"Pink" SAS wings
 

Friends,

There is a subject that I find very intriguing.

Some of the early SAS wings - I believe manufactured in the early days in Egypt - have a curious 'pink' colour in the area under the rigging lines of the parachute.

The question is if this pinkish colour came about by fading or washing or was there by design. If it was by design, where does it come from as most SAS wings have a kind of blue or purplish blue in that area.

One of my theories is that the pink wings come from a single tailor and were manufactured in a small batch. I believe two of the examples came from the same batch.
Both have provenance to veterans. I noticed all examples have the two inner rigging lines converging to the center rigging line well above the point where the outer rigging lines come together, almost a kind of trademark. It is also true that SAS members took wings to a local tailor and had them copied.

I enclose 5 examples and would be interested in your feedback, additional pictures or comments. I know several more pink wings are around among members of this Forum.

I would love to find out more about this and it would be really nice - although not very likely - to find out the source of this pattern of SAS wings.

Cheers!

Johan

Hi Johan

Interesting subject. I have had 2 or 3 of the type of wing that you have posted above. I think you are correct in saying they are all made by the same manufacturer but there's no doubt in my mind that these are definitely UK made and not Egyptian made.

They all conform to UK manufacturing techniques of the same era, are always flat (never padded), and always come in different states of "fadeness". It just isn't like anything locally made that I've ever encountered.

Thanks
Jack

Hi Johan
honestly I do NOT know but nice little lot YOU HAVE SHOWN HERE :eek:!!!

You have showed one of these on the WA-forum. It had a paper backing which I believe is typical for British manufacture.

Wings with paper back
 

@Luc,

The one on the left in my collection has a black paper back and so has the other one of the same pattern 3rd from left. See pictures.

@Jack,

Interesting notion they were made in the UK. If they were made in the UK, any idea where and when?

The wings in my own collection (left most) is indeed unpadded.

I would assume a British manufacturer would know how to get the colours rights in tones of blue, which were the official colours?

See picture of Tony Marsh, DSO, who owned these wings. He served in the SAS from August 1942 to November 1945.

Cheers,

Johan

Could it be that they were copied from an older one that had faded, I'm thinking maybe a NAfrica made one brought back to UK?
Lee

Faded original
 

hi Lee,

It is possible the original came from the ME and was copied in the UK. For some reason - although the pattern is rare - quite a few are around, so at least a few batches were made. Within the samples I provided, you can identify more or less two sub-patterns. The two on the right are slightly different from the left-most and third from left. The pattern totally on the right also belonged to Marsh. So he owned both the left-most and right-most wings.

Cheers,

Johan

SAS wings
 

Friends,

This is a pair of SAS wings I bought on Buywyze two weeks ago.

You can see the center rigging line area is not quite blue, but a bit purplish-blue.

Possibly, a more faded one could turn a bit pink and be reproduced like that..

If you have ever seen a maroon beret worn in the Middle East, you know what the sun can do to
colours...

Cheers,

Johan

Johan I think the main culprit is the sun. These badges have faded from purple to a light purple/pink colour too :)

Great topic, Johan, thanks for introducing it. I too understood the "pink" SAS wings were made and worn in the Desert, since the colors could be explained by the vivid yarn dyes typically used in North Africa, coupled with the sun fading that you described. I'd be surprised if a UK-made and ETO-worn wing exhibited the same traits. But there are others on this thread with a lot more experience than I have, handling and assessing SAS wings. I'm looking forward to learning from the discussion.

To contribute more evidence to the inquiry, here's a well worn and faded pink wing from my collection.

Regards, Donovan

Pink wings
 

Hi Donovan,

Thanks. I saw your well worn pink wing in the album and please do post it here.

I think it is the same pattern as shown in the first post, with that typical straight fairly thick twisted wire over the top of the wings, with a single stitch in the middle to keep it in place.

This is a very interesting thread and I am looking forward to more contributions.

Cheers,

Johan

Lt Col 'Paddy' Mayne had wings with the pink colour. They are on his service dress tunic which is still with the family. I had a picture of them somewhere So I will try to find it over the weekend.
regards
Steve

Hi Gents,


I have this pink one which looks pretty early too me like Egyptian made.

Cheers
JB

Wings
 

Hi JB,

Great wings and definitely old!

Any more contributions from other Forum members?

Cheers,

Johan

I have an early L-Detachment wing given to me by John Byrne years ago. Its in a box somewhere, I'll find it and stick a photo up.