British para beret badge...how to mount?

[82Trooper]

I saw the badge advertised (it is marked as a reproduction) and it made me curious as to how it would mount to the beret? The clip looks like that on a ballpoint pen. Is there a slot/hole on the beret? Is it sewn on?

Thanks for any insight.

Attachment 91607
Mike

[GeeRam]

Seen some with slots, some without slots and just a slit through the outer and inner lining.

Will vary between makes and era, although, I'm not sure about the really modern and current issue stuff.

[82Trooper]

so now a secondary follow up question.....what would have been "proper" for a WWII para? Which style beret an what type of badge?

[browningautorifle]

There's a spot for the slot to be cut in the beret, just be careful. I had to cut the slot right through the cardboard backing and that way my badge didn't ever come off and couldn't be pilfered easily. Also the badge lay flat against the wool. Your beret should come with a liner, we cut the cloth liner out of the beret and shrunk them in hot water and formed them to our heads, or you look like the actors on movies that pull theirs on . It's also worn from the eyebrows back, not pulled on like a baseball cap from the back forward.

[BEAR]

Attachment 91625

BEAR

[browningautorifle]

Nice...it was always a fight with new recruits.

[BEAR]

Attachment 91626

I.......I........I have no words!

BEAR
Maybe Naval Commandos?

[Gil Boyd]

82trooper/Mike,

Nothing has really changed over the years.
The badge shown is indeed a reproduction which can always be clearly seen by the small fault which is always evident on the second feather down on the left, its a tiny raised double dot or lump. For some reason they have all retained this big giveaway in the reproduction process. It is a King George crown so it has been copied from a WW2 PARA badge.
The brass spade on the rear goes through a small cut in the maroon PARA beret and normally is held firm by a cap badge backing made out of plastic or card.
We often wear the capbadge stay inside the inner lining, but as so many lads now take the linings out, the cap badge backing does the trick.
Should have said, originals came with lugs and not sliders where two lugs were passed through two small holes made by the soldier, and then a brass retaining pin was passed through each lug inside. These were far more successful rather than losing your cap badge. Hope this helps

[Gil Boyd]

Here you go explains what I meant by the alternative lugs not sliders

[Peter Laidler]

Over the past 15 years or so the crunchies have taken to shaping their berets to look like sacks of potatoes and the badge seems to be wandering round to the left so that it falls midway between the centre line of the eye and centre line of the left ear. Unless the senior NCO's start getting a grip of the situation, the badge will be over the left ear'ole before long. The brass badges need to be easily removed to clean them fairly regularly to prevent brasso getting onto the beret - a major sin, believe me! You can use what we used to call a 'button stick' to prevent this. But with modern anodized alloy badges, that's the end of cleaning thank god! It was a bit pot luck whether the badge fixing was like that shown or fixed with two hoops and a cross pin - a bit like a split pin. I always retained my RAEME badge from Australia in my beret and nobody ever noticed the small extra 'A'. Made from Gilt and Silver

REME Armourers were always re-fixing the broken tabs from the rear of the brass or nickel badges shown by Gil, with a blob of soft or silver solder for a donation of a jar of coffee or box of tea bags......, you know the sort of thing. The old sweats usually had the privately purchased brass/nickel ones while the newer lads got the alloy ones they were issued with. The Corps 'shop', or the PRI usually had stocks of the brass/nickel badges in stock and at my last SASC and nearby REME unit I would stamp the rear bar with the soldiers regimental number in very small number stamps as a permanent keepsake because I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that you always kept your hat badge when you left. I did!