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Cloth Wings


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I have always wondered about the full-sized USAAF wings embroidered in white silk on khaki cotton twill or chocolate wool elastique. The only period photos I have seen of such wings were khaki ones on the CBI bush jacket, and I once saw an enlisted shirt with a CBI-made gunner's wing directly hand-embroidered onto the shirt. So, were these used on officer/enlisted shirts, and if so, when was the 2" metal wing worn on the shirt as opposed to this full-sized cloth wing???

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John Cooper

Hi Don,

 

I know these are offical wings as described in your post. I do not collect them but I recall someone here posting some comments about them and recalling buying an entire roll.

 

Maybe one of our dealer members can chime in on this.

 

As for the wearing of the 2 vs. 3 inch wings I have seen photos of them being worn both ways offically the 2 inch was the shirt size (when the shirt was worn as without a coat) but I am know many exceptions existed.

 

John

 

(edit - I forgot to mention the fact these would have been very cheap compared to the sterling wings and you did not have to removed them for cleaning)

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My father was a navigator during the war and a member of a lead crew. In his accumulation of pins etc. were several unused cloth wings as you describe--all of them 3-inch. One was an English bullion wing on a bright blue backing and two of them were the white silk embroidered wings, again on a blue background--these blue backed wings may have been meant for combat crew patches, I am not sure. In addition, his two coats were converted from the pin-on type attachments to sewn on bullion wings, ribbons, patches, and rank insignia. Both coats were made in England.

 

I am relatively certain that his lead crew/combat crew wings were not sewn on his coats because the blue lead crew/combat crew patch idea was dropped (by Doolittle, I think) within about 6-months of it being hatched (by Doolittle, I think). Dad flew two tours with a leave between them that took him off the line from July to October 1944. As he was returning for his second tour, the idea of blue lead crew patches was dropped about November 1944--hence he didn't get around to sewing the blue-backed wings on.

 

One of his gunners wrote a nice letter to me explaining that they liked the English style of sewing all their identifiers on rather than pinning all those things on and having to contend with keeping them polished and having to remove all that stuff before laundering..and of course, putting it all back on again. Makes perfect sense to me. He also noted in his letter that they didn't pay any attention to who made the wings they purchased...to them is was just an over the counter purchase item when needed. One use for the inexpensive, unmarked wings was to pin them on a good looking girl's blouse in exchange for a kiss or two...there you are...those wings were a useful currency for some of the young lads.

post-3515-1216575340.jpg

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