A service dress uniform to an Air Force Senior Sergeant
*Click on pictures to see full size.
A Hungarian Air Force Sergeant in his service dress. He wears a tunic made out of a coarser wool than the officer's tunic. The color is somewhere between brown and olive. His rank is reflected in his cap eagle and shoulder stripes. His branch of service is denoted by his 'tural' cap badge and his propeller collars. He is rated as a pilot based on the silver wings on his chest. The plane in the background is a Hungarian marked Reggiane 2000 in the Spring of 1942.
A close up view of the cap and shoulders. Based on the silver color, this man is a senior NCO. Lower ranks were marked with thinner tress and broze color. Officers were ranked in gold (see other Hungarian uniforms in this section).
The unique style of the Hungarian Air Force enlisted uniform.

A close up view of the cap. This style was unique to the Hungarian Air Force. It is more similar in style to a Naval enlisted cap than air force or army. The badge is hollow stamped out of silver metal. The triangular background is some kind of velvet. The black ribbon (which is crudely sewn) denotes that the man was promoted after the hat was issued to NCO status. Other ranks would not have the black band.
In this picture, we seen the really unique and stylized collar devices that denoted the air branch. Unfortuantely when we acquired this uniform, there was only one remaining. We are told they are very rare and hard to find. Hopefully one will turn up. The buttons are the same as that as the officers but in bronzed metal.

This uniform is really special because of how untouched it is. The original medal bar, still sewn in place with the medal devices intact. The Hungarian ribbon bars are really interesting because they featured miniatures of the medals themselves attached on the ribbons.

From left to right: The 'Signum Laudis' medal in bronze with swords (which designated it as a bravery award) and 'war' ribbon (issued as of 1939). The medal was instituted in 1922 and originally was in two classes, silver and bronze. A gold class was added later.

The second medal is a Bravery Medal in Bronze. The third medal is the Occupation of South Slovakia 1938 Medal.

The officers and the NCOs shared the same shoulder rank system with the NCOs in Silver and the Officers in gold. Please see the insignia chart on the main Hungarian page for reference.

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All images © 2000 Tod Rathbone