grouping it appears a bit of a 'hybrid' in terms of sources from which issues were gathered (even a 'mongrel') - it just goes to show that 'anything goes' - I bet there were almost as many combinations as there were men in the unit - certainly 'Gruff' Courtney was not a man for bumf.
All the best
Mike
PS - I heard he was buried in a remote location (Africa somewhere) with a tube extending to his mouth so that his brother, and visitors, could pour him a tot now and again.