Quote:
Originally Posted by Colin S
Junior Para Company wore standard coloured wings on a maroon background, not the red background shown. If it is not DWR then what is it?
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The red background wings have been attributed in four different ways in the past:
1) Duke of Wellington's Regiment.
2) Red Freds.
3) Para Reg Recruiting Staff.
4) Created specifically for a Military Tattoo in the USA and Canada in 1969.
Taking these in order:
1) As far as I am aware the DWR have never been attached to an Airborne Brigade. I'm more than happy to be corrected on this if wrong. There is also the related DWR DZ flash. (Narrow silver grey stripe on red) These were certainly produced in Merrowed variants but again I'm not aware of the DWR being rotated in as an infantry regiment to 5ABB.
2) The Freds don't wear wings on their jumpsuits and I've never heard of red wings being worn on No. 2 Dress by team members.
3) A possibility, but I have seen no pictorial evidence of this. (Recruiting Staff did wear the maroon/light blue/maroon beret badge backing however)
4) I have attached a PDF containing a dump of part of the defunct Ex Red Devils website from the late 1990s. I don't think this information is on the internet any more. This states that the wings were specifically created for a Para Reg gymnastics display team at military tattoos in the USA and Canada in 1969. This is a potentially promising line of research. I have attached scans of three variants of the wing and the top one, the oldest, does look like something designed to go on a PT vest. The others may be remanufactured versions for the collectors' market or a different production run for a subsequent event.
Regards,
Graham