[arnhem2280]

Two more fifty second shoulder titles. As has been said before these titles only existed for a very short time, when the Fifty Second were first formed as a part of the 1st Airborne Division in December 1941 before it moved to the 6th A/B Division in May 1943.
The majority of the unofficial shoulder titles had very short lives, a matter on months at the most . During this time period the Fifty Second were in the Oxford area of England which would make it likely that the titles were all produced by the same tailor.

The differences seen in items of insignia such as SAS wings and titles is easily explained as in their eraly days they were produced by any number of tailors in the Middle Esat and Italy up until standardised wings and beret badges were produced in the UK later in the war when the SAS returned to the UK before D Day. Of course insignia was still being made in the Middle East and Italian theatre up until the end of the war for the SBS and RSR who wore the same design of badges and titles but had them made yo a certain extent privately and locally.

The titles do not appear on the market very often and all those I have seen in the last 30 years look like the ones that I have posted.

All I would say is that given the above I would not pay big money in the one that started this thread but having said that everyone must make up their own mind. If it had been me that bought it and I had seen the others that have been shown on the forum I would start to be a bit dubious.

It would be nice to see any others that forum members have in their collection so we can continue comparing. Maybe Keith could show his for comparison.

Cheers

Arnhem