BOOKS: British Airborne Insignia & Airborne Insignia Volume 2 by Oliver Lock

A handful of the World War 2 British Airborne wings and insignia in my collection. Photo: Julian Tennant

Airborne insignia provides a popular collecting focus for many collectors and as a result has become a lucrative market for dealers and opportunists who have seized on the opportunity to peddle faked badges for handsome profits. Faked insignia have been around for decades and whilst some are easily recognised as copies, a series of extremely well-made reproductions of British and commonwealth airborne and special forces badges that were being sold by the likes of Nicholas Morigi and Andrew Butler in the early 90’s really upped the ante. Whilst both dealers sold these detailed and artificially aged copies as reproductions, they could be extremely difficult to tell apart from the original insignia, as in the days before the internet became widespread, many collectors did not have access to originals for comparison and there was no solid reference books that dealt in sufficient depth with these insignia. Many of these badges continue to pop up on eBay or dealers lists, but as ‘original’ insignia, commanding very high prices.

As a result, collecting WW2 period British Airborne and Special Forces insignia can be a minefield for even experienced collectors and money spent on good reference books is a sound investment that can help collectors prevent costly mistakes. However, for a long time most of the references that were available on the subject did little more than survey the insignia, identifying types and units but not providing the essential details that allowed collectors to determine originals from reproductions.

Oliver Lock Airborne Insignia books 1and2-01

Oliver Lock’s two books help to bridge that gap. Both volumes were produced in conjunction with the Airborne Assault Museum, drawing extensively on their collection and archives. Both volumes are filled with close up detailed pictures of the insignia, front and back, plus important descriptive information regarding who made the badges and also how they were constructed, invaluable information when trying to ascertain whether a badge is an original ‘period’ piece.

The first volume, British Airborne Insignia deals specifically with the British Airborne forces, including the British Indian Army. Whilst the bulk of the book concentrates on the Second World War period it does also include a significant amount of information on the insignia that was used by the Airborne Forces post WW2. This is extremely useful as it allows comparisons to be made between contemporary and earlier war period insignia.

The follow up book, Airborne Insignia Vol. 2: Britain and her Allies in Exile, which was published in 2017 expands the focus to include the Australian and Canadian airborne units as well as the insignia used by the French, Belgian, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish and Italians (post armistice). It also includes several more chapters on British insignia variations that were not included in the first volume.

The pictures that are shown below are samples of some of the pages that are contained in each book. As can be seen, the information contained is detailed and comprehensive. Oliver’s two books provide invaluable reference material and should be on the bookshelf of every airborne insignia collector. Highly recommended.

British Airborne Insignia

Hardcover: 314 pages, colour and B&W photographs throughout.
Publisher: Military Mode Publishing (2015)
Language: English

ISBN-10: 1634524047
ISBN-13: 9781634524049