GC*

Good afternoon gentlemen, I recently bought this hungarian piece as part of a bigger lot. My hope was to have bought a cockade, but I am honestly not very sure that this badge is actually a hat badge - I could not see the reverse and assumed there would have been some prongs there, or at least their remains, but what I found there when I received the piece was quite unexpected. Your comments on this issue would be much appreciated. Thank you GC*

Thank you bmsm, now we know where those little eagles came from! As soon as possible I will be posting a bigger pic of what you said could be a iraqui police badge!

Thank you very much Giller for your comment. So, this eagle [ ] was used both by the Gwardia Ludowa and by the Armia Ludowa, while the eagle which photo I attached in my first post is the Soviet made one that was used since Jult 1944 by the Ludowe Wojsko Polskie. [if I am wrongplease do correct me!] Thank you. Best, GC

Gentlemen, thanks to you all for your comments! Peter Monahan, you are definitely right. This topic itself is the proof that a database of arab eagles is definitely needed. The amount of different versions and the stunning similarity between some of them (at least to my inexperienced eyes) make them very interesting, but at the same time their cataloguing quite difficult.. Bmsm, unfortunately I will be able to take better pictures of these badges only in mid December, but I will very happy to provide a better pic of that badge asap! Lion101, your comment is once more very helpful! Your comment definitely helps! The red-white-black eagles have the shield made of very good quality material and the shield itself looks like a separated piece then fixed on the main structure..at the same time the design and quality of the green shield eagles looks poor in comparison to the other eagles.. That's quite interesting!

Dear paja, thank you so much for your contribution. This type of images are always of great help to catalogue my collection and identify potential new hat badges! Thanks. Best, GC

Kev in Deva, your contribution is just massive! Thank you so much for sharing these information. I will be trying to do some net search as well, but I am really glad you gave me some knowledge about something I was really completely ignorant!

Oh and sorry, a clarification, did you mean that the star which picture I attached is a self-made partisan insigna? Or did you refer to the stars that some partisans are wearing on their caps in the old pictures? Thanks again for your help!

Thank you very much for your illuminating answer! But then..did the bulgarian army soldiers wore the crowned lion while they were fighting alongside the Soviets or did they adopt some kind of temporary cap badge? I cannot really find any photo of Bulgaian soldiers after the coup.. Thank you again!

Actually, regarding this last star, I had some talks with other fellow collectors and there seem to be a general agreement on the fact that it is Soviet..the point is, was one of those stars produced in the USSR and then used in Yugoslavia? Nevertheless..I recently made two wonderful gains concerning Yugoslavia and I will be definitely showing them here on the forum asap!

Thank you.

Thank you very much Lion for your answer! I am still undecided about the three little eagles on the right of my photo.. The three stars suggest me that they are Iraqui, but normally Iraqui eagles have the head turned to the left. Still not sure. And I still don't have any idea about the badge down on the right.. Any opinions?

Here I found some photographic evidence of what I was talking about while referring to the case of Bulgaria. Here we find two WWII Royal Bulgarian caps [http://www.shopbulgaria.com/files/products/cache/w_1289948400_5000_4000_1289990207.jpg ; ], while here we have the Lion without crown I mentioned before [http://www.shopbulgaria.com/files/products/cache/w_1340114731_5000_4000_1340114731.jpg]. All of that reminds me really a lot about the case of the Polish communist forces; the eagle was left, while the crown was dropped. So, was this type of Bulgarian lion worn by soldiers after the Fatherland Front coup??..

Definitely very interesting! I am already selecting some potentially interesting images! I just have few question: 1) were are we supposed to upload/to who are we supposed to send the photos? 2) are photos of material kept in museums allowed? Thank you very much. Best, GC

Issue resolved. The hat badge is for Yugoslav forest guards (as some of you rightfully suggested).

I must actually say that other collectors have expressed the opinion that this star may be a Soviet "non textbook" WWII one..but still nobody came up with a definitive opinion..

Dear fellows, here I am once again with something that could maybe be a Yugoslav partisan star. Well, here come the pictures! I was wondering, Emanuel, whether this star could be like the smaller one on the second picture of that amazing book of yours. The picture of the reverse will help to clarify the star's measures! Thanks you. Best, GC

Dear fellow collectors, Since many years I am desperate to find a Democratic Army of Greece (DSE) cap badge (like the one showed in the picture attached). I am sure everybody knows about the DSE, but in case not, it was the communist army founded after the end of WWII which participated (and lost) the Greek Civil War (which erupted after a mass persecution of ex communist partisans and the start of armed clashes between communist and monarchist-british forces) I am also researching wether the DSE produced any other type of cap badges for its trrops. In this photo it is clearly possible to see a communist partian wearing the cap badge I am so desperately looking for, . Until now I did not find any information in support of the thesis that ither DSE hat badges exist, but I am open to any comments about that! Any comment or remark would be much appreciated! Thank you. Best, GC

Let's now pass to the problematic issues, from the simplest to the most complicated one. 1) Poland. Am I right in saying that the Armia Ludowa, before being incorporated in the Lodowe Wojsko Polskie used another eagle, as well without crown, but with a more traditional design? Is it this that eagle, ? 2) Bulgaria. I have seen many pictures of Bulgarian caps with attached a piece of cloth bearing the two letters "ОФ", the initials of "Fatherland Front", http://www.militaryheadgear.com/system/photos/000/021/558/large/Bulgarian_Fatherland_Front_Garrison_Cap.jpg?1287517505. But, for example, look at this picture , some soldiers are wearing some kind of stars on their caps. And in this picture it is clearly possible to detec a variety of different cap badges. Another question. I have come across several examples of the Bulgarian wartime lion with crown..I however also found lions of the same type without the crown..were they used by the Bulgarian army after the coup? Which means, was it, at least at first, like in Poland, were the eagle stayed and the crown disappeared? 3)Czechoslovakia. I had no previous knowledge about wartime Czechoslovakian hat badges, although I do have several post-war Czechoslovak stars and hat badges in my collection. Now look at these pictures, this is General Svoboda http://i.pravda.sk/09/073/skcl/P292cb036_svoboda.jpg and these two female soldiers ..it looks to me that, respectively, they are wearing such hat badges , http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Czechoslovakia-Army-Cap-Badge-/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/$%28KGrHqQOKnME52NRU9wTBOquYq3Pww~~60_35.JPG . This assumption comes from few researches, but I never actually made it to find a picture from which I could clearly see the cockade worn on caps by Czechoslovak officers and soldiers.. 4) Romania. No idea whatsoever about which type of hat badges were in use in the Romanian Army when it switched sides and fought alongside the Soviets.. Well, many questions and many doubts, I admit that.. Nevertheless I hope that some of you will find this issues interesting and will decide to provide me with some information-comments-opinions! Thank you. Best, GC