HPC Frischluft LW Extramuetze

[stonemint]

I am one of those visor-philes who often purchases first because of maker, secondary to the organisation that it represents. This is one of those cases. I have always been a fan of the legendary Hermann Potthoff Muetzenfabrik of Coesfeld, who not only made quality private-purchase visors, but also had their own Frischluft system, which was (slightly) more practical than Erel's, as it used more ventilation grommets.

The Heer examples are around, but are somewhat uncommon. Even more rare are Luftwaffe examples. I had never seen an EM/NCO with the Frischluft system until last year (and an officer's only recently). Here is my first:

[Teutonicknights]

[stonemint]

This example has a high crown, and is heavily padded:

[stonemint]

Hat is probably only a size 57-58, but has a huge crown:

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Side views. Wool is gabardine, red is for Artillery (Flak).

[stonemint]

Hat is minty, but was issued. Unfortunately, the NCO used Sutterlin script, and all I can make out is "Wilhelm."

1419757 is their patent # for their Frischluft system. (If you see a hat w/ this #, but without the Stirndruckfrei system and air vents, it is a fake.)

[stonemint]

Now I agree, while these vent-systems might make for a good selling point, imho, they were not all that effective. (The reason for them is that the Luftwaffe & Heer did not allow side vents on their hats, so both Erel and HPC had to "hide" them.)

The vent holes on the sweatband are minimal, and are not going to allow for much in the way of air passage:

[stonemint]

This one had loose strips of cork (for cushioning) effectively blocking the vents. (It does not appear that young Kanonier Wilhelm ever removed them):

[stonemint]

The money shot. Luftwaffe NCO visors only used 4 grommets, compare to 6 used on WH Officer visors. The reason for this is the smaller wreath circumference.

Note the flap to the left of the picture. The purpose of this is to allow the NCO to close-off the airflow in colder months. It simply folds over and is held in place by the sweatband, and blocks the vents.

Also, the WH visors had small cut-outs on the sides of the wreaths to allow air in.

(However, Luftwaffe NCO wreaths did not need that, as will be shown next.)

[stonemint]

OK, here is the reason that no cut-outs are needed for Luftwaffe EM/NCO wreaths--all of them already have 4 cut-outs around the cockade. The grommets are (roughly) lined up behind each cut-out: