2 Mint Flight Luftwaffe Schirmützen

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This is a bit of a compare and contrast thread. The first is a Luftwaffe contract visor made by Christian Haug (or CRIHA). As with most contract caps, the wool is a heavy Trikot, and the band is a heavy rough wool. Lining is your standard chintz, with an alkor sweatband.

Peak is there, but not as pronounced.

This one, like most pre-war Crihas, is heavily padded, which is unusual for a contract cap.

This one was never issued. Insignia are in aluminum, strap is leather:

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This, in contrast, is a private-purchase piece (that I recently picked up from my good friend Mark). It has a peak like Mt. Everest, with a sharp down-slope on either side.

The wool is a darker shade compared to what is found on the issue caps. It is also a premium quality smooth gabardine, which feels exactly like doeskin.

Band is black ribbed rayon, same as on Officer caps.

Chinstrap is patent leather.

Insignia is actually silver-washed zinc on this one (this is probably a wartime cap).

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Marks pictures are actually better than mine--they do this hat justice:

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Profile shot. I usually do not collect EM/NCO, but as you can see, the aesthetic shape of this hat did it for me:

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Comparison time. Note the high peak of the private purchase, which makes the peak of the Criha look like a speed bump:

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Here you can see the difference in wool quality of the 2 caps:

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Unfortunately, there is no maker on the private-purchase visor, but I suspect, based upon shape, that it is by Otto Dittmann of Dresden (Marke ODD).

However, there is a distributor mark for "William Günther", Konig Georg Allee 15, Dresden, N. 15. Günther is listed in the Wilkins book on p. 293 (it was presumed to be a maker at the time the book was written). The book also used this exact same hat for maker information, which is partially incorrect--(see page 292).

In any event, Günther did not survive the war, and most likely was destroyed in the firebombing of Dresden. (Konig Georg Allee is now Stauffenberg Allee as well).

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As you can see, Herr Günther was not shy about advertising himself on his wares:

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What is nice is that the LW NCO placed his full address and name in the hat:

Heinz Schmidt, who resided at Lauensteinerstr. 14 #3:

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Courtesy of Ben, here is the building Feldwebel Schmidt would have resided at. I would assume that they occupied the third floor. It does not look like cheap rent--apparently Herr Schmidt (or his parents) had some Reichsmarks to their credit: