Paratrooper.be

Two boxes of Luftwaffe escape compasses?

Now this is something you don’t see every day. Two full boxes of what look like German Luftwaffe escape compasses going by the point markings on them. Chris Wright send me these photos. He bought this packet with compasses along with a collection of WWII items. They are very similar to the German compass in my article, but they seem a little large to for an escape compass (21mm wide) and it has a different shape of arrow. Could this have come from some German store room? Any info would be much appreciated.

Save

Save

Photo of cloth jump wings(c) Mark Bando

I stand corrected on a note about cloth jump wings in my jump wings article.

Pierre-Antoine Vlimant rightly pointed out to me that the practice of wearing cloth jump wings was already discussed by Mark Bando here. These did indeed started to appear during the war on both khaki and OD7 cloth and continued to be used afterwards. In fact, paratroopers can be seen wearing them in photos of Operation Dragoon.

Please keep any corrections or addition coming to make the article more complete!

Read the full jump wings article here

Save

Jump wing with loops

Kamil, a collector from Poland bought these very peculiar jump wings off a roof repair company who found it at an attic in France.

The holes are at the top and bottom seem to have been intended for sewing the wings onto fabric. I haven’t seen this before. The holes (or loops rather) don’t look like they have been welded on, but seem to be integral part of the wings. The latter would mean that these wings were cast with the loops, which would surprise me because then, why would they have kept the attachments of the clasp at the back if it was intended for sewing on?

It looks like the badge is made of silver. It’s quite dark in the photos so it could well be.

If anyone has ever seen similar jumpwings or has more information or ideas about this, please comment.

Read the complete article on jumpwings here

Save

Save

Some of the new WW2 collectibles for sale

I have taken some time to list the items of my collection I want to sell.

Mostly US items of course, but also some very nice German items this time.

Various items of the Italian theatre (maps, booklet), a complete mine detector,
various compasses, small personal and medical items and lots more…

See all items for sale

Curt Cheeseman send me photos with three versions he has of the Taylor made wrist compass: with markings, without markings and with an aluminum base. It’s the first photo I’ve seen with all three types together and it makes for an interesting comparison.

The shape of the base is identical for all three. What stands out on the bezel is that the Taylor logo isn’t always at the same compass position.

We still don’t know in which order these variations were manufactured, but it stands to reason the aluminum base was the earliest version. It’s what I think because aluminum was rationed during the war and there are very few compasses still around with an aluminum base. More information on this, should anyone have it, is always welcome!