25 GAB, before and after..

[5ribbonbar]

Your badge, your rules. Sure, personally I would have left it alone but I think you did a fine job and it looks great.

Cheers,

Glen

[billbert]

NOT a badge guy BUT years ago I had a opportunity to view approx. combat 125 badges brought back by GI MP and left untouched until brought into a militaria store in the early 1980s..both the owner and myself where schocked but the number of field repaired badges in the grouping..I would say at least 1/3 were fixed or modified..got a great portion of them at the POW processing level..Billbert

PS..Very nice repair to a fine badge..

[90th Light]

Nice repair and as already stated it comes down to where one draws the line and what one does or does not do while a badge is in their possession. At the end of the day, we collectors are nothing more than a temporary trustee for these badges as time progresses on.

The thing that I feel needs to be stated here, is the affection with which Germans servicemen often wore a repaired or voided badge.

I have had more than one German airman tell be how a repaired pilot/ aircrew badge to them was like what a bleached/ faded tropical cap was to those in Afrika.

A repaired badge was often the symbol of a front frighter, a "60 mission crusher" veteran.

One fighter pilot in particular, told me that his badge was lost more than once inside the cockpit of his aircraft. He was thankful it did not jam anything. He always asked the mechanics/ ground crew to find it so he could get it repaired.

I hate to see real history just ignored because it is in the too hard basket. Over the years I have always kept repaired badges directly from veterans. In the odd case or two you can see a pattern to how they repaired them and what they used eg Juncker 1st model aluminium pilot badges,

Chris

[manse77]

Hi Van,

You've done a great job with the repair IMO, very nicely done

Regards

Rhidian