WW2 US Enlisted Visor
I received a lovely new example for my budding US WW2 collection, this enlisted man's visor.
I think this may be a private purchase visor. It has a stamp inside "AJ Kollhoff", a possible maker?
There was another typical military issue stamp in the front, but it's long worn off unfortunately. This would probably have given us more information on the date it was made etc:
In researching these, I see a lot of US visors (officer and enlisted) from Korea being identified as WW2 issue here on the forum. WW2 US visors are about as tricky in some cases as German visors seem to be, and much of that has to do with the similarity between wartime visors with the slight changes that were implemented post war in 1947-1948. I'd like to go over some of the details I've learned that can help identify a WW2 US visor vs. a Korean visor. These items are as I understand them, feel free to add more or make corrections as needed.
One thing that tends to help narrow a visor to WW2 is if the frame is made of wicker. Very few cap manufacturers continued using wicker after the war because it's expensive, time consuming, and difficult to use (Luxenberg is an exception, as they continued to use wicker on their tropical white service caps into the early 1960s). Here you can see on my visor where the frame is a stained woven wicker:
Another item to look for is the hat badge. While not conclusive as WW2 inventory remained after the war, Korean era hat badges exhibit a couple of features that help date them. First, notice in the Korean example below, the badge has rounded edges rather than the sharp edges on mine. This change prevented chaffing and tarnish from rubbing off on the visor as was an issue with WW2 badges. Also note the more drawn in eagle wings, and the rounded wing tops vs the wider outstreched wings on the badge on my visor that have sharp "V" shaped tops.
WW2 Visor Badge:
Korean Visor Badge 1950's era (borrowed from derbyhouse on etsy):
The next thing we can look at is the width of the chinstrap. During WWII the regulation for the chinstrap was for the strap to be 3/4" wide as is the width of the one on mine, while in 1948 it was changed to 5/8". There are of course notable exceptions. Bancroft Flighters always had 5/8" wide chinstraps, and most Luxenbergs (even WWII) have an extremely narrow 1/2".
Here are some photos of my visor chinstrap/band. Notice the typical loops for the straps to tuck into are of a reversed style on mine in the first two photos. This appears to be a variant strap, I found one other cap from 1944 with one like it. The added band going around the back is also a slightly lighter color than the band on the front which matches the visor peak color.
Another thing to look for is if the stiffener is made of rubber. If it is rubber, it is almost definitely postwar, as rubber was a war strategic material in WWII and cap manufacturers wouldn't have been able to use it for service caps. Also, a rubber stiffener was the issued style for the 1947 pattern caps.
Post war enlisted caps also tend to have the mohair weave band shown here on this Korean war issue hat below (borrowed MattS). The mohair band was for officers in WW2, but was authorized for enlisted man's hats starting in 1947.
Lastly, here are a few more photos of details from my visor:
The attachment for the eagle badge:
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by avenger
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