GRA

Hello Ed! BMW R75/5 with skis? Looks like something picked up from the Swedish Army. I haven't seen it in use myself, but somewhere I've come across this ski kit on motorcycle arrangement before, probably some old Army regulations or something from an Army Volunteer organisation. Åre kommun (city council)? - The upper-crust choice of winter fun in Sweden, good ski slopes, but a bit expensive, to say the least... /Jonas

Hello Captain A! Wouldn't a South Korean award rank above an international award (like UN Korea)? Any chance of additional UN service in either UNOGIL (Lebanon) or UNTSO (Palestine)? Coming to think of it, I once met a Swede who served in the Swedish battalion in UNFICYP (Cyprus), and who later served as a sniper with USMC in Vietnam who wore his UN award with the UNOGIL/UNTSO ribbon instead of the UNFICYP ribbon, maybe it's the official US style of indicating UN service (bar Korea) - a general issue UN ribbon? On the other hand where would a state award end up on a ribbon bar, and would they be visible in federal service records? Just some thoughts... /Jonas

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, but what battalion or level (private/NCO/WO/officer) I do not know. Mervyn's advice of Googling is sound - try "a&sh collar badges" and do a Google image search and you'll find the boar's head and the wildcat confirming at least the regiment! /Jonas

Hello Mervyn! The Swedish m/45 sub-machinegun could be fitted with a bayonet if you changed some parts. The bayonet was an off-the-shelf solution - it was the old Mauser 6,5 mm carbine m/94 pattern, and to my knowledge the SMG-bayonet combination was used for guard/ceremonial duty only. See link (about half-way down the page) for an image. Wasn't there a bayonet for the Sten-gun too? /Jonas

Hello Craig! According to Regiments.org (link), the Glider Pilot Regiment existed between 1941-12-21 and 1957-09-01, while for example The Highlanders existed between 1994-09-17 and 2006-03-28. There has to have been quite an amount of "wartime only" regiments which didn't make it into their teens as well. /Jonas

Hello Gunnar! If you are talking about Nils de Maré, then his Swedish regiment was Kungl Smålands husarregemente (he was a first lieutenant in the regiment's reserve), and after having served in the Persian gendarmerie he entered German service. He was an advisor to field marshal von der Goltz, and was promoted rittmeister in 1916. In 1918 he served as an air observer in Flanders (no specific unit mentioned). After retiring from service in November 1918, he lived on a manor in Germany. All information above taken from "Det svenska kavalleriet" by Hakon Leche. Off the top of my head, I'd say that the book (I've forgot the name of it) by Lars Gyllenhaal on Swedish mercenaries might contain more information, I haven't read it myself though, so it might just be a couple of lines on his Persian gendarmerie service... /Jonas

Hello Alex! Looking closely at the picture, I wonder if it depicts the different Belgian army lancer regiments, as all of them have different coloured lancer caps (see the lancers in the window - yellow and white, respectively), and on the two in the foreground one can see numbers on the lancer cap plates (see below). 4th Lancers, perhaps? 1st Lancers? /Jonas

According to an extract of the Indian Army List (January 1923) in "the blue book" above, Major V. A. Coaker DSO was listed as second in command of 1st Duke of York's Own Skinner's Horse before appointed CO. Ulsterman's friend, G. C. G. Gray (spelled Grey above, and Gray in the link in Chris's post) are listed as the senior captain and QM, and both of them came from 3rd Skinner's Horse upon amalgamation. /Jonas

Yes Mike, truly an "oopsie", maybe a little revenge by the author, being "blue"??? However, I find this book easier to read than "The recollections...", as in my opinion, it's more unit based where "The recollections..." are more based on Skinner himself... Maybe someone on the forum has a suggestion to the "real", and definite, history on Skinner's Horse? /Jonas

To continue with the literature... A blue book about "The Yellow Boys", written by a pre-amalgamation 3rd Skinner's Horse officer: /Jonas

Oh, Slovenia would do just fine! I can contribute with patches from equally exotic locations like Sweden (which I really ought to know what they represent, but I don't...), Czech Republic and from different places East of Poland and West of Vladivostok... Next stop the Lounge? /Jonas

Hello IrishGunner! Well, at least I was partially right, no brigade or battalion patch! I have a bunch of patches myself that I have vague to no ideas at all what they may represent, however my Bundeswehr patches are mostly embroidered with unit designations down to companies, or from larger units known to Wikipedia! Maybe we should start a thread together? /Jonas

Hello IrishGunner! I feel quite certain that it isn't a Bundeswehr brigade patch, and probably not a battalion patch either (I may of course be wrong now - in that case I stand corrected), it just doesn't "feel right". Being curious, I went to some dubious sources - Wikipedia - to see what would pop up... The Bavarian coat of arms (Oberbayern, right?): "The Blue Panther: At the dexter base, argent, a panther rampant azure, armed Or and langued gules. This represents the regions of Lower and Upper Bavaria." Looking familiar? The Police clue gives the following: Bayerisches Staatsministerium des Innern Polizeipräsidium Oberbayern (Suddenly something went wrong...) Coat of arms of Bavaria "In the eleventh century the counts of Kraiburg, a branch of the counts of Sponheim of Rheinish Hesse, acquired land in Upper and Lower Bavaria. In 1259, after the death of the last male member of the family, the shire was sold to the dukes of Bavaria. The coat of arms of the family was the "Lion of Sponheim", although the charge was no lion but a "panthier" (pronounced French), a mixture of a dragon and a lion. Nowadays, the fire-spitting panthier/panther is the Coat of Arms of the city of Ingolstadt. The coat of arms created for the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1835 included the 'lion'." You haven't been trading patches in Ingolstadt by any chance, have you? It's close, but no cigar... /Jonas

Hello Jeff! Just a guess, but could it possibly be an Engineer? (Zen - Zenijni - Engineers) /Jonas

A newer complete set of squadron patches adhering to the traditional squadron badges, these now exist as squadron standards as well as vehicle signs. These are not worn on uniform. Top; Livskvadron (1st Sqn) Middle row; Örebro skvadron (2nd Sqn) and Östra Nerikes skvadron (3rd Sqn) Bottom row; Vestra Nerikes skvadron (4th Sqn) and Vadsbo skvadron (5th Sqn)

There also exist some highly unofficial patches... Top; A patch from Östra Nerikes Squadron (3rd Sqn), mid-1980's Bottom; Two patches from Vestra Nerikes Squadron (4th Sqn), 1989-90, left squadron section leaders school (GBS 4.skvadron), right Ranger (Jägare 4.skvadron), the design dates from the mid-1980's

Some patches worn on "civilian" jackets, bags, rucksacks or whatever deemed worthy of marking, showing the owner of said piece of kit being a Life-Hussar! As can be seen on the lower three patches, the charging hussar is a recurring motif on patches and stickers of the regiment. Top row; regimental patches, left woven, right embroidered (a version from pre-1984 reads "Livregementets husarer Skövde", after moving to Karlsborg in 1984 the design was changed) Center; Regimental Association patch Bottom row; Ranger Battalion patch with regimental motto "Pergite" - "Forward" and a patch from the eight Swedish rotation to Kosovo, KS 08, of which the regiment provided the major part

A scanned poster from 1993 showing all the combat units of the regiment, with the consent of Livregementets husarer. All personnel of the Ranger battalions except 2nd Bn wore the separate Ranger tab upon qualification (the 2nd Bn tab is integrated in the design, see below), all MP-qualified personnel would wear the MP tab with their MP Sqn patch. These patches, all of which were worn on the upper left arm, are now obsolete. First row; 4th Ranger Battalion "Wolverine Bn", 2nd Ranger Battalion "Bear Bn", 3rd Ranger Battalion "Badger Bn" (trained 1989-90) Second row; 11th Ranger Battalion "Wolf Bn", 12th Ranger Battalion "Horse Bn" (different sub-units of the battalion had different inner borders; red, yellow, mint green and probably also blue), 16th Ranger Battalion "Lynx Bn" (trained 1990-91) Third row; 3rd Divisional Intelligence Company, 4th Divisional Intelligence Company, 13th Divisional Intelligence Company, 14th Divisional Intelligence Company Fourth row; 11th Military Police Squadron, 12th Military Police Squadron, 21st Military Police Squadron Fifth row; 31st Military Police Squadron, 61st Military Police Squadron, 62nd Military Police Squadron

Obsolete patches: Left; 3rd Ranger Battalion with Ranger tab, the first of the combat units to receive a patch in 1989-90 Top right; patch worn by local defence units in the early 1990's Bottom right; regimental Military Police qualification tab worn when MP squadrons were trained 1992-1997

The Life Regiment Hussars has produced a motley array of combat units during the thirty-odd years that unit patches has been allowed in the Swedish Army. The regiment has always issued the patches through battalion CO's, so it is per definition difficult to virtually impossible to obtain a full set of patches - you basically need to ask a lot of people before finding the one with the patches of a particular combat unit! All pictures of combat unit patches are published with the consent of Livregementets husarer. /Jonas Current patches: Top; Regimental HQ Middle row; 31st Air Assault Battalion with the regimental Ranger tab and 32nd Intelligence Battalion Bottom; the 32nd Int Bn also contains a parachute-trained element

The second patch design: Wth the introduction of the last design, the Älvsborg Brigade had parted from the regiment and taken over the Basic Training Battalion, leaving only one company with the regiment - Norra Kinds kompani - as Barracks Coy. The colour of the lion denotes the colour of the name tag, as well as the company's vehicle plates, and Gäseneds kompani, whose company colour was orange, had to change upon Sweden entering the European Union due to orange being a warning sign used for hazardous cargo. Thus Lifkompaniet passed their patch over to Gäseneds kompani, and designed a new patch with the letters "Lif" from the company flag. The slightly darker patches are of an earlier manufacture. The brigade had an elaborated system of patches with a yellow half-lion for the brigade sub-units, and the regiment kept the yellow full lion for regimental HQ, defence area HQ and Home Guard units. Top; Lifkompaniet, second design (later manufacture) Second row; Lifkompaniet, first design (early manufacture) and Gäseneds kompani, first design Center; Södra Kinds kompani (later manufacture) Fourth row; Åhs kompani (early manufacture) and Redvägs kompani (later manufacture) Bottom; Norra Kinds kompani

(continued) Top row; Åhs kompani (renumbered to 8th HQ Coy) and Vedens kompani (renumbered to 9th Barracks Coy) Bottom row; Norra Kinds kompani (renumbered to 10th Rifle Coy) and Redvägs kompani (renumbered to 12th Rifle Coy) with the first version of the Älvsborg Brigade patch

The first patch design: Top row; Basic Training Battalion HQ (plastic version of 1982, note that the patch colours are split in the two old 1st and 2nd battalion colours white and red) Middle row; Lifkompaniet (School Coy) and Gäseneds kompani (renumbered to 3rd Rifle Coy) Bottom row; Södra Kinds kompani (renumbered to 6th Supply Coy) and Borås kompani (7th Mortar Coy)

The old company insignia around 1900, 1st battalion white (1st-4th companies), 2nd battalion red (5th-8th companies). 4th and 5th companies later changed colours with each other, and Lifkompaniet - the colonel's own company - added the letters "Lif" to their company flag, those letters made a comeback on the second design of patches. 1st Coy Lifkompaniet 2nd Coy Marks kompani 3rd Coy Södra Kinds kompani 4th Coy Vedens kompani 5th Coy Åhs kompani 6th Coy Norra Kinds kompani 7th Coy Gäseneds kompani 8th Coy Redvägs kompani When the regiment moved into Borås and their newly built barracks, a new company flag saw the light of day - Borås kompani. Note the difference in design from the older flags.

The habit of using company insignia in the Swedish Army dates back to the 1830's, then used as a cap badge, but later also as flags (not to be confused with the company colours of the 17th-18th centuries). In the early 1980's unit patches were allowed on field uniform, some units chose not only a regimental patch, but also company patches, the Älvsborg Regiment (15th Infantry Regiment) kept to the tradition of the company insignia of old. There were two different designs; The first, more colourful and adhering to the colours of the old company insignia, was worn from 1982 as a cheap plastic variant, and as an embroidered cloth patch (at first only for officers, it was later issued to the conscript soldiers too) from 1984, and the second, the more heraldic-influenced design, from early 1995 until the regiment disbanded in 1998. Regimental HQ insignia /Jonas