West German slip on rank patches, and the leather flight jacket

[Paul Torak]

A friend recently won this grouping, and was kind enough to let me borrow them to show the forum. Both he, and I have the same question, that being would or could these epaulet slide ons be sewn/worn on the arm of the grey leather flight jackets? Or was there a different type of badge for the sleeve rank all together?
A picture of the ebay sellers coat with patch(not included in the ebay auction), and scans of the badges in hand for your reference...
Thanks
Dave

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[Gordon Craig]

Paul,

The slide on rank badges were not sewn onto the sleeves of the leather fight jackets. The rank patches used on the leather coats were single pieces of cloth. I can post pictures of my jacket when I get home next week but not before then.

Regards,

Gordon

[Paul Torak]

Gordon thank you for the input, it's appreciated.
The coat my friend has, has a number of stitch marks where patches have been removed, both on the arms, and chest. (We assume these coats were recycled when one owner left the service, it was given to a new recruit.?)
Some of the stitching holes on the sleeves match the angle, and size of some of the slide- ons, hence the confusion on our parts.
Are the regulation sleeve rank patches fairly hard to come by?
Gordon I realize your in transit, and again thank you for your guidance.
Hopefully this question will be somewhat useful to the forum as well.
Have a safe move!

Dave

[Gordon Craig]

Dave,

The first grey flight jackets used by the BW Luftwaffe had all of the ranks and squadron related patches sewn on. When they were declared surplus and sold on the open market the patches were all removed by cutting the threads holding them in place. Later issue grey flight jackets used velco backing for the squadron related badges ane the badges were removed when the jackets became surplus but the velcro backing was left sewn in place. The rank tabs were still sewn in place on the jackets using the velcro backing and these are normally left in place when the jackets are sent to surplus.
I do not believe that I have ever seen the regulation rank tabs for these jackets for sale. What I would suggest is that you cut the slip ons so that just the top part bearing the rank insignia is avaiable for sewing into place. Since you have existing holes you should be able cut the slip ons to the correct size. The problem with reattaching the rank tabs and squadron badges is that they were machine sewn into place and if you resew them the sewing will be through the lining which it was not originally.
To respond to your question abiut the jackets being reissued. I have no first hand knowledge of this but is quite possible it was done. I have a flight jacket that has signs of two different squadron crests being sewn onto the flont of the jacket in the same spot. At least that is the way I remember it. I am in a small twon in Vermont tonight but I should be home sometime tomorrow and I'll post some pictures of my jackest either tomorrow (Friday) or on Saturday.

Regards,

Gordon

[the.warlord1944]

if you are looking for some of those patches mentioned i have some.
send me a pm and maybe we can trade

[Gordon Craig]

Dave,

Sounds as though you have the answer to your problem. Not much I can add except a picture of the early surplus jacket that I have showing where one patch was sewn over where the other one was. One correction. While looking over my jackets I noticed that patches and rank badges had been sewn through the orange lining. The national flag had not.

Regards,


Gordon

[Paul Torak]

Gordon thanks again for all your help. Learned alot from you about these jackets. I'm sure
others have as well! I'll see if I can gather up a picture of my friends coat, which might help as a
reference point as well. From what I remember it came with squadron patch with a bumble bee on it.


Dave

[Gordon Craig]

Dave,

Thanks for the kind words. Looking forward to a picture of your friends jacket. Especially the unit crest. If it is a bumblebee on the crest it is probably for Aufklarungs-Geschwader 51.

Regards,

Gordon

[Paul Torak]

Larry took some time out to send along pictures to share on the forum of his jacket, with special note on the number of places patches had been removed.
He's still on the track of suppliers of the illusive set of rank patches for the sleeves, especially for pilots/officers if any one has an idea of where to look.
Hope these pictures will help reference these jackets just a bit. I appreciate Larry taking the time to send them along for all to study.
Dave
five pictures to follow...

[Paul Torak]

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Hornet or Bumble Bee, representing which squadron?