Italian WWII Parachute cloth badge ID

[Phill Lockett]

Hi Team

This is showing in B&T 1985 book as Italian WWII.

Can anyone confirm and advise more info.

cheers

Phill

[mike_vee]

One described as :

WW11 Italian Paratroop Officer's Sleeve Insignia

With photo of it being worn.

https://www.themilitariadealers.com/...2#.ZAxLAHbP01I


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[Phill Lockett]

Thanks Mike

Much appreciated for the quick reply.

cheers

Phill

[Ian B]

I believe the qual from the first post is post-war, a variation of the qual that the Italian Army introduced between 1956 and 1963. It has the look of yellow thread on olive wool.

As seen in the photo of the WWII officer's qual from post #2, Italian quals were normally found embroidered on light/medium blue backing during the war. Some were embroidered on grey-green wool, but the shroud lines were much longer as seen in my attached pic (although my example is post-war, from 1947 to 1963, it gives you an idea of the shape)

Ian

[Phill Lockett]

Hi Ian

Thanks for the reply.

Yes I recently found out it is Post war 1956-1963 period thanks to Tonomachi.

The issue was B&T 1985 Italian WWII and C

And an updated book Italian Airborne Insignia 1938-Present by Harry Pugh & Vittotio Piotti.

My one is shorter 48mm where as the WWII ones were 72mm long

cheers

Phill

[castagain]

Hello Phill,

I have some of the WW2 varieties of Italian para badges in one of my albums, if you’re interested.

Stay well,
Donovan

[Phill Lockett]

Hi Donovan

Thanks for the link , I see where the mix up occured between the original WWII silk on wool WWII 1941 dated and my smaller one which I believe is more rayon(?) thread than silk was interpreted as WWII in B&T 1985 book.

Thanks for the offer but im limiting my airborne wings to mainly US,Brit NZ WWII to modern era.

You have a geat collection of rare WWII onwards SF units , always good to see.

I have a full set of the US HALO prototypes 1983 and 1985 wings and the documentation.

cheers

Phill

[castagain]

Hi again Phill,

Oh, not offering to sell the Italian para badges — that’s my favorite frame in my whole collection. Just thought you’d like to see the 1941 version of the postwar Army para badge you showed. Like you, I picked up one of the badges like yours a few years ago, relying on the B&T identification of it as a WW2 variant. Found it later in Harry Pugh’s book as a 1950’s version. Still, a nice older representative piece of the long Italian para tradition.

Glad to hear you’ve got the 1983 U.S. freefall prototype badges in your collection. They were a beautiful design.

Stay well,
Donovan

[Phill Lockett]

Hi Donovan

Hemispheric translator was turned off!

Yes definitely a lot of nice represenation of Italian parachute badges.

Not only are the HALO wings a well thought out design but they were larger than any other US Army skill set badge, closer to the CIB size!!

cheers

Phill

[arrestingu]

Just thought I would add my small collection to the thread.
Regards
Steve

[Beaker123]

[QUOTE=arrestingu;599301]Just thought I would add my small collection to the thread.
Regards

Not sure I'd describe it as 'small' but either way a very nice collection!

Steve

[Phill Lockett]

Thanks for adding to the thread Steve.

Nice and colourful .

cheers

Phill

[Stma]

Hi,

Just wanted to say to be careful of Italian stuff as a lot of the Italian WW2 equipment patterns were used post war.

A good very general guide, as is touched on earlier on here, is that post war field gear / uniforms badge backings etc were olive green. Whereas wartime ones, including WW1 were more of a field grey colour. An example where you can easily make an error is with the water bottles. Same water bottle pattern used in WW2 and post war, but war time ones had field grey covers and post war ones were olive green.

Also with field gear the straps are generally leather for ww2 and webbing straps for post ww2 (eg: Italian helmets).

Finally be careful of things which say: R.I. meaning Repubblica Italiana which is post WW2, whereas war time stuff was marked with V.E for the King: Victor Emanuel III.

It's fine if you want post WW2 stuff, but beware of people passing items off as WW2 at a higher price when it's in fact from the 50s or 60 s.

I know this is not directly linked to this badge, but it's useful to know...

Best rgds.

[Phill Lockett]

Thanks for the update Stma

Very useful info.

cheers

Phill