The 1937 Army Parachutist Badge

My main goal in writing a monthly column on German medals and badges is to probide a service to collectors. In today's market the collector is constantly being called upon to discriminate fine details which verify the authenticity of war souvenirs. With all the repros around this can be almost impossible for the uninformed. I would venture to say that in the past thirty nine years, I have probably seen over twenty varieties of reproductions of the Luftwaffe Pilot badge alone. And its just about as bad with most other medals and badges.

Each month in DG, I will provide a picture of an original medal or badge. Both front and back view will be shown as well as the distinguishing characteristics of an original piece.

This month's badge is the 1937 Army Parachutist. There are two accepted type, the silver alloy one and the light aluminum badge used for summer tunics. As you can see from the picture, both have "bearded" eagles. By "bearded", I mean thay have a lower jaw or part of the beak below aht opper one. Repros often do not have the "beard". Note that the rear talon is wide spread. On most reproductions the talons are close together. Always look at the back of the badge for a high quality pin with cap shaped rivits. On repros the makers uaually pay less attention to the pin and back of the badge then they do to the front, consequently the pins are often of inferior quality. You can sometimes determine authenticity by this construction. It is interesting to note that the Army Parachutist badge was manufactured during the late 1930's when the highest quality Luftwaffe badge were being manufactured by Junkers, Assmann and other premier makers. Dispite this fact, original examples of this badge do not have a comperable quality or construction. You should also remember that these badges were in production for a very short period of time, and comparatively few solders qualified for the award, making this badge much rarer that the Luftwaffe Para badge. Conventional wisdom is the the original badges are unmarked.

Presently these sell for about $550. in aluminum and about $400. in silvered alloy.

Robet McCarthy, "The War Badge Collector", Der Gauleiter, 1988