Milsurp After Hours

I think this is a pre WWII item,perhaps not even official.If anyone is interested or has more info please let me know.I will fill in what little info I have.

Looks like it might represent a water cooled Browning 30 cal. light machine gun.
Have never seen one before. Did a quick internet search and these are the closest
I could find.

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I agree as to the pin representing a water cooled Browning.My picture quality sucks! Your "Potato Digger" pin is essentially the same idea.
My main question is regarding if this is a piece of uniform or non-regulation regalia? I could not find it anywhere either.
Thanks for responding! It's like old times on the board!

Ask the question at this site. Lots of collectors of military ephemera. http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/

I posted a question about it at the above listed site for BOLOMK1 because he was having a hard time getting admitted to the site as a user. I provoked an answer from two sources that both say it is a sweetheart pin that a WWI era soldier would have given his sweetheart. Maybe there will be more answers... or guesses. I wonder about that myself. Early military lapel pins were of about that size I read and I can't see giving a sweetheart a machine gun emblem. Machine gun squads were usually part of an infantry company, I think, as a weapons platoon is in modern armies.

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ ... n-history/

There were many such brooches give to sweethearts and wives during the wars. Here is an example of an RAF one.
I know that my mother had one from my father who was in the Royal Tank Corps.
She worked in the British Embassy in Lisbon and because Portugal was 'neutral' Lisbon was heavy with spies from all countries therefore the pro British were discouraged from wearing them.
To get round this they wore a paperclip in the form of a 'V' for victory............

PX's sold variations of the sweetheart pin when I was in the service 50 years ago. I can't remember what they looked like but were enameled things suggesting a valentine sort of love. I think I gave my now wife one of them come to think of it.

By the way, I got a pm on the militaria site asking if the owner wanted to sell it. Have no idea what the potential buyer would pay. Assuming it is WWI, it must have some trinket value to certain collectors.