Fall 2026 Militaria and Aviation Auction
Lot 27:
Description
CHOICE WWII Sterling Glider Badge & 327th GIR Felt Oval, 101st Airborne. WWII U.S. Army sterling Glider Infantry Badge mounted on its correct blue and gold felt background oval for the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. This lot presents a well-matched pairing of a genuine WWII-period sterling Glider Badge and a period unit-designating oval, the type of insignia combination worn beneath the glider wing on the service coat or garrison cap to identify a trooper’s parent regiment. Neither piece is named, and no separate biography or individual provenance accompanies this lot; the history offered here rests on the documented service record of the badge type and the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment itself rather than on a personal citation. Instituted in June 1944 and made retroactive to 1942, the Glider Badge recognized soldiers who had completed glider training or who had participated in perilous combat glider assault landings – service widely regarded among airborne veterans as more hazardous than a parachute jump, given the fragile plywood-and-canvas construction of the Waco CG-4A and the near-total absence of any means to abort a landing once committed. The blue felt oval bordered in gold/yellow identifies the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Division that flew into Normandy in the early hours of 6 June 1944, dropped again into Holland during Operation Market Garden that September, and famously held the line at Bastogne through the encirclement of December 1944 – actions for which the regiment and its parent division earned lasting recognition in the official histories of the European campaign. The badge depicts a frontal Waco CG-4A glider set within outstretched, feathered wings, struck in sterling silver with crisp obverse detail and natural light patina; the reverse is clearly stamped STERLING and fitted with dual clutch-back posts, both straight and unbent, though the clutches themselves are not present. The oval is of period two-piece wool felt construction, dark navy center bordered in gold/yellow felt, with visible hand-basted perimeter stitching on the reverse securing the badge posts in place. No additional items accompany this lot beyond the badge and its mounted oval. Condition is very good for the period: the badge shows only light reverse wear and toning commensurate with honest handling and storage, the felt retains vibrant, unfaded color with minor edge fuzzing typical of wartime manufacture and age, and the perimeter stitching remains intact and secure. A solid, display-ready sterling Glider Badge correctly mounted to its 327th GIR oval, representing the airborne troopers who flew – and crashed – into Normandy, Holland, and the frozen perimeter at Bastogne.
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