SAS Wings Green Background 39 X 83mm.

[leigh kitchen]

I've posted these wings in the British section but I think they may be Australian? Rhodesian?
Manufactured prior to January 1989.

[ianh67military]

Def Rhodesian/Zimbabwean.
For some reason the Rhodesian SAS decided early on to wear a SAS wing with 9 feathers, as opposed to the standard 8 feathered version. Their wing was, after an early (rare) version on black, embroidered on dark green felt for the dress uniform and light green cotton for the combat uniform. Various versions were issued, with the most common having a dark grey spotty gauze type materiel on the back and the final version having a white back. The filling is very specific, with the entirety of wings being raised by the pronounced filling, although I have seen wings with all the filling removed by the owner.The chute embroidery is also very specific, with a central vertical black line on a high chute.
There is a very bad copy sometimes sold as "Rhodesian" which is a standard British SAS wing embroidered on a green felt background. Fortunately it looks nothing like the actual Rhodesian wing but may catch the unwary.
When Zimbabwe was formed any actual Rhodesian Special Forces tended to make themselves scarce, with a lot joining the South African Defence Force, either as Parabats, Pathfinders or Reccies.
Zimbabwe finally decided it was going to need some form of Special Forces and, allegedly with help from Hereford, the Zimbabwe SAS was formed. The badges I have seen have basically been cheaper, less competent versions of the Rhodie wings, embroidered on worse materiel with worse quality control (wrong colours).

Ian H

[leigh kitchen]

Thank you, very interesting (the wings came from an ex RLI / SA Pathfinder although I don't think they had actually been his during service.