Winged Truck w/ Swastika on the Grill Pin, What the Heck is This

[Peppe864]

Chris somewhere in the back of my mind I remember that type swastika [and same emblem] being associated with Finnish motorized troops.

It's the type of swastika, for me not always meaning its 100% German. The Polish used the same for their Polish 21st and 22nd Mountain Infantry Divisions..
Don't worry, I'm sure eventually someone will come up with a period photo etc. showing it is what it is..
*Maybe try over on the International Forum!

Hello guys!

Gaspare is actually right, the insignia is Finnish and was used by the Civil Guard for Motorized Unitis within the Finnish Civil Guard.

Here is some reference material. first picture, it is number 8, I have circled it.



Second pic and below that the text to the picture:




And last but not least a period time publication dated 1938:



So the winged truck mystery is now solved!

And this insignia is actually not so easy to find and copies have been made of it.

[RonR]

I also recall fakes of these being sold in the old WW2 Inc catalogs in the early seventies.

WW2 Ltd 1973 catalog..........


...........................

[RonR]

Both pins are shown in Peppe's wonderful research (number 16 and number 8), so perhaps they are in fact, real pins, just not German?

[Pascal Bernhard]

Great info

thanks a lot !

[Peppe864]

Both pins are shown in Peppe's wonderful research (number 16 and number 8), so perhaps they are in fact, real pins, just not German?

Hi Ron.

The pics in the catalogue you have aren´t the best, I guess they are xeroxed from start, so it is hard to say with 100 % guarnatee if the insignias is original, but I believe they are.

My theory is like this, someone with Finnish roots or connections living in the USA has a long time ago (70´s) sold a load of these insignias to USA, and someone, the seller or the retailer has tricked people or been tricked in to that they are of German descent, ie easier to sell.

Because in 70´s and eariler these insignia could be found in old Civil Guard depots and costed nothing, you could almost get them for free, and at that time not many finnish collctors were even interested in these types of insignias, they were considered junk, collectors were mostly collecting firearms at that time.

If I remember correctly the winged truck has been reproduced in Finland but that would have been at earliest in the 90´s, when the interest for medals and uniforms started to grow over there, and some chum had sold all winged trucks to the USA