WWII Airborne Cloth Insignia

[loupie1961]

Just bought a WWII Battledress with patches to the Airborne. Jump wings and Pegasus flashes look good to me, but I'd love to know your opinion... thanks in advance!

[erracht]

Hi Loupie,

To me I am a bit suspect of the un-evenness of the AIRBORNE strips - seems that the letters are slanted/skewed a bit and do not appear to line up with each other completely. As you know, Airborne stuff is a minefield, having been faked to the point of probably more fakes than genuine issued items.

Dean

[loupie1961]

Hello Dean, thank you for your reply. I've checked and found out that the letters are reasonably of the same size and they stand quite upright, they look somehow slanted probably because the sleeve wasn't properly pressed when I took the pic... but I know this is much of a minefield and this is the reason I've asked for opinions to be given!

[tynesideirish]

Oh Dear! it appears that what you have there is a lovely reenactment mock up! (BD may be real) Sorry, no one likes bad news.

I am a collector of British SF & Airborne Forces insignia and a long time member of Chute & Dagger.

I know identification can be a minefield not least due to the criminal use of copied insignia shown in the otherwise fine books. For King & Country : British Airborne Uniforms, INSIGNIA !!!! & Equipment in WWII by Harlan Glenn and TOMMY : Uniforms, weapons & Equipment of the airborne Forces by David Gordon.
As always having the item in your hand is always benificial for ID'ing but as we've only pictures to go on:

The Parachutist qualification wings most certainly are a new copy if not just modern para wings trimmed to cloak the different backing.

The Pegasus is a very poor copy. By far the worst I've ever seen.
1. WWll Pegasus along with their modern incarnations have Bellerophon astride Pegasus his cloak is flowing behind him and is distinct from and not touching the horses back!

2.His helmeted head should also is distinct from the horses wing with a prominent gap.(except on late war Belgian ones)

3.Last but certainly not least the thing is a flying horse not a unicorn! The rear ear was wrongly made too big on the printed version and could at a push be seen to look like a horn, but is clearly an ear on the WWll embroidered ones. This has obviously been copied badly from a printed one.

The AIRBORNE strip. A cursory glance at ANY book showing British Paras from WWll will show 2 versions of the airborne strip. The cloth one has straight block angled capital lettering with no curves. The printed version has more curved elaborate lettering (see the example below) once again this has been loosely copied from a printed one.

However as in most insignia related things there where hand made and theatre made stand in insignia, mainly in Egypt and for pre 44th Indian Division Indian paras. Just 1 snag...They didn't wear AIRBORNE strips.

You never mentioned the black light UV thing that most people throw up in defence of a dodgy badge. However even if you did, they have tons of genuinely old silk and cotton thread in Pakistan, Tiawan etc and can and do mass produce insignia that will pass that bogus test. The use of UV should be a cursory test only and by no means final.

[tynesideirish]

More pics...

[loupie1961]

sure these are NOT good news but you've been perfectly clear and I see all your points...

[Stanley_C_Jenkins]

If it is of any help, here is a genuine example from the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Museum: