Condor Legion? Azul

[KristianFerrell]

Hello,
Apologies if I'll posting in the wrong forum. I found this lot together and no next to nothing, condor legiom, Spanish civil war, azul division, etc. Was curious if anything in here was authentic, original. Thanks.

[Geo3310]

Nice grouping.... The patch represents the "Green Arrow" Division. Typically the divisions were made up of Italian officers from the Corps of Volunteer troops ("Corpo Truppe Volontarie") and Spanish soldiers. Would it be possible to add some detailed close-ups to aid with authentication? Thanks.

[HPL2008]

The unit collar patch (bottom left) is from the Italian Waffen-SS and has no connection to the Spanish civil war or the Spanish volunteers in the Eastern Campaign.

(There are a few period photos of the collar patch in wear. It was allegedly worn by the Vendetta battalion, but I don't know whether this is accurate, as Italian SS insignia is a complicated and confusing field with frustratingly little reliable information available.)

I will leave others to comment on authenticity.

[KristianFerrell]

The unit collar patch (bottom left) is from the Italian Waffen-SS and has no connection to the Spanish civil war or the Spanish volunteers in the Eastern Campaign.

(There are a few period photos of the collar patch in wear. It was allegedly worn by the Vendetta battalion, but I don't know whether this is accurate, as Italian SS insignia is a complicated and confusing field with frustratingly little reliable information available.)

I will leave others to comment on authenticity.

Maybe these pics are better.

[KristianFerrell]

Can anybody help with the authentication on these, thanks.

[Aldo]

The Falange (Spanish Falanx) belt buckle is authentic and associated with the Spanish Civil war. The construction is correct for 1930's and 40's but keep in mind that the buckles were in use for many years after and changed very little in design throughout the Franco era. The green arrows patch looks authentic but there was a lot of variety in the way insignia was made, not nearly as regulated at the Germans. I'll see if I can find images for visual comparison

Examples of Civil war era Buckles

[Aldo]

Here are a few examples of authentic Flechas Verdes patches for visual comparison. You can see the variety in construction however, I question why your patch is not green ? Maybe someone more knowledgeable in these can enlighten us

[KristianFerrell]

Thanks, I just assumed they were supposed to be blue. Lol, thank you so much for your expertise.

[Aldo]

Thanks, I just assumed they were supposed to be blue. Lol, thank you so much for your expertise.

Funny, members of the Blue Division were mostly Spanish civil war Falange Party members and many wore the typical blue shirt under their German issued tunics. I am far from an authority on these items as I'm learning as I go. That patch may well be authentic it's just hard to know for sure as many were homemade or locally made like US theater made patches in WWII. The examples I've shown are more typical but by no means the only type out there. Sorry, I'm sure you wanted a more definitive answer but that's the beauty of this forum, someone may stumble on this thread and clarify it for us. Just curious if the patch does have a light green thread like the picture I posted on the bottom left ? It looks white or off white in the picture.

Al.

[Aldo]

This is an example of a Blue Arrows patch I just picked up in a lot of Spanish items. The Blue Arrows Division served in the Catalonia Offensive, the final offensive of the Spanish Civil War. Italians from the Corpo Truppe Volontarie served in these mixed Italo-Spanish Flechas units where the Italians provided the officers and technical personnel, while the Spanish served in the rank-and-file.