Britisches Freikorps insignia?

[Basil]

the "usual suspect" on Foreign volunteers insignia would be David Delich, but he never claimed to have such an elusive collar tab as far i know...

See You

Vince

I've discussed the possible existence of BFC tabs with David over the years and he and I are agreed that we know of no genuine examples in private hands (or anywhere else for that matter!).

He does have an example of a printed 'Great Britain' armshield, but my opinion is that it is not BFC related.

[echoe]

three lions

"I heard of a possible existence of a British tab. A friend of mine who is an SS collector from Chicago, told me that he visited another older collector and that person indeed has the British tab. Unfortunately he was not allowed to take any photos. My friend knows his cloth, so I would not doubt his words."



I saw a tab with three lions in silver wire on a cut off piece of black collar which, if I recall, was piped in silver wire. It was in the collection of a Houston collector who worked at Weatherby Arms Museum, a local tourist attraction and combination gun/militaria shop. I met Delich on one of his trips down to see the tab.

[wolfslair44]

"I heard of a possible existence of a British tab. A friend of mine who is an SS collector from Chicago, told me that he visited another older collector and that person indeed has the British tab. Unfortunately he was not allowed to take any photos. My friend knows his cloth, so I would not doubt his words."



I saw a tab with three lions in silver wire on a cut off piece of black collar which, if I recall, was piped in silver wire. It was in the collection of a Houston collector who worked at Weatherby Arms Museum, a local tourist attraction and combination gun/militaria shop. I met Delich on one of his trips down to see the tab.

Why would there be a British cut off piece of black collar? None of these men were ever Allg. or assigned to an SS panzer division.

[FrenchVolunteer]

Hi,

I saw a tab with three lions in silver wire on a cut off piece of black collar which, if I recall, was piped in silver wire.

Regulations of the SS would never had permitted silver wire with piped silver wire for NCO or private (as far i know, no British officer existed, only German liaison officers)...
Probably one of the post-war movie props, or just fantasy tabs that were sold like many other fantasy pieces for Foreign volunteers (Danish, French etc) to rich, unknowledgeable and gullible collectors (they are legion...).

See You

Vince

[HPL2008]

Guess that collar patch must have belonged to Douglas Berneville-Claye, then.

[Mike Swan]

If I recall correctly, that cut-off officer tab features in an early Military Advisor magazine. I'll try to dig it out today and post the image.

Mike

[Mike Swan]

Found it ! Military Advisor, Spring 1993.

The caption, in summary, claims that the top and middle tabs are rare, hand-embroidered originals in private collections. The portion of balck collar is supposed to be from a BUF jacket, carried over to the Freikorps.

These images are part of an article about original and fake foreign SS tabs that we know so well.

Mike

[Basil]

These are well known fakes. The silver piped and embroidered tab is one of a small group of very atypical hand-embroidered tabs which includes a Wiking 'viking ship' officer tab and a couple of others, clearly all done by (or for) the same person. The moth eaten tab is a nice try, but very crude and the lions are the wrong shape. These were all executed before any remotely detailed photographs of the insignia in wear had surfaced.

[Ian Hulley]

These are well known fakes.

I believe the lower one is a Delta from memory.

Ian

[HPL2008]

The story about the portion of black collar being from a BUF jacket carried over to the BFC is rather silly, too, isn't it?

Why would an ex-BUF member wear his blackshirt uniform in the W-SS, and how should an ex-POW even be able to carry it over to begin with? Did he carry it in his backpack while serving in the army?

[Basil]

I believe the lower one is a Delta from memory.

Ian

That's right Ian. But they've been around so long now that some people assume they're originals.

[FrenchVolunteer]

Hi,

the article was written by Frank Thayer, writer involved in the recent "RODO affair" :

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...857444&page=12

Below are better scans of the three fake models presented in the article, courtesy of my friend Jeff.

See You

Vince

[Basil]

Thank you Vince. As I said earlier, that’s where we are.

[echoe]

brit freikorps

that's it. it used to be in a collection in houston. when i saw it it was about 1970-71. interesting it turned out to be bogus. at that time, we had almost no references to speak of. the ones we did have were pretty scarce on factual info.

[DaveJ]

I used to own the moth eaten example. I got it from a friend that knew I collected SS insignia. It was 100 bucks. Said it was found in the pocket of an Ike jacket in Texas. I had it displayed at the MAX that year 1991 I think. The older dealers liked it, Adrian Forman offered me $5000 for it. I did not take his offer and have since traded it off.