The Red Badge

I read something a similar a hundred years ago in a two bit paperback thriller: Uncle Joe Stalin had the Red Badge Of Russia. Set in the chaos of the closing days of WW2, he tasked his best foreign operatives with capturing Hitler before he escaped to South America. He issued about half a dozen of them to the team that gave them the authority of Stalin himself in the execution of their mission. You could bump 4 star generals from a train and take their place, you could commandeer vehicles, up to and including airplanes - you name it. Instant top priority wherever you went! 

Years later an unreliable source said those shields or badges were actually real. Think I’ll do a deep dive on it and see what turns up…