Polish UN Peacekeeping Forces Badge for UNEF II-Cario Made

[Rusty Greaves]

Gentlemen, Below are 2 images of a Cairo-made badge for the Polish UN Peacekeeping forces. This badge was probably created for the The Second United Nations Emergency Forces (UNEF II) deployment of Polish forces in November 1973. UNEF II that "was established on 25 October 1973 with the mandate to supervise the implementation of Security Council resolution 340 (1973), which demanded that an immediate and complete ceasefire between Egyptian and Israeli forces be observed and that the parties return to the positions they had occupied ... on 22 October 1973 " (https://web.archive.org/web/20090912145607/http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/co_mission/unef2mandate.html) at the end of Yom Kippur War. I not a scholar of any Polish awards, nor of UN peacekeeping history. I have an amateur interest in some Egyptian medals and a few other topics here on GMIC. I recently encountered some enameled badges made for the Free French Forces by the Egyptian medallist Fahmy Tewfik Bichay, and posted information about those badges in on 2 April, 2020 in the thread "Request for identification assistance-FFL" started by gfh on 8 February, 2018 about a Cairo-made FFL Lignes Aeriennes Militaries badge in the "France" subsection of the European States Forum section: 

This post is simply to add a bit of information about the range of badges made by Fahmy Tewfik Bichay, who also created several designs for the South African Air Force squadron pins (a link to a website with low-resolution images of those pins, but with complete identification of those pins is given in the description of the illustration of Fahmy Tewfik Bichay's 1941 ID card, shown below).

 

Obverse of a UN Peacekeeping Forces badge from a 12 November, 2011 auction listing for 6 Polish Army badges archived on the Heritage Auctions website (https://historical.ha.com/itm/militaria/insignia/poland-six-polish-army-badges-including-polish-united-nations-peacekeeping-force-badge-two-piece-construction-silve/a/6074-52488.s#). This badge is identified in the auction listing as a "Polish United Nations Peacekeeping Force badge, two-piece construction, silvered metal and enamels, marked "T. Bichay / Cairo". No additional information is provided about this badge. "T. Bichay" almost certainly refers to Fahmy Tewfik Bichay, part of a prominent Egyptian family of medallists  (he was the son of Tewfik Bichay, and brother of Sadek Tefik Bichay). 

Reverse of the same Polish UN Peacekeeping forces badge showing the multiple markings "T. BICHAY CAIRO: in English and Arabic. Fahmy Tewfik Bichay emigrated to Canada in the 1950s, but as this badge is marked on the reverse with "Cairo" he must have had contacts with a manufacturer still in Egypt to execute this design for the Polish UN forces. This badge that may date to as early as 1973-1974, or sometime later until the end of the final UNEF II mandate that was extended until July 1979 (following the signing of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel that cam into force on 25 April, 1979). A detailed summary of the UNEF II is available in the following link: https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/past/unef2backgr2.html

Military issue (1941) identity card for Fahmy Tewfik Bichay (spelled "Fahmi Tawfik Bishay") from a section of the MP Antique et Militaria website that illustrates and identifies a number of South African Air Force squadron pins that the site moderator obtained personally from Fahmy Tewfik Bichay in the 1950s after he had emigrated to Canada (http://www.militaria.qc.ca/air-force/south-africa.html). I previously posted this ID in my post of 4 April, 2020 in the post regarding Free French French Forces badges made by T. Bichay in the "Request for identification assistance-FFL" thread, started by gfh on 8 February, 2018 in the "France" subsection of the "European States" Forum here on GMIC, and as the last photo in my post of 21 October, 2019 where I was illustrating some variation in of cases for Egyptian Orders as well as some examples of labels I've encountered for Tewfik Bichay and Fahmy Tewfik Bichay, on the thread: "Question about the Order of Ismail/Nishan al-Ismail", started on 8 November, 2017, in the "Middle East & Arab States" subsection, under the "Rest of the World: Medals & Military" Forum section here on GMIC. 

Plain foil paper label for Maison Tewfik Bichay case label from a March 2019 auction listing (Item EU16495) archived on the eMedals website for a 1st Class Grand Cordon Republic period cased set of the Order of the Nile sash, sash badge, and breast star (https://www.emedals.com/egypt-republic-an-order-of-the-nile-i-class-grand-cordon-with-case-c-1955). This set is identified as dating to approximately 1955. Although the label is for the Tewfik Bichay workshop, a business card pasted into the bottom of the case (shown below) is that of Fahmy Tewfik Bichay (the son of Tewfik Bichay). I posted this image as the 4th -to-last image in my post of 21 October, 2019 in the thread "Question about the Order of Ismail/Nishan al-Ismail" here on GMIC. 

Business card of Fahmy Tewfik Bichay when he still lived in Cairo glued into the base of the same eMedals auction offering of a 1st Class Republic period Order of the Nile cased set. Additional images of other Tewfik Bichay labels, printed manufacturer's names, hallmarks, are shown in my "Question about the Order of Ismail/Nishan al-Ismail"  threads, and some image and information about Sadek Tewfik Bichay is summarized in my 7 July, 2020 post in the "Egypt Khedivate Judges Badge question" thread started on 17 November, 201, also in the "Middle East & Arab States" subsection, under the "Rest of the World: Medals & Military" Forum section here on GMIC.  

Edited August 17, 2020 by Rusty Greaves

[Rusty Greaves]

Here is a link to a webpage  of Frank Hummel of Marktbergel, Germany with many additional UN badge designs for other missions and different countries forces that were made by Fahmy Tewfik Bichay: 

http://www.frankhummel.de/bichay/bichay.html