SA Union: Ossewa Brandwag (Oxwagon Sentinel) Membership Badge |
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| Form: | Circular surmounted by eagle. Enamelled. Uniface with brooch pin. | ||||||||
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| By: | ? | ||||||||
| Date: | 1939-1946 | ||||||||
| Ref: |
Laidlaw: 1140; |
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| Variations: |
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| Edge: |
Plain. |
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| Obverse: |
Emblem of the Ossewa Brandwag. On the upper half of the circular part, four segments enamelled in green, red, yellow and blue. On the lower half, oxwagon. On a band, legend below: "DIE OSSEWA BRANDWAG". Surmounting circular part, eagle in black enamel. |
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| Reverse: |
Blank. Brooch pin. |
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| Notes: |
Varieties of this badge are found, some of them homemade. The Ossewa Brandwag (Oxwagon Sentinel) was founded in Bloemfontein on 4 February 1939. It was a nationalist Afrikaner organisation, opposed to South Africa entering World War II on the British side. It attracted some 80,000 members. Within it there was a paramilitary group called the Stormjaers (or storm troopers), modelled on the Third Reich’s SA (the so called brown shirts), which carried out sabotage in opposition to the Smuts government. Between 1941 and 1952 its Leader was the self-styled Commandant General J.F.J van Rensburg. After the War, most of the Ossewa Brandwag members joined Dr. D.F. Malan’s National party and the organisation ceased to exist as a separate body. |
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