WW1 Bombers Badges

[MH331]

A selection of WW1 Bombers qualification Badges.

[paj1]

Hi great badges wonderful condition
cheers paj1

[grumpy]

I know you know they were not qualification badges .... they were "appointment" badges.

Lovely examples: are any "without wood ball insert" and therefore flat, please?

[mooke07]

Hi there,

Nice selection indeed.

I have just added as my profile picture my Grandfathers, Sgt Charles Moss, 18th Lord Durham Pals (Service) Battalion, DLI bombing arm badge. I picked it up from my cousin who has some other bits and bobs of my Grandfathers and thought this was a lovely badge to honour his memory with.

I post a couple of photos one of a bombing instructors course from 1918 from Otley - just look at the array of cap badges. I shall try and indentify all of these and post seperately. My Grandad's photo appears in John Sheen's excellent Durham Pals book and shows him wearing the arm badge in 1916 after being wounded on the Somme.

Yours in badges, Dean.

[mooke07]

Postcard type group photograph

Labelled by my Grandfather, Sergeant Charles Herbert Moss, C Company, Lord Durham Pals (Service) Battalion, Durham Light infantry as ”Bombing Instruction Course at Otley” in pencil and then in his hand writing again in pen “At Officers & NCO’s Bombing Refresher Course 1918”.
My Grandfather was first pictured wearing his bombing arm badge in 1916 and was a Lewis Gun Sergeant both at Ypres in 1915 and on the Somme in 1916. C Company of the Durham Pals was in reserve on the 1st July 1916 for the disastrous and tragic attack on the village of Serre by the Leeds, Bradford and Durham Pals of 93 Brigade, 31st Division hence he was probably spared from being mown down like the majority of A, B and D companies Durham Pals and the other Pals battalions of that and many other fine Divisions.
Otley as many of you will know is in rural West Yorkshire and the treed scene is like much of Otley today and a couple of farm type building can be made out on the right of the photo.
This photo is taken during a break from the course and many of the soldiers are smoking, are without waist belts and appear to be in a jocular mood with caps at jointy angles or pushed back. There are two patterns of waist belt clasps shown, a standard inter-locking clasp type and one an intertwined S-type. The men are a mixture of ages but the majority as you would expect for Officers and NCO’s are older soldiers, my Grandfather would have been 38 years old in 1918. Many are wearing at least one wound stripe and one three! The Sergeant with three has seen a lot of service with an upturned service chevron denoting 15 years service. The officers smoking pipes are very characteristic of Great War officers.
My Grandfather had been wounded twice by 1918, once at Ypres in 1915 and once on the Somme in 1916 and both times returned to fight after being invalided back to military hospital in England. The British army was in need of the experience of its NCO’s just to keep soldiers alive.
I note the bombing instructors white arm bands with raised bombing badge on them. I wonder if these are the same as those worn on the upper left arm. I had thought that maybe instructors would have been drawn from a service corps like the Army Ordnance Corps perhaps given that there was a School of Musketry that I believe taught Officers and NCO’s the art of teaching a soldier to accurately fire his rifle. However, the Officer and NCO with Bombing Instructors arm bands and badges are regular regimental soldiers.
Several of the soldiers are wearing a gallantry decoration bar which is clearly the striped medal ribbon of the Military Medal. The Military Medal was the most common of the gallantry decorations of the Great War. l have been unable to identify several medal bars on the NCO’s and they are likely to again be the Military Medal but a Distinguished Conduct as the scarcer issued gallantry medal cannot be ruled out. One of the Officers is also decorated and again it is hard to determine the actual decoration, however, again the Military Cross is most likely. The majority of the soldiers would be entitled to “just a trio” as my late Father used to describe his Father Great War medals but later entry pairs would also be expected.
The appearance of the two Doughboy American NCO’s in the photograph is consistent with 1918 and the numbers of such troops coming into action on the Western front. These however may be Kiwis given that they have pagris wound around their hats. This will be corrected no doubt.
A high proportion of the regiments represented are Fusilier Regiments but I think maybe that is co-incidental for a Bombing Refresher course.

The regiments I have identified are as follows and I look forward to assistance with badge identification from learned members:

Top Row Standing – all from Left to Right
South Staffordshire Regiment – Sergeant - bombers arm badge top left arm
Gloucestershire Regiment - NCO
New Zealander – Corporal - triangular unit flash left shoulder, blackened cap and collar badges
South Staffordshire Regiment – Corporal
New Zealender – NCO - blackened cap and collar badges,
West Yorkshire Regiment (although facing away I believe I can make out rear of “rocking horse”) – Sergeant
Unidentified Fusiliers Regiment - badge no scroll (Northumberland Fusiliers, Royal Fusiliers, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, Royal Munster Fusiliers?)– Sergeant - Military Medal - cannot see shoulder titles
York and Lancaster Regiment - Corporal - bombers arm badge
King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Regiment – Sergeant - Military Medal bar, bombers arm badge, left arm, three wound stripes below Marksman crossed rifles lower left sleeve

Second Top Row Standing
Wiltshire Regiment – Sergeant - bombers arm badge
Border Regiment – Corporal - Military Medal, single wound stripe
Unknown Fusiliers Regiment - badge no scroll (Northumberland Fusiliers, Royal Fusiliers, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, Royal Munster Fusiliers?) – Sergeant - fusilier grenade shoulder title
Manchester Regiment – Corporal
Unknown Fusiliers Regiment - badge no scroll (Northumberland Fusiliers, Royal Fusiliers, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, Royal Munster Fusiliers?) – Corporal - fusilier grenade shoulder title
Manchester Regiment – Sergeant - single upturned chevron upper left arm
Durham Light Infantry – Sergeant Charles Herbert Moss - C Company, 18th (Service) Lord Durham Pals Battalion.
Royal Dublin Fusiliers - NCO
West Yorkshire Regiment – Sergeant - bombers arm badge
Manchester Regiment – Corporal - unknown Medal bar – Military Medal or Distinguished Conduct Medal, single upturned service chevron upper left arm, Marksman crossed rifles badge, three wound stripes, three rank chevrons lower left sleeve

3rd Top Row Seated
Unidentified Regiment - OSD round cap badge - Officer – distinctive OSD collars but cannot identify
Royal Dublin Fusiliers - Officer – 2 wound stripes, OSD grenade collar badges no scroll so not Lancashire Fusiliers
York and Lancaster Regiment (note identification aided by collar badges) - Second Lieutenant – different style cap to the others, single pip rank badge on officers sleeve epaulette, distinctive “cat and cabbage” OSD collar badges
Lancashire Fusiliers - Lieutenant – two pip rank sleeve badges, Lancashire Fusiliers scrolled collar badges
Duke of Wellington’s (DoW) Regiment - Lieutenant – distinctive OSD DoW elephant collar badges, pale coloured tie, Bombing Instructors white arm band with likely bombing instructors badge left arm, Sam Brown belt, Officers boots, two pip rank sleeve badges
King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Regiment – Sergeant - Bombing Instructors white arm band with raised profile bombing instructors badge left arm clearly visible
West Yorkshire Regiment – Lieutenant – OSED badges, two pip rank sleeve badges
East Lancashire Regiment – Officer - no rank badges but OSD cap and collar badges
Royal Dublin Fusiliers – Corporal - bombers arm badge

Bottom Row Sat Crossed Legged
Unidentified Fusiliers Regiment - badge no scroll (Northumberland Fusiliers, Royal Fusiliers, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, Royal Munster Fusiliers?) - Sergeant
East Yorkshire Regiment – Corporal – Marksman crossed rifles sleeve badge, single wound stripe
Leicestershire Regiment – Officer - smoking pipe, wearing shoes
Sherwood Foresters (?) - Major (?) – Unidentified Medal bar (Military Cross?), smoking pipe, wearing puttees
West Yorkshire Regiment – Corporal - bombers arm badge
Sherwood Foresters (?) – Corporal - bombers arm badge

Cheers Dean

[grumpy]

please may we see the photo: I can do analysis with a good enough scan.

Some obvious questions: how can you identify a lance-sergeant in SD?
And the sergeant "with an upturned chevron 15 years service"? Not British, for sure. First, sergeants not allowed good conduct chevron
[none above LCpl]
and secondly one chevron for 2 years service.
Might this be an overseas service chevron, first issued Feb 1918?

[grey_green_acorn]

"The appearance of the two Doughboy American NCO’s in the photograph is consistent with 1918 and the numbers of such troops coming into action on the Western front."

Comment:
I think your "Doughboys" are "Kiwis" from New Zealand? They seem to be wearing pagris around their hats? Also the man on the left has Corporals stripes/chevrons worn in the British style point downwards.