Polish Para wing with jump wreath

**Adrian Stevenson** · 10-27-2009, 11:58 PM

Hi Guys, this wing resides in the collection of the British Army's Intelligence Corps Musuem. I had the pleasure of having a private behind the scenes visit there.

I tried to fool Gary with the pics and make out I had just bought it

but he knew where it lived!

Cheers, Ade.

**Gary J** · 10-28-2009, 06:52 AM

Capt. John Strode Amore !

Wing Number 325 falling into the Cichociemni /SOE set of numbers.

And this wing holds some interest technically !
This is one of the wings sent out to italy for issue !
The wing is a Gr-Tech type, .. but possibly in it's haste to be issued, it has Kirkwood style numbers.

I know that there was a technical mix up with some of the wings sent to Italy going astray, which also caused a mix up in wings being re-numbered ...
Possibly this wing was from the secondary batch that were resent to cover the missing consignment ?

Gary J.

**Gary J** · 10-28-2009, 08:08 AM

Adding to Ade's post,
Here is a very interesting wing. (0042)

This wing belonged to Major G. I. Klauber of British Intelligence, who was awarded his "Polish Parachute Badge" personally by General Sikorski on the Brigades foundation day 23-IX-1941.

There is infact a picture of General Sikorski about to present this very wing ! (Major Klauber being the officer with the stick under his arm).

Major Klauber went on to Italy after it's surrender, and recommended the airbase at Brindisi for use by special ops.
He ended up as no.2 in charge "M" section SOE, and also took the lead with Force 139.

Gary J.

**Gary J** · 10-28-2009, 10:47 AM

And another Force trained by the Polish Para Team ..

The Free French.

This wing (3114) was issued to Robert Marchal who served with the Free French in the 3rd Company 3 SAS.

Marchal took part in "Operation Amherst" ... In April 1945
(Operation Amherst - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )

In theory, Marchal was entitled to the combat wreath addition to his badge, ... but it seems that for some reason technically the "combat wreath" was never added in this case.

Also of note, I believe the badges issued to the Free French SAS were the only badges that could be directly attributed to an SAS trooper of WW2 .... purely because they were numbered !

Gary J.

**Gary J** · 10-28-2009, 11:25 AM

Twins !

Unusual to find a number sequenced pair ..

5860 and 5861 (Kirkwood) Unissued.

Gary J.

**Gary J** · 10-28-2009, 11:41 AM

The three known variants of the combat wreath.

1) Numbered

2) Plain

3) "Duplikat"
(Contemporary Issue/contemporary replacement issue)

Gary J.

**A.J. Zawadzki** · 10-30-2009, 06:35 AM

Thank you Ade for the initial post which prompted Gary’s fascinating and informative replies.

T.

**mark_palmer17** · 10-31-2009, 12:04 AM

Always SOOOOOO jealous of your collection Gary, hate's a strong word but I'm sure everyone uses about it!!!

There won't be any out there for the rest of us haha, especially if dug up's are going for 800 quid!!!

**Gary J** · 10-31-2009, 12:29 AM

Mark,
That price was a real shocker to me as well !!!!

Most my wings were sourced around 7 or 8 years back, .. and even then the competition was fierce !!

Regards

Gary J.