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WWII POW LEAD WINGS


KASTAUFFER
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Here is another ID'd POW lead wing I just acquired.

It is engraved on the back STALAG LUFT 1 BARTH GERMANY 7/16/44.

It also has the POWs name and service number off to the side.

He was a pilot with the 401st BG, 8th AAF , and was shot down 1/11/44 over Germany,

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Very nice wings Kurt. Great to have it ID'd! I always feel like its kind of difficult to trust POW made wings unless they have a connection or are bought very cheap.

 

JD

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  • 1 month later...

Was home digging through my collection as it's time to deaccess some things (no, not these), but have been meaning to post some more pics of them. So, enjoy.

 

That is a great piece of history!

Congrats.for purchasing this complete set of AF POW wings.

 

Bestreg.

 

kindzjal

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  • 8 months later...

I think these are all great items, I had never considered a pair of these before but having previously collected a lot of German POW items there were always a lot of lead remakes ( these all came directly from the soil ), so I have no reason to doubt any of these items. Thanks for sharing all what amazing items !

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  • 6 months later...

Great posts! Thanks for sharing some wonderful POW wings. I have one from an estate sale of a former guest of Stalag Luft III while stationed in Virginia, but have never seen any others outside of a museum. Later on I was able to acquire a Late-Arrivals Club winged boot, but I am still trying for a Goldfish Club and Caterpillar Club pins.

 

Thanks,

Bryan

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  • 2 weeks later...

Figured I would post mine, they weren't made while in captivity, but they are a set of clipped wings from one of the Stalag Luft III Reunions, its about 1.75 inches in size. The ones you guys posted are fantastic.

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  • 4 months later...
StaceysPOWProject

I'm currently writing about POW wings as part of my thesis, and am finding it particularly difficult to find any sources which mention them. I don't suppose any of you happen to know of any books, articles, memoirs, journals, or anything at all which discusses the wings?

 

I think it said earlier in this thread that there's a section about them in Lee's A Wartime Log, has anyone read it?

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Stacey,

 

If you haven't already, you need to send a private message to KASTAUFFER here on the forum. I do not know if there is anyone with more knowledge on the subject that you wish to research. Kurt is a great guy and he has shared some wonderful examples of POW wings in various posts here on the site. Kurt has thoroughly researched the subject and has interviewed recipients, so he would logically have better and more germane information than in most published texts.

 

Good luck on your thesis.

 

Allan

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There is a couple of sentences about POW wings as well as one color illustration of one in a book titled, "Parachute Badges and Insignia of the World" by R.J. Bragg & Roy Turner on page 164 and color plate 8 first published in 1979 by Branford Press Ltd (ISBN 0 7137 0882 4).

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StaceysPOWProject

Thank you very much to both of you, I greatly appreciate it! I will check out the book, and sent Kurt a message. He has been fantastically helpful in the past.

 

Stacey.

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I just replied to your PM Stacey.

 

Here is a section from a book called " Clipped Wings" that discusses how wings were made. I am posting it here for the other forum members to see as well.

 

Kurt

 

0141f4ed6bf8ff0744b87636fa0a77e64b16e685b2.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here are a pair of Stalag Luft I wings I recently acquired that are not attributed. They look OK to me. I normally don't buy unattributed wings.

 

 

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017642802fd8d32a6343e62e2558a6b7d0b1606464.jpg

 

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  • 1 month later...
StaceysPOWProject

I am now trying to collect together a data set comparing the different types of wings (and possibly checking for design changes between camps). In my travels I've come across a brilliant passage in a book which I thought you all might be interested in.

 

Erik Dyreborg, The captured ones: American Prisoners of War in Germany, 1944-1945, (Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2006), 120. https://books.google.com/books?id=Ii76VotVIcYC&pg=PA120&lpg=PA120&dq=POW+lead+wings+in+camp&source=bl&ots=GdJtzJ9DnG&sig=fQr4XG2duTg0kIpN3niWNS5YkA8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwir-pr8rNTKAhXDyRQKHRbpBUwQ6AEIKTAB#v=onepage&q=POW%20lead%20wings%20in%20camp&f=false

 

"The manufacture of lead wings and insignia provided an interesting, time consuming and skilled pastime. The lead was recovered from the food cans we received. A small forge, complete with bellows to provide high heat, would be built utilizing the stove as the foundation and frame. The lead from many cans would then be melted in the forge. After the fire cooled all the lead particles would be recovered and melted again in an iron cup and the impurities skimmed off. Then a small mold made of wet fine sand would be imprinted with a set of wings, and the hot molten lead poured into the form. Then thin wires or other items would be inserted into the back of the hot metal to form some type of clasp.

 

These wings sold for about two chocolate bars of candy however the cost would go down in direct ratio to the amount of lead or labour one would put into the project. This became an art and some of the officers who became skilled at the procedure profited and would make a couple of sets in one week. The securing of lead from the cans was a major problem. There is not very much lead in a little tin can, just a drop"

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  • 2 months later...
  • 10 months later...
  • 2 years later...

Hi guys,

Thanks for sharing, it's really impressive to see such variations and design. My small contribution with those POW wings made of lead :

 

 

r9sz.jpg
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Will
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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for sharing Will!

 

Here is my newest contribution.

 

Lead Bombardier wing from a POW captured 6/22/43 serving with the 305th BG, 8th AAF. His initials are on the back.

 

Also shown is his Caterpillar Club pin from the Pioneer Parachute Company.

 

010246686f8c8eef45153ebf6fe8b6950c01b2db5b.jpg

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  • 2 months later...
wings-patches2

One of the only two original Ball-and-Chain wings I've acquired over the years or that I've ever seen. As I recall, the other is a HALF-WING with B&C, but I seem to have misplaced it or accidentally tossed it (it is possible). I was always told these wings were apocryphal but I was determined to track one down. Got lucky. This gentleman was a wonderful guy and I was glad to be able to help him with some serious health issues. There was more "stuff" in he grouping but i thought this would give folks he idea. (For personal and business reasons I have kept the identifying information private.)

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  • 4 weeks later...
wings-patches2

This display of made-in-camp wings of the world was a POW bring back. It was made in Stalag Luft 1 and as the original description paper on the reverse states, cigarette paper was used to "finish" the lead wings. (To thwart would be fakery, I've deleted unique information from the original attached label.)

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post-264555-0-76171300-1576714875_thumb.jpg

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This display of made-in-camp wings of the world was a POW bring back. It was made in Stalag Luft 1 and as the original description paper on the reverse states, cigarette paper was used to "finish" the lead wings. (To thwart would be fakery, I've deleted unique information from the original attached label.)

 

Great piece!

 

I'm sure most of these boards were made by the same POW in Stalag Luft 1 from the evidence I have seen. He seemed to have had a cottage industry in making them and trading them to other prisoners.

 

Kurt

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 years later...

It’s been a while since a new wing was posted! Here is one I just acquired.

 

it is an Aircrew wing very lightly engraved on the reverse  “  JBD

KREMS AUSTRIA”

 

Krems Austria was the location of Stalag 17B. The only POW I could find in 17B with initials JBD is Sgt JB Dobbs who was captured April 8, 1944 with the 466th Bomb Group.

 

 

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39B91EE7-DEF9-4BB4-ABEA-9347CF843CB4.jpeg

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