20th Century British Airborne Cloth Insignia from WWII

[Gunslinger]

Here are some higher quality embroidered ST. My favorite is the top image, these have all gone to a new home!

 

 

 

 

CDub

[Milihfra]

Questions for someone to answer hopefully.

 

Besides physical construction, color, and appearance what is the different between the blue and maroon para. regiment titles? Is it simply war time vs. post war or is it unit based? 

 

Also why the curved vs. straight airborne titles? These are two things I could never find an answer to so pardon my ignorance.

[Allan H.]

17 hours ago, Milihfra said:

Questions for someone to answer hopefully.

 

Besides physical construction, color, and appearance what is the different between the blue and maroon para. regiment titles? Is it simply war time vs. post war or is it unit based? 

 

Also why the curved vs. straight airborne titles? These are two things I could never find an answer to so pardon my ignorance.

I will attempt to answer your questions, but they are vague, so I may not get all of the boxes checked. I'll start with maroon titles. The earliest airborne titles were blue embroidered on maroon, but these where phased out when the Parachute Regiment was formed. The official color of the titles for the Parachute Regiment was Cambridge blue with the lettering being done in navy. At the tail end of the war, shoulder titles were made that used Cambridge Blue embroidery on maroon wool. This insignia was worn for a VERY short period of time and was replaced with navy letters on Cambridge blue again.

 

The straight "airborne" titles were a designator and were worn below the Pegasus formation signs. This was done to designate soldiers as being on an airborne status. They should not be confused the the arched shoulder titles that read "Airborne." The arched titles simply pre-dated use of the Parachute Regiment titles.

 

Allan

[Milihfra]

On 5/4/2022 at 11:00 AM, Allan H. said:

I will attempt to answer your questions, but they are vague, so I may not get all of the boxes checked. I'll start with maroon titles. The earliest airborne titles were blue embroidered on maroon, but these where phased out when the Parachute Regiment was formed. The official color of the titles for the Parachute Regiment was Cambridge blue with the lettering being done in navy. At the tail end of the war, shoulder titles were made that used Cambridge Blue embroidery on maroon wool. This insignia was worn for a VERY short period of time and was replaced with navy letters on Cambridge blue again.

 

The straight "airborne" titles were a designator and were worn below the Pegasus formation signs. This was done to designate soldiers as being on an airborne status. They should not be confused the the arched shoulder titles that read "Airborne." The arched titles simply pre-dated use of the Parachute Regiment titles.

 

Allan

Thanks Allan, I think you explained that perfectly. Apologies if I was vague but ultimately I was asking for the lineage of Parachute titles.