During worldwar two the Dutch naval airwing was still using mainly embroidered (bullion) wings for its men in Europe. This was different for the tropics where due to the amount of washing needed metal wings were used that could be easily detached from the uniform.
According to a source on internet (could not confirm this myself yet) the commander of the colonial naval forces ordered a batch of metal wings from the Toye firm in England for use in the tropics (order BDO.12.GHJ/345944) probably in 1943. A total of five wings were authorized for the navy at that moment: aviator / navigator / aviator+navigator / gunner / signaller. The first three, shown in the picture below, are full wings the other two and the later additions are half wings.
When they were actually produced and delivered is unclear. So far I have seen only pictures of these wings being worn in the Dutch East Indies post 1945 and of course into the 1950s and 60s in the Netherlands.
The wings are all marked TOYE SILVER but the silver content is unknown and they do not have an actual silver hallmark. The combined wing for Aviator and Navigator is the rarest and was constructed of a regular Aviator wing plus the specific addition of the wreathed W for Waarnemer (=navigator). The amount made was not large enough to make a specific die for this wing as a whole it seems, only for the wreathed W that was manually added!
Some original but unused surplus examples have come to the market in recent years.
