Cut insignia still attached to uniforms..

[GLM]

John,

Here are the only other Luft. pieces that came with the eagle. There were Heer souvenirs too, but this was the only Luft.; a "salty dog" Para Badge that has no maker's mark and only traces of gold finish left in the recesses on the reverse of the bird and the Obergefreiten chevron, which has also seen better days. Too bad he didn't follow suit and keep the chevron on the uniform cloth, but as you can see, it's a standard Luft. checkered tresse on blue wool type.

Gary

OBV.

[GLM]

John,

Here are the only other Luft. pieces that came with the eagle. There were Heer souvenirs too, but this was the only Luft.; a "salty dog" Para Badge that has no maker's mark and only traces of gold finish left in the recesses on the reverse of the bird and the Obergefreiten chevron, which has also seen better days. Too bad he didn't follow suit and keep the chevron on the uniform cloth, but as you can see, it's a standard Luft. checkered tresse on blue wool type.

Gary

And the reverses...

[Willi Z.]

Nice items Gary! I do agree that the wool backed eagle sewn to green could be from a smock. If we think the eagle is from a smock, then the badge and chevron would not be from the smock. They could, however, be from a uniform under the smock......a Fliegerbluse. Honestly though, after all these years the further these items get from the veterans who brought them home, the more difficult it gets to retain the story of how the items got picked up.

Another point on the smock theory is that the tan thread used to sew the eagle on would be more commonly encountered on a smock than other garments.

Here are a few to illustrate what I am referring to. The top 2 smock eagles are wool, sewn with the same tan thread, on the same type of splinter fabric...so I flipped one on the other. The bottom 2 eagles are wool backed sewn to green fabric

[GLM]

Thanks John and Willi!

John - I misread your question and thought you were talking about the green backing being wool, not the eagle. Standard Luft. eagle on wool.

Willi - You have some very nice eagles that appear to be the same as this one. Never thought of the blouse under the smock and that pretty much explains it for me.

Unfortunately, you are correct that not enough documentation from the vets took or takes place when acquiring allot of this insignia. I know I'm kicking myself for not asking more of the obvious questions when being given war souvenirs over the years. In this case, the stepson of the veteran also gave me the news clipping of how his stepfather (the vet) died in a tragic auto accident back in the early 1960's, so any history of this insignia is long lost and the surviving relatives could care less about it.

Thanks again for the insight into both smock and blouse.

Regards,
Gary

[BadBob]

Found a couple of cut off Panzer collars.

[BadBob]

The officer's has obviously seen better days.

[BadBob]

But, the NCO's....

[BadBob]

...is a good compliment to the cut off cuff I found last year.

[Willi Z.]

Nice additions Bob. Glad to see you are still finding pieces.

[Bill H.]

Looks like it started as a NCO tunic and they were promoted.

What's ironic is - if it showed up on the forum as a complete uniform most folks would reject it from their collection since the insignia was replaced

Cheers, Bill Huber

[BadBob]

That's a good point Bill. I might be one of them. .........Here's a nice thing that I missed by about $100! I hope someone here picked it up.

[John Hodgin]

Wow Bob, sorry you missed that! Blue shirt eagles are scarce, one with part of the shirt would be desirable for any Luft. insignia collector.

[SMP]

That's a great shirt eagle. Too bad you missed it, Bob. Too bad I missed it !

Regards,
Steve

[Willi Z.]

We all missed it!

[BadBob]

A few new ones. I think the cockade is KM from the large size.