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Remembered Today:

WW1 Swastika ?


Moston

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No 1st March. 1st aircraft a Swedish built Albatross BII had already been flown in on 25 Feb by John-Allan Hygerth who was to become the forces first Commander; 6th March was when the Thulin arrived with Rosen as a passenger but the service had legally been in existence for 6 days. One thing that has caused confusion is that the Thulin was numbered F1 (possibly as a complement to Rosen) whilst the real first aircraft was numbered F2

So why does the Official Finnish Airforce site state March 6th as the inception date? which is one of my links. Or have the Finnish Airforce got it wrong? I also thing it was not called Airforce.

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So why does the Official Finnish Airforce site state March 6th as the inception date? which is one of my links. Or have the Finnish Airforce got it wrong? I also thing it was not called Airforce.

No as I said earlier at that time it was called the Air Service, today it is part of the Finnish Defence force as, like Canada, they have combined them all back together as one force. Possibly there is some confusion between when it became operational and when it was legally formed. I took the opportunity to raise this when I was working in Finland back in 2001 and my Finnish colleagues said this was not impossible.

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  • 1 month later...

I've seen a photograph of an Airco DH9 bomber with a swastika - can't currently find it though, but definitely seen a photo of it

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The word 'Swastika' is actually derived from two Sanskrit words – 'Su' and 'Astika'. Su means "good" and astika means a "sign or symbol". Sanskrit uses a lot of compound words. Where there are two vowels, the first is changed to a consonant by a process called "sandhi". So, "su-astika" becomes "svastika". In German the letter 'W' is pronounced as a 'V'. Hence Swastika!

The useless fact of the day.

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Only last Saturday I picked up a copy in a car boot sale of Kipling's Jungle Book with a swastika on the cover. The book was published in 1920:

post-42233-1266937902.jpg

I have a copy with the same swastika, dated 1902, and the swastika symbol is repeated across a lot of the illustrations

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi,

A work college of mine has some WW1 savings coupons, does anyone have any info on them, do people collect them?

Any info at all would be apprecited.

images attached.

Mark

post-5309-1271922387.jpg

post-5309-1271922401.jpg

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  • 4 years later...

Mentioned in post #27, outside Balmoral, the War Memorial has swastikas pointing both ways as good luck symbols.

post-79542-0-20895400-1401439603_thumb.j

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Haven't read entire thread, but worth mentioning that Fritz Beckhardt, a fighter pilot who was Jewish, used the Hakenkreuz (swastika) as his personal aircraft decoration.

He famously refused to surrender his aircraft and flew to Switzerland in November 1918. There are images of his Siemens-Schuckert adorned with the swastika rotting away in a field in Switzerland. Beckhardt was sent to Dachau in the late 1930's, but Hermann Goering intervened and he was released in 1942 and helped to get to Portugal. From there, to Golders Green !

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Moston - it's quite likely. The Swastika was a good luck symbol. Robert Baden-Powell writes about its use as a Thanks Symbol in scouting in 1921.

Just as a bit of trivia - In Coventry Cathedral (famously destroyed by the Nazis) is the surviving tomb of a Victorian bishop, with a life-sized bronze effigy lying on top. Part of the tomb's decoration is a line of swastikas. If I remember correctly, they're on the bishop's hat.

Tom

The Boy Scouts had an award called the Cornwell Badge, named after Jack Cornwell VC, which used a swastika in its design prior to the Nazi era.

There is also a well known design known as the "Greek key" which resembles a line of swastikas. Perhaps this motif was the one adorning the ladies' bathing costumes mentioned in earlier posts.

Ron

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FWIW (not very much!), Konya Museum has a very nice early Christian relief of Jonah and the Whale episode with swastika's on either side...

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  • spof changed the title to WW1 Swastika ?

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