Are These WWII Italian?

[Brig]

I have been seeing a lot of these, but in two different shapes, the slim rectangle and the wider, curved shaped. Are they PNF-era Italian? What is the proper name, seem to see a lot of sites calling them 'Distinctive Grades'. Thanks

[OldSteel]

Hi Brig,
these are Italian rank pin-badges for civilian clothes, and can be dated to the period 30-40s, in particular they were distributed until 1945.
On them there is: the rank, the color and the emblem of the military specialty to which it belongs, and the Royal Crown.
The examples that you show us in sequence belonged to:
-Regia Aeronautica Pilot Captain
-Second Lieutenant Heavy Artillery
These are not political badges, but they were still in use both for strictly military Corps, but also for MVSN and other fascist organizations.
Here are some examples of Regio Esercito:


To complete the information there were also badges with the ribbons of military campaigns, always to be worn on civilian clothes, for example these:



Regards
Roberto

[Brig]

Thank you for the information...is there a chart/list of all the colors/symbols in use? I am making a massive chart to help ID Fascist Italian era lapel pins, primarily buttonholes, excluding awards...so far at nearly 250, not all of which I have IDs or purposes for. I figure once I finish assembling it, I will post it here on the forum to help fill in the gaps and serve as a quick identification reference

[OldSteel]

Thank you for the information...is there a chart/list of all the colors/symbols in use? I am making a massive chart to help ID Fascist Italian era lapel pins, primarily buttonholes, excluding awards...so far at nearly 250, not all of which I have IDs or purposes for. I figure once I finish assembling it, I will post it here on the forum to help fill in the gaps and serve as a quick identification reference

Hi, at the moment I don't remember summary document of all this, however in these 3 links you can find something interesting about the pin-badges for civilian cloths:
colors and badges of the various Regio Esercito specialties and table with ranks.

SCHEDA : I COLORI DELL'ESERCITO - Uniformi e Copricapi 1933 - 1946

SCHEDA : Fregi da Berretto - Fregi, Spalline, Scudetti, Attributi 1909 -1945

Comparative table WW2 Italian ranks

Regads

[Brig]

Thank you for the links, they've been very helpful. I am unable to figure out the ranks with the stars, since it seems stars were used at multiple levels?

[OldSteel]

Pin-badge with stars are example for Officers prior to 1934; subsequently the new ranks with new design came into use to be worn on the sleeve of the tunic, and therefore the pin-badges for civilian clothes were also modified.

Regards

[Brig]

So 1 star=2nd Lt, 2 stars=1st Lt, and 3 Stars=Captain?

[OldSteel]

So 1 star=2nd Lt, 2 stars=1st Lt, and 3 Stars=Captain?

Exactly, that's right.