Bundeswehr peaked caps.

[rory]

hello

this belongs to a friend, and i dont think he's too interested. Is it any good?

cheers

[oradour]

Rory, it is an original early example of a BW Heer (Army) peaked cap, pre 1970's style, much darker than the later (1970 on) caps and with the ribbed cap band...yours is dated October 1967, and is piped in green, for Infantry..such as Jager, Panzergrenadiers and Fallschirmjager troops. It is missing its "Army wreath and crossed swords" badge...these unfortunatly are not worth a great deal, between £12-20, and these early caps are worth more than the later ones ! even less with missing badges ! that said, the badge can be sourced at around £4. They will become more collectable.....here is a complete one, that is currently on sale in the States on E-Bay at £12.50 buy it now !
Prost ! Steve.

[rory]

Thanks Steve for the info, he doest want it so ill stick it on ebay for him as i only collect medals. Just havent the room for anything bigger. Ill start it off going by your guide thanks again Steve

[oradour]

Two new additions to my ever growing BW Heer peak cap collection...one a nice 1968 dated EM/NCO's "Heeresflieger" with light grey piping, made by " Bamberger mutzen-Industrie".....the other, a Pink piped EM/NCO's Panzer peaked cap dated 1962, an very early example of a piped cap....made by "Carl Isken Uniformmutzenfabrik Koln". This style of peak cap was worn between 1962 and 1969...
Prost ! Steve.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Congrats on the new additions. The Pz piped one is especially nice. But I imagine that the Heeresflieger would be harder to find?

Cheers, Ade.

[oradour]

Congrats on the new additions. The Pz piped one is especially nice. But I imagine that the Heeresflieger would be harder to find? Cheers, Ade.

Thanks Ade ! indeed both caps are in the hard to find category....Heeresflieger the most elusive of the two ! But the rarest being the "White" piped Musikkorps cap ! i still have to find that one....
Prost ! Steve.

[FtrPlt]

A pair of my early Luftwaffe officer caps.
First is a KKB cap (undated) by Peküro. This is the style used immediately after the Luftwaffe uniforms changed from slate grey to blue-grey. Note the visor is plain black. I need to check my notes but I'm reasonably sure this style was only used for about 3 years (plain visor with blue-grey fabric) -- ~1957-1960.


Next is a 1969-dated Carl Isken cap. Note the visor style (junior officer). The color is still very similar to the WW2-era Luftwaffe blue-grey.

[oradour]

Great hats, thanks for showing ! I have it (according to Schuster's book) as 1962, when the cloth with embroidered rank distinction (Junior/Staff) peaks were introduced along with a varying shades from light grey to almost black cloth used on these visor caps until colour standardisation in 1970 was achieved. Here is my 1956 dated Officers visor.......and a 1960 enlisted man's/NCO version, both Heer.
Prost ! Steve.

[FtrPlt]

Great early caps! I still have questions on the earliest field-grade (Major through Colonel). Were these also plain black visors and the same as worn by junior officers (silver piping and embroidered badge)?

There's a series of photos showing Erich Hartmann and General Kammhuber during the introduction of the honor titles for the Luftwaffe. General Kammhuber appears to be wearing a visor cap which has embroidery on the visor (general officers) but the photos are shot from a low angle and it's difficult to see the tops of the visor. Some photos appear to show what appears to be embroidery (or metal) oak leaves on a plain black visor. There were three images in the series and only one was posted here:

[Friedrich-Berthold]

These two works of note have much to say on this topic.