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This link leads to the first page of five showing bages and orders from Estonia, pre-communist and communist period. http://www.ecu.ee/index.php?y=164&number=0 Nothing to do with the splendors sent by Pluribus, but can be of some interest nevertheless.

The Centre des Hautes Etudes de l'Armement depends from the Ecole Militaire in Paris. It has been created as an excellence center for high ranking officers and senior officials. Part of its activity is giving lectures on Armament matters (technical, economical, strategical aspects and so on). In the early 70's, someone from Romania could have attended lectures in this Centre as as sign of independance of Caucescu regim from Russian brothers ; I guess some important military and/or civil servants from Romania could have been elected to follow a session (more or less : a set of conferences) at the Center (maybe after some arms sales: I remeber France has sold helicopters to Romania in late 60's). They may have been presented such a gift at the end of the session. See some info (in French) on the Centre (which is still active today): http://www.defense.gouv.fr/dga/votre_espac...armement_chear/

Thanks for the info; looks like a book published by a museum.

Hallo Kevin.Soon there will be a book on the Latvian badges. My friend has shown some badges at a forum. The description in Russian if not clear I shall translate. http://sammler.ru/index.php?showtopic=11095 A book on Latvian badges ? I always dreamed of such a publication ..... Do not forget to give the title, ISBN and references of this book when published! And thank you for the link.

Found on the official site ofthe Venezuelian Army. http://www.ejercito.mil.ve/ejercito/conten...41/185/lang,es/ Hope this can help

What you call a jump badge is actually a "Brevet Militaire de Parachutisme" ; it was instituted on june 1 st 1946. Numbers just follow the attribution rank (the first parachutist ever to get a Brevet got a Brevet with number one, the second a brevet with number two and so on). In fact those who had got jump badges before and during WW II got the low numbers. 53653 is a fairly low number and is compatible with early 50's. "Lapin ? Gille" is a pun. I try to explain: It was the sleeve badge of the 1 e DBCCP (1st demi-brigade de commandos coloniaux parachutistes). The officer in command's name was Gilles . "Lapin ? Gilles" means "Gilles'Rabbit" (the dragoon being humoristically lowered to a rabbit's rank); but phonetically it can be understood as "nimble rabbit" ("agile" in French meaning "nimble"). In the same way, the brevet is familiarly called a bicycle number plate (because of the attribution number). But of course it is a type of derision only to be practised by insiders. I suppose it must be the same thing in the British army.

The legend on the badge reads : "National Association of War Mutilated and Invalids". Most probably created after WW I; could have received official support, especially after Fascists took power.

Thank you for the illustrations from the 1939 Regulation "Kaitsev?evormi kirjeldus vormikandmise m??rused". Do you happen to have the early 20's regulation too (at the time, insignia of rank for officers were worn on shoulders, not on sleeves and they had a stand-up collar too) ? THE book on the marvellous regimental badges from Estonia is, of course, the recently published "Eesti sojalised autasud ja rinnam?rgid 1918-1940" by Aleks Kivinuk(Tallinn, 2005), but I always thought the illustrations are a bit pale and blurred in this otherwise excellent book : the way the badges are pictured in this thread shows them in all their glory.

Magnificent ! Thank you; both my grand-fathers have been "poilus" during this war and I take it as a tribute of some sort to all those who fought between 1914 and 1918.

Of course, in Ancient Rome, "lictores" existed, and that was the sense of my previous answer; they were not Magistrates (in the Roman sense) but were guards for "Imperium habentes" Magistrates (that is Magistrates detaining supreme power - such as Consuls, for example). Their symbol was the "fasces" (that is a bundle with, at its center an axe: the bundle symbolized the unity of the Roman people and the axe it's resolution to use violence to preserve it). "Fascism" is, of course, derivated from "Fasces" and is part of what you rightly describe as the appropriation of Roman symbols by Mussolini. Now, as the badge features the name of an Italian King, it cannot have been issued after the proclamation of the Italian Republic (If I remeber well, it has been instaured in 1946). Could it have been issued before 1922 (the date of the installation of the Fascist Regim) ? Well, absolutely speaking it is possible, but I think it is a very remote possibility because of the Roman symbols in the background which are typically fascist. I do not remember having seen such symbols on any official badge, medal or military insignia of any sort before 1922 and for an excellent reason: they are symbols of republican Rome, not acceptable in a monarchy as was Italy after the Resorgimento and until 1945. It is only during the period 1922-1945 that such symbols were tolerated, as part of the shaky equilibrium between monarchists and fascists.

Hello, Well the badge is, of course, of the Mussolinian period as evidenced by the "littorio" ("Fasces" worn by the "Lictores" in Rome) in the background, which were the omnipresent symbol of the regime: as you know, Mussolini was actually Prime Minister but Italy was still a Kingdom until the end of WW II and the subsequent proclamation of the Republic. As the badge mentions "Regio Esercito", the badge must have been issued after a shooting competition of some sort. What is not known is the type of units involved: companies in a batallion ? batallion in a regiment ? regiments in a division ? I cannot see how it would be possible to answer that. All the best.

The text means : "Royal Army. Shooting Competion". Victor Emmanuel was, of course the Italian King. This does not help much ....

The recipient of this particular brevet and medal is called "Sapeur parachutiste". That means that he is from an airborne engineers unit, most probably the 17 ?me R?giment du G?nie A?roport? (17 th Airborne Engineers Regiment). Other airborne engineers units have existed, but at the time the brevet and medal were delivered, they had been disbanded.

A wonderful set of pics on a almost unknown subject matter. Congratulations.

At present time, I have no scanning device so that I am unable to publish a picture of the badge. Hopefully, this will be corrected soon. But is it allowed to act this way ? As the picture has been published in a review, copyrights questions may arise. Administrator, please let me know. I think a enamelled badge must have been too heavy to be worn on kepis or side caps the way stamped badges were; I guess it could have been worn on tunic; but the picture in the review does not show the reverse of the badge, with its fixation device. So, part of the mystery remains. More radically it is possible that the badge was not designed to be worn at all (just made to be kept in a presentation box). The Hungarian Military History Museum has a site: www.hm-him.hu Maybe you can try to direct your question there.

The review "The Armourer" (issue 79, Jan-Feb 2007) features (pp. 38-40) a study titled "Hungarian Military Badges of the Second World War", by Gergely Pals Sallay, Curator of of the Hungarian Military History Museum of Budapest. The study features a colour picture of a badge positively identified by the author as the Hungarian 52 nd Infantry Regiment. The shape of this badge is exactly similar to the one proposed for identification. But it is a colour picture : the cross is white, the helmet and wings are golden, the arrow is red, the foliage shows two shades of green, number "52" is golden. Unfortunately, dimensions are not specified. Obviously, the picture shows an enamelled badge ; it is said that the enameled version was for officers, the stamped version being destined to other ranks. Hope this can help.

I have have been informed of the existence of a Russian site. It deals with uniforms medals and insignia, mainly civilian, from the end of Imperial Russia until nowadays, with the soviet period covered; well I post this message here, but it could go to soviet era part of the forum as well. http://wedomstwa-uniforma.narod.ru/index.html The index page is just above. So, if you want to have an idea of what the innerland flotille uniforms looked like in 1954 or the Prokuratura uniforms look like at present time, just goo there. It is in Russian, so you must browsee a little before finding what you are interested with

The badge on the right, bottom row is Spanish. It is a 1910 Artificer badge. It was normally worn with a crown on the upper left sleeve. The crown may have been removed after the settlement of a Republican regime, in 1931 (or lost... ) My reference : Carlos Medina Avila "Organizacion y Uniformes de la Artilleria Espanola", Madrid, Aldaba, 1992, pp. 108-109

A booklet titled "Latviesu Karaviru Krusu Nozimes-Regimental Badges of the Latvian Soldiers 1915-1940" (No author, no date, no place of edition on my copy) features a sketch of a very similar badge identified as "Divizjas parvalde (V.D.P.)" translated as: "Badge of the Military Administration Division". The only difference is that the letters LPD on your mysterious badge are reproduced as VPD in the booklet; also as the sketches are black and white, there is no way of telling whether there is a blue background as in the mysterious badge. Could this be a variant ?

There are illustrations of variants of this badge in the booklet ABERC (Avers) N? 2, Moscow, 1996, p. 133-134. Unfortunately I am new (and not very proficient) at sending images but I shall send details ASAP. Basically, these badges depict a stylised I-16 fighter (one must remember that it was a kind of Soviet "Top Guns" at this time, and which is more, successfully battle proven in Spain and China). They feature too: wings (except some 1932 versions, so says my reference booklet), crossed swords, a red star and either a laurel wrath, or a shield (classical) or rhombo?d. All the best

Could be a graduation fighter pilot badge, issued in the late 30's early 40's; see an example at http://collectrussia.com/DISPITEM.HTM?ITEM=16466 Some variants exist, of course. If it is really this type of badge, that the firts time I see one worn so late in the war.

A book has been published recently, by Dieter Schulze: "Das Grosse Buch der Deutschen Volkspolizei. Geschichten.Aufgaben. Uniformen", Das Neue Berlin, Berlin, 2006 (ISBN-9783360010803). It features a chapter on the 1945-1949 period, with illustrations and photographs. Hope this can hep.