British Para Wings - opinions please

[ccmax]

Hi, same old question: are these Para wings original??

Thanks,

Cesar

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Cesar, they are original post war issue wings.


Cheers, Ade.

[WW1wingman]

i would agree ..

The thread / weave goes at an angle which gives it away as post war. Also material is wrong for wartime issue.
regards
ww1wingman

[ccmax]

Thanks, I almost bought them from a dealer offering it as WWII period wings...

[uscob]

All WW II one's I had came in the old padded style.
Nicholas

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Nicholas, I have not yet welcomed you to the forum

Have you any padded WW2 wings to share with the forum?

Here is a standard WW2 issue wing for you to see Cesar.

Cheers, Ade.

(P.S. Are you Marcus' friend as he mentioned a friend of his who lives in Berlin and deals a bit?)

[Guy]

Hi Nicholas,

The wings you show here are post war as has already been stated. The black backing is a bit of a give away as it is very unusual to see a black backed wartime wing. However most post war wings are manufactured almost identically to their wartime Bretherin with a white mesh back so it is easy to be fooled. The shape of the wing and direction of the stitching are still the main ways to tell. Another good rule of thumb I have observed is thet the white bobbin thread tying the back together will be nylon as opposed to cotton. This has been the case on EVERY post war wing I have examined even really early ones but I have yet to find nylon in a wartime piece.

There are some wartime wing variants in which the wing fletching does incline more towards the diagonal so one has to be careful when applying rules of originality to a non textbook (hate that word) piece.

Below are a few variants I own. Starting from the top of the first image we have an early wing with diagonally inclined stitching. This could be mistaken for post war! The seacond piece is a "standard" wing. The third is a heavily padded variant, probably for an officer, and made I am sure by the same manufacturer as a lot of Airborne trade badges, and glider badges.

The seacond and third images show a variant of the standard wing, again on felt, and again manufactured I think by the same company as the padded officers wing. The last image shows a variant of the first wing (I really should have thought this out better.) in wear on a denison.

Happy New Year, Guy

[Guy]

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[Guy]

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[Guy]

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