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Britain and Scotland
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Plaid Badge of the Highland Light Infantry (Item BRITSCOT 4-1) |
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| DESCRIPTION: This great plaid badge of the HLI dates about from early times according to the battle honors that go all around the edges such as Waterloo, Egypt, Pyrenees, Alma, Indostan, Vittoria, Peninsula. There are 30 battle honors running around it, but none seem as late as WWI. So it could well be assumed that this brooch could be much earlier. It’s constructed with a three-piece method with the badge being the last applied section. We’ll not go into the history of this elite Scottish regiment since so much can be found on the net. They are the most-celebrated regiment of foot in the British army. We will say that the name Highland Light Infantry evolved after it was adopted by the 71st Highlanders in 1809 as the first clan regiment at the outbreak of the American War of Independence. Later, in 1881, the 71st and 74th regiments of foot were redesignated as the 1st and 2nd Battalions, respectively, of the Highland Light Infantry. Do see our dress dirk of the 74th Highland Regiment at Item BRITSCOT 2-10. The brooch is massive measuring 4 inches in diameter. It’s heavy and probably silver-plated bronze. It has what looks like handmade nut fasteners that secure the front plate to the back plate. A strong pin is attached for fastening the brooch to the usually quite thick plaid of the uniform. All in all this is a very beautiful piece of Highland Scottish military gear. It’s probably quite rare, but certainly important to the glory that is and was Scotland the brave!
PRICE: $580.00; very reasonable |
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RAF Chaplain’s Wings (Item BRITSCOT 4-2) |
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| DESCRIPTION: This is a rare piece as RAF insignia go. It is a special wing for chaplains of the service. Possibly, the parson who wore this might have been one of those men of God who blessed the bomber crews who set out on the 13th & 14th of 1945 to bomb the nonmilitary or industrial city of Dresden. This terror bombing was ordered by Churchill and carried out by “bomber” Arthur Harris. The city was called the Florence on the Elbe and was one of the greatest cultural landmarks in the worlds. The victorious allies destroyed 80 percent of the city with the dead counted at various figures up to 135,000. There were so many refugees in the city that the real figure will almost certainly never be known. Why? The most plausible theory is the murderous terror raids were carried out to demonstrate to the Russians and Stalin the awesome power of the allies and to act as a warning to them not to stray from the agreements that the had made at the war conferences. An internal RAF memo spreads some light on the reason for the bombing. Go to the bombing of Dresden on the history learning site on Google to see this RAF memo. So, dear reader, the RAF actually had a chaplain corps and no doubt the pious reverends did in fact bless those bombs, bombers, and crew who set out on this famed, infamous mission. But prayers for the success of the raids certainly were not welcomed by the God that I know. There is, however, another entity (a deity) who no doubt appreciated it and has bomber Arthur Harris as his permanent guest down there.
PRICE: $125.00; money not well spent |
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Please refer to item designator in parentheses in all correspondence.
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