Amazing Four Combat Jump Wings

[Tom Kibler]

This is a set of wings I was after to complete a grouping which never materialized. However, I was able to procure the wings.

 

The 505 PIR is known for their 4 combat jumps; Sicily, Salerno, Normandy and Holland. However, the owner of these wings was not in the 505th.

 

William "Willie" J. Ubinger was part of the 504th and took part in the jumps in Sicily and Salerno. Wounded in Italy, his recovery was in England. Upon recovery, he was assigned to the 507th PIR. He took part in the Normandy Jump and then the Rhine.

 

In speaking with the family, I discovered that these wings were sold as part of the family estate in or about 1980. Ubinger was still alive but had left all of his belongings at his family home in Pennsylvania where his mother lived. After her death and the following estate sale, these wings traveled overseas to the Netherlands and have resided there for over thirty years.

 

I've seen the eBay "mocked" up wings. However seeing this pair in hand showed me just how different they are in the quality of work.

 

I'm still trying to research Ubinger, so if anyone has information on him, I'd really love to know it.

 

Thanks.

 

TK

[Tom Kibler]

I cannot find a maker mark on the reverse of the wings. Actually, the details seen in these photos is far greater that with the naked eye.

[Jim Baker]

That is a fantastic wing. :thumbsup:

 

Have you found a photo of him yet?

[1944]

Hi Tom,

That sure is a very sweet looking Jump Wing with it's 4 Jump Star's and an Arrow-head it looks great :thumbsup:

Its not like the Fake pieces you see on EBay every so often been listed as Original Pieces...

 

"Sure Would be great to have this guys Dress Uniform in an Airborne Collection."

 

Regards

Tomás.

[Tonomachi]

I realize you have provenance but this looks like a cast paratrooper wing. Cast usually means reproduction unless you are talking about the crude sand cast stuff made during the Vietnam War. As far as I know all WW2 original paratrooper wings were stamped. If you look at the front you can see what looks like cast lines along the inner shoulders of the wings and details are soft although this could be due to wear and polishing over the years. However the back of an original stamped paratrooper wing does not look like this while cast wings have this appearance. I could be wrong but I don't get a very good feeling about this wing. I wonder if this might have been a post war replacement wing that the veteran had made for himself?

[smwinter207]

Can anyone else comment on the validity of these wings? Hearing they were "overseas for 30yrs" makes me nervous for the buyer..

[hawk3370]

I realize you have provenance but this looks like a cast paratrooper wing. Cast usually means reproduction unless you are talking about the crude sand cast stuff made during the Vietnam War. As far as I know all WW2 original paratrooper wings were stamped. If you look at the front you can see what looks like cast lines along the inner shoulders of the wings and details are soft although this could be due to wear and polishing over the years. However the back of an original stamped paratrooper wing does not look like this while cast wings have this appearance. I could be wrong but I don't get a very good feeling about this wing. I wonder if this might have been a post war replacement wing that the veteran had made for himself?

 

I have a tendency to concur with this assessment. Notice on the front there are some flaws in the wing just above the stars that appear to be pitting. Also on the back the rounded edges and what appear to be pitting near the solder usually indicate a casting. Would have to examine them in hand but based on the pictures I think they may be a cast copy as well.

 

Terry

[Tom Kibler]

Here is a photo of these wings (please excuse the poor quality) taken around 2000.

[LuftStalg1]

They don't look cast to me. The detail on the shroud lines is sharp and in between each line is nice and smooth. :thumbsup: Ridges on the edge, I don’t see them, can be from the pinch of the die stamp processes. Casting lines would be on the edge of the badge and not visible from these pics. A nice edge shot would be good to see if it has the perpendicular lines from top to bottom caused by the pinch from the die stamping process. :think: I see some corrosion around the soilder but no casting pits. Generally I never trust jump wings with stars and arrowheads added but it would all depend on the paper trail and the previous owners. But cast, I'd say no way!

[dave peifer]

i agree.......an edge shot would be nice but do not look cast to me either.......dave

[hawk3370]

They don't look cast to me. The detail on the shroud lines is sharp and in between each line is nice and smooth. :thumbsup: Ridges on the edge, I don’t see them, can be from the pinch of the die stamp processes. Casting lines would be on the edge of the badge and not visible from these pics. A nice edge shot would be good to see if it has the perpendicular lines from top to bottom caused by the pinch from the die stamping process. :think: I see some corrosion around the soilder but no casting pits. Generally I never trust jump wings with stars and arrowheads added but it would all depend on the paper trail and the previous owners. But cast, I'd say no way!

 

If you look at the enlarged pic you can see beads of silver in between the shroud lines on the parachute, also on the left wing as you look at it you can see numerous small beads of silver just above the star and the area above the star has several flaws on both sides. Beads of silver are a characteristic of the lost wax casting process. Overall the wing details are not sharp and distinct as would be found on a struck piece. I still lean towards these being cast.

 

Terry

[LuftStalg1]

If you look at the enlarged pic you can see beads of silver in between the shroud lines on the parachute, also on the left wing as you look at it you can see numerous small beads of silver just above the star and the area above the star has several flaws on both sides. Beads of silver are a characteristic of the lost wax casting process. Overall the wing details are not sharp and distinct as would be found on a struck piece. I still lean towards these being cast.

 

Terry

 

I will just have to disagree. I see a dirty pin with corrosion of the soldier or old silver polish around the stars. I see no signs of casting. Still a view of the edge might resolve this.

 

Mark

[pfrost]

I will just have to disagree. I see a dirty pin with corrosion of the soldier or old silver polish around the stars. I see no signs of casting. Still a view of the edge might resolve this.

 

Mark

 

I kind of concur with everything above. With jump wings, I find that one of the best characteristics of a cast wing is the way the shroud lines are depicted. In castings, the lines tend to merge at multiple points because the process of making a copy is difficult to keep the details clear. Die struck wings tend to have strong and equally sized and spaced shroud lines that merge more or less at the same point at the bottom of the wing. Also, because of the obvious alterations done to the wing by adding the stars and arrowhead, and the buffing/grinding of the back to make everything flush, it could be that the "cast" look is due to that rather than them really being cast copies. Accurate measurement of the wings ought to tell you as well if they are die struck or castings.

 

Other than having them in hand, it can be very difficult. But I wouldn't be really quick to toss them into the "fake" pile. As to whether or not they actually represent the wings of a four jump veteran, I have nothing to add. BUT, to me, they look ok.

 

Just some observations.

 

Patrick

[LuftStalg1]

Accurate measurement of the wings ought to tell you as well if they are die struck or castings.

Patrick

 

 

Good point Patrick, I forgot all about casting shrinkage!

[navynambu]

I have a couple of comments on the wings, none of them really dispositive on the issue as to whether they are fake or not. But I can tell you what I look for when I see wings with added stars.

 

First, I do think these are die struck wings. As already stated, the canopy and lines on the front are the best spot to look at to see whether a wing is die struck, or whether it demonstrates the obvious defects which a cast peace will always have (bubbling, etc.). I don't see any of the typical hallmarks of a cast wing on the front of this one. Also, in order to determine whether the wing was die struck, you can look at the edge on the back, to see if there is a bit of silver left which has squeezed out on the edges, were the two guys come together. However, on this wing, the back is obviously been filed on and rounded, so the edge now appears almost like a cast wing, due to the fact the back has been "worked" by whomever soldered the stars on, so that feature of a typical die struck wing has now been lost.

 

Second, I don't like the color of this wing. In a don't like the fact that the color of the front looks just like the color on the back. At least to me, t appears to have been chemically darkened by application of ***(which you can buy, in which contains subtly different chemical composition, depending on what sort of color you want the silver to show when you're done). It shows a far too blue/gray/black appearance for my liking. However, "tarnish" is in fact just a product of what chemicals the wing was exposed to, either in the air, in a pocket, in a drawer, or by direct chemical application, or otherwise. But, it's far too coincidental for me that the front of the wing "tarnish" looks just like the "tarnish" on the back of the wing, and that is far too "blue" for my liking. I do think it's a chemical application. Which would have been done as the final stage in faking the wing by a faker, if in fact it is fake. But it's very unusual for a "real" wing to have this color of toning. As ZDNet; it's very unusual to see this color of toning on a real wing that hasn't been monkeyed with.

 

In addition, over the years I have been fortunate of enough to obtain wings directly from World War II airborne veterans that have had stars applied, and I've also seen wings come in in airborne groupings with stars applied. Personally, myself, I've never seen a wing soldered together like this one. More typically, at least in my experience, lead solder wasn't used on these. Frankly, there be no reason to do that if you're the veteran. Most often, simply a hole was drilled in the wing and the star was taken off (probably a ribbon badge) and stuck through the hole, with the prongs bent back. I've also seen, particularly with respect officers, instances where the wing was obviously taken to a jeweler, and silver (not lead) solder was supplied to close the holes and make the service on the rear smooth.

 

I don't know if you've ever tried to solder silver with lead, but it's an extremely poor and unsatisfactory process, particularly on a small jewelry item like this one. It really would be too much work, in my opinion, for a "field expedient" modification of the wing that would've been done in a barracks, in a machine shop, or somewhere in camp. Also, when you work with a torch and you are not competent, you are liable to melt the silver solder that holds the pin back onto the wing body. It looks like here, the pin vase and latch might've melted off, had to be re-solder back onto the pin. In addition, the solder that's been used here appears, at least from the pictures to me, to have a very high lead content. I suspect it was "acid core" solder; however acid core solder, as the years pass, continues to decompose or changed since the acid likes to crawl out of it and corroded. That don't see any evidence of acid core solder corrosion yet, on this wing, including, for example, affecting the brass parts of the stars that go through the acid core solder. I would expect more chemical reaction to occur there if the soldered starred wing had in fact been engaged in existence for some 70 years (that is, interaction between the acid in the solder and the prongs on the wings, as they go through the solder).

 

These are just a few of the things I look at, when I see a wing like this one. I just point them out for educational purposes, because I'm not sure that a lot of collectors really know how to take a look at a jump wing like this one, when they happened to see one.

 

Obviously, someone took a lot of time on this one, try to fix it up, and put the lead in the holes, file and send it back, go back and apparently possibly re-af'fix the pin, and in my opinion chemically darkened the front and the back of the pin to match. So, I'm not a huge fan of this pin. But I can't say it's fake. But I can say someone put a whole bunch of work into it. Seems like a soldier would have rather spent more of his time drinking liquor and chasing girls, rather than working on this pin. However, your mileage may vary. Perhaps I just think too much about these things. Rollie

[JDK]

Navynambu,

 

Great post. There's some great info there, and not just for these wings but also some things to consider when looking at others.

JD