Some buttons and badges from RSA

[spolei]

Hello,
I received some of his father's Luftwaffe badges from a fellow shooter. His father was in the air force in his military days and later also in civil aviation. There are three sets of buttons, one large and one small.
What period do these buttons date from? Two sets have an air force eagle with crown, one set has the South African coat of arms.
The cloth badge has only one wing, as he was probably an observer and radio operator. What do the letters R - O - M stand for ?
The epaulette is probably from civil aviation.
Is the small golden eagle for the collar civilian or military?
I would be very grateful for any answers, as I am not at all familiar with this subject.
Greetings Andreas

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[spolei]

Hello, can no one give me any information on this?

[spolei]

Thank you very much for the information. I will ask his son if his father had anything to do with the meterological service.

 

Edited September 24, 2022 by spolei

[nichollg]

Hi, your badges are South African Air Force, SAAF (though the last row of buttons appear to be RAF).

the Brevet (half wing) is RO = Radio Operator and M = Marconis (Afrikaans for radio operator) this was issued from 1961 to 1994 to aircrew trained as radio operators.

The epaulette is SAAF rank of Captain.

The eagle and SA also SAAF

I hope this helps.

[spolei]

6 hours ago, nichollg said:

Hi, your badges are South African Air Force, SAAF (though the last row of buttons appear to be RAF).

the Brevet (half wing) is RO = Radio Operator and M = Marconis (Afrikaans for radio operator) this was issued from 1961 to 1994 to aircrew trained as radio operators.

The epaulette is SAAF rank of Captain.

The eagle and SA also SAAF

I hope this helps.

Thank you very much for the explanation.

[Farkas]

Hi Spolei,

The pair of dark buttons are South African. As far as I know these are South African Citizen Force buttons…

 

(Wikipedia 👇)

“After the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910, General Jan Smuts, the Union's first Minister of Defence, placed a high priority on creating a unified military out of the separate armies of the union's four provinces. The South African Defence Act (Act 13 of 1912) made provision for a UDF that would be composed of a Permanent Force (or standing army) of career soldiers, an Active Citizen Force (ACF) of temporary conscripts, a Coast Garrison Force[1][2] and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (South African Division) (RNVR(SA)). “

———————/

 

This Citizen Force existed between 1912/3 and 1957.

The reverse of the button dates them to the latter of that period, ‘mid 20th century’.

 

The final four buttons 

On 14/01/2024 at 06:00, nichollg said:

the last row of buttons appear to be RAF

 

On 14/01/2024 at 06:00, nichollg said:

The epaulette is SAAF rank of Captain.

The eagle and SA also SAAF

I agree with 👆

 

The four buttons are British Royal Air Force. The left two for service dress I would guess and the right two are ‘blazer’ buttons.

Again the backs only loosely date them to ‘mid 20th century’, but a kings crown dates them as pre 1952 when Elizabeth took the throne.

 

The gold eagle is South African Air Force, the Latin motto is theirs to this day so I can’t say to it’s age other than the eagle is looking left which may mean it dates between 1993 - 2003 but I can’t be sure.

 

Unlikely to date to the 1990’s if this was all from one man that seemingly had served in the 1940/50’s.

 

Maybe these are from two people,

one from mid century who was Captain, serving in ACF & RAF…

& later, the other, the radio operator 🤷‍♂️

 

nice group of things regardless 

 

cheers

tony 🍻

[spolei]

Hello, on Sunday I was able to get a few more pieces from my South African friend. His father was in the South African Air Force during the Second World War and then in civil aviation in SA.