Deutsches Reichsbahn-Wasserschutzpolizei Visor...

[stonemint]

I have asked the Dagger guys for some help, but it seems their knowledge is pretty limited as well. Speculation is that the DRB/WSP was stationed primarily in Northern Germany, and supervised barge-rail traffic shipment to/from Denmark.

Here is a shot of the Eickhorn Kundendienst showing the DRB-WSP dagger from Gottliebs site:

[stonemint]

In case anyone cares, Drechsler was a small-time maker who did not survive the war. Here is another logo of theirs:

[stonemint]

After the war, they were absorbed by A Mielcher, also of Munchen:

[SteveR]

!!!! Wow !!!!
Those are 2 very rare caps. I have a water police side cap and was tickled pink when I got it. Very very nice.

[HJ-Collector]

stonemint you have some very nice headgear thanks for showing my freind

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Your might correct your heading as "Deutsche Reichsbahn" i.e. die Bahn, not das Bahn, and also die Polizei.

I am sure this entity existed wherever there were a combination of rivers and rails, which is more than Schleswig Holstein, surely. Rivers and railroads are a leading feature of central Europe, and such would have been present where the Wasserschutzpolizei is present today, which is on interior water ways and harbors, as well as canals, rivers, et cetera. And in the Germany of 1935 or 1939, the Rhine, Danube, and other major rivers would also have seen this organization. The man who posts as "ORPO" on the other sites always impressed me as being quite well informed about the German police. I was just in Hamburg and there are Wasserschutzpolizei all over the place, in the harbor, on the Aussenalster and more; same is true in Berlin on the Spree and the Havel. In another life, I worked in territorial defense and civil military cooperation in NATO, and had a lot to do with such people....but they did not wear swastikas, of course.

[stonemint]

Thanks again for all the kind comments. Wim Saris is helping me out to confirm that it indeed WSP-DRB. He initially thought it may be for this organisation, the DRB drivers service (which I had never heard of before). However, my hat is Dunkelblau, not the gray of the Kraftwagendienst der Reichsbahn:

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The post on the contemporary source on the Kraftfahrer der Reichsbahn is a highly useful addition and just the sort of thing we need much more of in this site and others. That is, real sources that advance our knowledge.

[stonemint]

The post on the contemporary source on the Kraftfahrer der Reichsbahn is a highly useful addition and just the sort of thing we need much more of in this site and others. That is, real sources that advance our knowledge.

F-B, I posted that one with you specifically in mind!

[Friedrich-Berthold]

F-B, I posted that one with you specifically in mind!

Thanks so much and we are all much better for it. This kind of evidence is out there, it is highly enlightening and we all learn in the process. Much more edifying is it thus than a 20 post exchange about stitches on sweat bands in which the archeological evidence is mixed, if not wholly contradictory.

While I have an above average Nazi era library (and a non Nazi library, too...) I have never collected systematically the regalia primary sources as have d'Alquen and W. Saris. I have never had the professional time to do so, being engaged otherwise. We thank them for their effort and Mr. Chris Stonemint for his here. The study of this regalia should be based on as much documentary evidence from the era 1890-1945 as exists.

Thanks again and best of luck with your caps.