Turkey Airmans qualification badge

[Daniel Murphy]

Gentlemen,

I ran across this blog while performing a search. There is a link below. About halfway down the page there is a purported Turkish airmans qualification badge from WW1 in it's issue case. This item is in the collection of the Australian War Museum and the description is theirs. The description states that these were issued in bronze, silver and gold grades depending on perhaps how well they qualified. The one shown is in Bronze and there are additional photos at the AWM site. One photo shows the top of the titled case but it is, of course in arabic. All photos are copywrited, so I cannot post them. I have the exact badge in gilt without case. It is getting late so I will post photos tommorow.

Dan Murphy

Here is the link to the blog:

Turkish history blog

Here is the link to the search page at the AWM. Just enter "turkish badge" and select period WW1 1914-1918. It will come up at the top of the page:

Australian War Museum

Edited May 25, 2006 by Daniel Murphy

[Stogieman]

Very interesting Daniel...... never seen anything like this one before.

[Daniel Murphy]

Ok, here are the pics of mine. Sorry for the wait. I once sent an email to Tim Tezer and described the badge. He thought that it could be a 1920's (from the markings) aviation donation pin. After WW1, the Turkish air service was disbanded and in 1923 it was recreated. The first pilots of the new formation were trained in France in 1924. Training in Turkey did not begin until 1925. Since the written Turkish language was changed from arabic script to latin letters in 1924, why would a later case still be marked in the old language. The badge measures a rather small 34mm wide by 39mm high. The insignia at the top resembles the breast star of the Osmani Order. Obverse....

Dan Murphy

Edited May 26, 2006 by Daniel Murphy

[Daniel Murphy]

As you can see this badge is rather crudely cast and finished. There is a crack at the top of one wing and I can see that it is solid brass, not just plated. Reverse...

[Daniel Murphy]

Here is a close up of the marking in the center of the star at the top of the badge. It is "T.C. 18" with a crescent. I have lightened the photo of the Australian piece on my computer and it also does have the same marking as this one.

Edited May 26, 2006 by Daniel Murphy

[Daniel Murphy]

And part of the same mark on the pin. I have asked Tim Tezer to check out this thread and give his opinions.

Edited May 26, 2006 by Daniel Murphy

[Tim Tezer]

Sorry I've been so slow getting on to this. I wanted to see if any of the books I have give a date when these were made and awarded, but I haven't had any free time to sit down and look it up. In any case, it is not an Ottoman military pilot's badge, it's an early Turkish Republic badge for donating funds or services to the reconstruction of the Turkish Air Force. The Latin alphabet was not introduced until 1928, so either the case is not for this badge, or they were introduced prior to 1928 and the cases made with that inscription. (I looked at the photo of the case inscription on the Australian War Memorial site - good luck trying to read that.) The "T.C. 18" mark on Daniel's example is a Turkish Republic 18 carat gold hallmark. I have one of these in my collection, but it's made of gilded white metal and is not hallmarked.

I'm afraid that the Australian War Memorial has simply been given bad information.

Tim

[Daniel Murphy]

Tim,

Thanks, I figured it was hard to ID something from just a description and/or there might be some more info out there now on these. 18 Karat Gold? It is somewhat heavy and bright with no corrosion but I had no idea. Must have been one h*ll of a donation! . I picked this up from George Petersen about 12-15 years ago for $75. He had no idea what it was, and neither did I, but I liked it. Wow 18 Karat, that just blows me away.

[Tim Tezer]

I can't find any reference that gives much real information about these. I don't know how many were made or issued, but the gold ones were the top class. They must be quite scarce. Oddly enough, I don't see too many bronze ones, either. But yours definitely looks like gold. Mine is gilt, and it doesn't have the same luster at all.

Tim

[demir]

Turkish Aeronautics Assosiation (Türk Tayyare Cemiyeti) Medals awarded between 1925-1944 

source: www.kokpit.aero

     32     Medal decorated with diamonds

   874    Gold

1.469    Silver

 2.531   Bronze

4.906    Total

 

 

Medals decorated with diamonds which were awarded to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and the first Turkish woman pilot Sabiha Gökçen. (Exibited at the Anıtkabir Museum)

Edited December 10, 2017 by demir

[ccj]

Nice award and very interesting topic