German contractors of headgear for USEUCOM, USAREUR

[Dimas]

Yes and here it is, courtesy to Richie C

[Dimas]

His business don't stopped, and was not broken by the war, even he got more interesting contract for the bigger army than the German

[stonemint]

F-B, thanks for the pics of "Germany in the Year Zero"--I knew I should have started that thread over here.

I have had collectors tell me they have seen US German-made visors, but no one has ever shown me a pic. However, it does seem logical, given that there are more than a few examples of Brit-made USAAF visors, and even S. Vietnamese made ones.
(I believe I have seen Aussie as well).

I agree, it most likely wasn't by contract, but select private-purchase examples. (Lubstein's w/ the CCCP was most likely the very definition of and "adhesion contract"(!).

I don't know if you caught it, but a German member of the WAF posted a U-Boat "Monsoon" commanders Japanese-made white-top cap--Japanese mohair band, chinstrap, buttons and custom bullion! Obviously, a one-off piece.

I'm going off on a tangent here, but in the early days of e-bay I recall seeing a LW tunic made by "Jockey Club" out of RAF cloth, and a tailor-made LW tunic made in Ireland during the war for a POW.

Back on track, if we do find one, it will most likely be a Pekuro or Alkero. The search is on....

[BOB COLEMAN]

FB-
Very interesting images of the "change" AH brought to his citizens. Both the Japanese and German population suffered great hardships in the years following the war.

[OKW]

Adolph said he'd bring Germans a healthier life style in the fresh air.
And so Bob did the British population, rationing here didn't end until the early 1950's, not being in receipt of handouts from the Marshall plan like the rest of Europe.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The photos here are germane to the discussion among certain internet gurus who posit as if cap production in 1947 was the same as in 1940, that is, in two entirely different strategic, economic and otherwise situations that bear no resemblance to one another at all.

The point: history is about context, and you cannot do the hat archeology in a vacuum. I am sure that at the point that the FRG got back on its feet economically, stationed forces got things made locally; but my other point, the infrastructure of vendors and commercial enterprises that lived from the rearmament of Germany in the era 1934-1942 as well as the contracts of the NSDAP in the period 1933-1945 did not merely proceed unhampered in the years 1945-1955, as it were. There was a vacuum and also a general unwillingness to return to old ways, since the profit was to be found in civilian goods, not in military regalia.

And, one cannot under estimate the power of what is the AAFES exchange system either then or now. One has only to visit present day garrisons of the US forces in such places as Iraq and Afghanistan or Bahrain to see the startling level of suttler support, commissary, pi pa po that has long been a feature of the US forces since the 19th century.

The first contracts from the FRG for uniforms in any noticeable numbers must have come in 1952 with the creation of the Bundesgrenzschutz. In Kaiserslautern, the ground zero of US garrisons in the FRG, I never saw a Militaereffektenladen whatsoever. The Kleiderkasse der Bundeswehr took the place of these, and there exists today in Germany perhaps at most three military tailor firms of quite small size, known within the Bundeswehr and sought after for their wares. But these firms are more a curiosity than an establishment with representation in all leading towns and municipalities. In former times, any middle size garrison would have had Militaereffektenlaeden as well as headwear makers with a military section, but that is not the case now, especially....and I doubt even in the years of the Lubstein transition to the Soviet Forces in Alexanderplatz and its environs, which was already the apparel district in Berlin in the era prior to 1933.

Happy stitches to all headwear afficiandos.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

[QUOTE=stonemint;68730]F-B, thanks for the pics of "Germany in the Year Zero"--I knew I should have started that thread over here.

Thanks, and your interests are better served here if you want to pose this kind of query.

[stonemint]

Well, my instincts were correct--found this in a book on US headgear--a Dress Blue visor for Artillery, made by Alkero, probably sometime from 1946-1954. Note the classic ribbed twill pattern:

[stonemint]

Postwar logo:

[stonemint]

The author has the hat dating to 1930, which is incorrect. It is definately a post-war hat. Now I am off to find more....
(and add them to my collection)