Airborne, embroidered, straight title Dating

[zorgon]

I would appreciate comments and date-of-issue from the Forum please, on these two embroidered Airborne straight titles on Melton wool. I would guess that the top item is late war issue (44-45) based on the heavy letter stitching and paste-back reverse. The lower patch, I'm not sure but perhaps post war due to the linked letters and black backing? Does the method of letter-linking provide any clues? All of the others I can find which are post war, link the letters in a slightly different manner, noticeably at the mid point on the right side of the "O" rather than the bottom as the one illustrated. Also, the thread on the bottom example appears thinner in diameter. Neither show any signs of florescence.