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Kirkwood Polish Parachutist Badge No. 464

Article about: Gentlemen, good day. First post on joining the forum and I wanted to show the Polish Parachutist Badge I recently acquired. No. 464 of the Kirkwood manufacture. I am very interested to hear

  1. #1
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    Default Kirkwood Polish Parachutist Badge No. 464

    Gentlemen, good day.

    First post on joining the forum and I wanted to show the Polish Parachutist Badge I recently acquired. No. 464 of the Kirkwood manufacture.

    I am very interested to hear comments from the more experienced collectors on the forum, particularly as I recently read on another thread here that the Kirkwood badges only started displaying the 'broken wing' feature on the eagles left wing tip supposedly from numbers 4700+, which obviously this numbered wing would not conform with.

    [Note: The front image is a little bright, in hand the badge is a darker tone, but this pic shows the detail best]

    Cheers......John

    Kirkwood Polish Parachutist Badge No. 464Kirkwood Polish Parachutist Badge No. 464

  2. #2
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    OK, so just incase everyone who has looked and gone "Yuck! The colour of those wings doesn't look right at all...", here are they are in natural light and their more natural environment - on a second pattern Denison airborne forces smock

    Cheers......John

    PS. Regarding my 'more experienced collectors' comment, by that I mean anyone other than me, as these wings are my first Polish militaria purchase!
    Click to enlarge the picture Click to enlarge the picture Kirkwood Polish Parachutist Badge No. 464   Kirkwood Polish Parachutist Badge No. 464  


  3. #3

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    Hello John, welcome to the forum and congratulations on your first Polish militaria purchase. Hopefully the first of many. A wonderful area to collect in I assure you . Your badge is genuine, one of the unissued wings from the 0330 to 0500 serial number range. Our resident expert on all things 1SBS is Gary J and I'll defer to him for comment on the 'broken wing' variant.

    Cheers,
    Tony
    All thoughts and opinions expressed are those of my own and should not be mistaken for medical and/or legal advice.

    "Tomorrow hopes we have learned something from yesterday." - John Wayne

  4. #4
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    The wing looks fine to me .....
    And in answer to the numbers ..... they were not all struck in numerical sequence for logistical and admin reasons.

  5. #5

    Default the vagaries of wing production and number allocation

    https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/polish-armed-forces-west-polskie-si-y-zbrojne-na-zachodzie-1939-1947/polish-para-wing-jump-wreath-12455/[/url]
    Click to enlarge the picture Click to enlarge the picture Kirkwood Polish Parachutist Badge No. 464   Kirkwood Polish Parachutist Badge No. 464  


  6. #6

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    Hello John,

    The badge looks good. Tony is right - it's unissued badge from 330-500 serial numbers range.
    The badges from 0001 to 0500 were given for "Silent and Unseen" ("Polish SOE" jumpers).

    Last portion of the badges with numbers below 500 were made during the same time like wings for 1st Para Brigade with numbers over 4700.
    All of them should have "broken wing".

    Greetings
    Rafal

  7. #7
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    Gents, thank you for both the welcome and your replies.

    Very interesting to learn that those unissued number series were intend for issue to Polish SOE. In fact I must thank you all for the excellent information on this forum, from which I was able to draw the knowledge to examine the wings for authenticity and then bid for them in confidence. Even now though, your validation of the wings is reassuring to receive

    My interest in 1 SBS stems from research into my girlfriend's great uncle's involvement in Operation Market Garden. Cpl Albert Osborne of 1 Para was one of those KIA at Oosterbeek and we will be there for the commemoration service in September. I have since been reading up on 1 SBS and as an off shoot of that the Cichociemni and the generally fascinating involvement of the Polish forces in WWII. I had driven past the location of the PAF war memorial in NW London a number of times, but bothered to stop recently and found a fantastically designed and fitting tribute to those pilots, particularly the rear inscription of 2 Timothy 4:7.
    In fact given the WWII Polish forces in the West were in the main it seems equipped by us Brits, it is wonderful to see the array of beautifully detailed badges the Polish servicemen were issued and awarded. They certainly seem to overshadow some of those of their British WWII counterparts by comparison.

    With the wings I was also able to acquire what I assume to be an unissued combat wreath, No. 1935 pictured below.

    Thanks again for the excellent assembly of knowledge on the forum. I will try to post pictures of my 1945 issue stamped second pattern Denison airborne forces smock next.

    Cheers......John

    Kirkwood Polish Parachutist Badge No. 464Kirkwood Polish Parachutist Badge No. 464

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