World War II Uniform with Special Forces Wing
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GUEST:
Well, what I found here was a uniform. It was buried in an attic in a house on a farm I bought. There was a bunch of pictures and everything with it, and it all kind of ties in to a special mission in Norway in World War II.
APPRAISER:
Did you know the gentleman who had the farm? Was this his uniform?
GUEST:
Yes, it is, and yeah, I did know him. My brother farmed the land with him for a few years.
APPRAISER:
Well, it's an interesting uniform and it has a very interesting story to tell. The gentleman was part of an operation where they dropped behind enemy lines into Norway. Quite an operation, actually, the kind of thing that movies are made of. They had quite a difficult time behind enemy lines. These were a number of individuals that were chosen because they spoke Norwegian. Norway was an area that we had originally planned to invade and didn't, but we certainly wanted to make it difficult for the Germans up there, and so these individuals were behind the lines, blowing up railway bridges, collecting intelligence from the locals and just generally making a nuisance of themselves. But unlike a lot of special operations, they didn't go in, accomplish a mission, and get pulled out. These guys stayed in Norway and received supplies through air drops. They had quite a harrowing experience. Most World War II uniforms honestly aren't worth a whole lot of money. In most cases, a plain World War II uniform is $50 or $100 at best. And in fact this one, with the moth damage that it has on it, which is quite extensive, would make it worth even less than that. But the thing that makes this one particularly valuable is the insignia that's on it. Right here on this shoulder, you see the Special Forces wing, the SF wing. It's generally British made and indicative of somebody who trained with the British. Generally, the people who wore it had something to do with the OSS. It's a wing that's heavily faked because it's a very valuable piece of World War II insignia. This particular wing alone on its own, without any association to the individual, in 2014, a retail value for that would be between $1,800 and $2,000. He's got American wings on the uniform, but then he also has British wings on that shoulder as well. Because you have a complete grouping, where we know for a fact that this is the original wing-- in fact, you can see in the photograph that he's wearing the wing in that very same uniform-- as a collector, you don't have to worry about the idea that it's a forgery. You know absolutely that this is a genuine wing, you know the history of the individual and what he did. A retail value for the entire lot today with the man's identification I would expect to be between $3,000 and $3,500.
GUEST:
Oh, wow. Thank you. That's... pretty good, yes.
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