Original French Pilot's Badge Soon To Be In My Collection

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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Greetings All,

 

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to purchase the following item from a gentleman in France:

 

 

An original 'B' series French pilot's brevet, number B17318. For those interested in such things here's a bit of history.

 

Depending on which source you wish to cite, somewhere between 17,034 and 17,704 French military pilot certificates, (brevets), were issued between early 1911 and November 11, 1918. Up until late 1916 pilots were presented the paper 'brevet' and would wear a cloth arm band, (on the upper left sleeve of their tunics), showing the propeller and wings of the aviateur's trade. However, beginning in September 1916 the French military introduced a metal badge to be issued to newly brevetted pilots along with their paper certificates. The official version of such badges carried a 'B' designator in front of the serial number. These 'B' badges continued on into 1925 at which point the prefix was dropped. In addition, the 'B' badges were issued retroactively to pilots who had been brevetted prior to the 1916 change date. The unfortunate part to all this is that the badges and certificates were not numbered together. For instance, Brigadier André Coutelot of SPA 77 was issued brevet number 11,139 on January 10, 1918, while receiving badge number B9074 on March 24, 1918 from the Pau School. Another documented example shows Sergeant Jean Belleil was issued brevet number 8775 on September 22, 1917 from the Etampes School, along with badge number B6934. The military flying schools were given allotments of badges to issue to pilots upon successful completion of their training, which resulted in the numbering being even more random. Also, the badge itself did not technically belong to the pilot but was considered property of the French military and had to be returned should the pilot lose his flying status for any reason other than a combat injury. These returned badges were then reissued to newly brevetted pilots. Add to this the numerous replacement badges issued for those that had been lost, (or stolen by the comely mademoiselle as a memento of her evening with l’aviateur courageux), and it becomes nearly impossible to tie a specific badge to a WWI French pilot without concrete documentation.

 

If you wish to further complicate matters, (and who wouldn’t at this point), military pilots who so wished could apply for an international civil certificate, issued by the Aero Club of France. In the above cited example of Sgt. Belleil, he applied for his international civil certificate and was awarded number 8592. Now you have one pilot with three different ID numbers assigned to him and none of them match. The system was not revised until sometime in the mid 1920’s when at least the military certificates and badges were given matching numbers.

 

Though I have not been able to locate primary sources to support this, there is mention made that 18,000 'B' badges were originally ordered and supplied during WWI, (according to supposed merchant records). This does not mean of course that all 18,000 were assigned during the War, but it’s a safe bet most of them were, given the total number of pilots being brevetted by the end of the hostilities. This seems further supported by badge number B22707 being issued in 1920, which would place the badge numbers in the 17,000 to 18,000 range likely being issued by War’s end or shortly thereafter.

 

Regardless of when exactly the badge was originally issued, it is still a beautiful period item that will look very nice on the tunic of the aviateur's uniform in my flying room. Can't wait for it to arrive.

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[von Baur 54]

Kudos, and an excellent find. Your collection is the envy of us all, I daresay.

 

A shame about the haphazard numbering system, though. It would obviously be outstanding to be able to put a name with it.

[Olham 164]

Congrats, Lou - again one of those items found it's perfect new owner.

If it was a cat, it would surely purr.

[HumanDrone 4]

Congratulations, indeed, Lou. That's a collection I wouldn't mind seeing sometime!

 

Now since it has wings, if it were a catbird, maybe it could still purr?

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<HD ducks the rock Olham just chucked at him!>

[Olham 164]

Now I've learnt something - never heard before of 'Catbirds'.

I thought "cat" and "bird" only come together in cats' stomachs.

[HouseHobbit 2]

WOW Lou that is quite a find indeed..Bravo..

[Britisheh 0]

Hi there Lou,

 

Looks nice, although I am rather partical to my BOC brevet :)

 

Cheers,

 

Britisheh

[Olham 164]

Hey, Britisheh, I see you have found yourself an Avatar that fits the name.

Very British, indeed, the great old bulldog.