SS Camo Cap

[Raymond270]

I recently came across these two photos of a Waffen SS Camo cap complete with insignia.
Was said to be in the Delich collection. One of only two known.

[Winkelman]

Well , actually these pictures taken from page 141 of the Beaver book on SS camouflage uniforms , state that the cap is from the Willi Schumacher collection .

The one owned by Mr. Delich is pictured on the very next page .. !

( As far as I know , in total 4 authentic examples are known , the 3rd one being in the collection of - no surprises there - Mr. Bob Hritz .. )

[Friedrich-Berthold]

These people mentioned above are involved here. Bob Hritz also owns a cap like this. I am in correspondence with Delich, but his photo archives
was murdered by a computer glitch and he is less technically equipped to meet the requirement.

Schuhmacher started to post here, so maybe he will read this.

[Danmark]

Seems odd that only 4 examples are known to exist of what would have been a very attractive "bring-back" for a vet????

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Seems odd that only 4 examples are known to exist of what would have been a very attractive "bring-back" for a vet????

There is no accounting for many things associated with this regalia. What survives is associated with those people willing to share their collections and who

have garnered a wide audience. There are others who shun the lime light, have no interest in sharing these things, and so on.

Also, more of these things were destroyed than not.... perga, perga.

What I do know is that Dave Delich has been very engaged here, and we are lucky for it. Hritz no longer posts here, of that which I am aware.

He posts elsewhere. He posted at some point images of his cap of this kind.


We are lucky that anyone with knowledge and authentic material posts anything at all.

[Raymond270]

That is the one book I am missing

[Adrian Stevenson]

I know of one here in the UK which resides in the hands of the family of the Vet who brought it home. It is not for sale and they know it's worth!

Cheers, Ade.

[Winkelman]

Seems odd that only 4 examples are known to exist of what would have been a very attractive "bring-back" for a vet????

The whole issue of rarity with these camo caps WITH INSIGNIA is as follows ;

Camo caps were initially issued without insignia , but CAMO badges for them were introduced on December 1st 1942 .
Soon enough , someone smart thought it was clearly a waste of resources to put invisible insignia on a camouflaged cap , and already on December 15th , the whole order was revoked - and from then on these camo caps were bare again .

Yes indeed - ONLY 14 DAYS later .. !

By then , of course a certain amount of caps had already been assembled with camo badges , and this explains their scarce appearance in period pictures , but surviving examples are by now impossibly rare ..

[Winkelman]

Fortunately for insignia collectors , very few ( IMO just a single roll ? ) of the green camo insignia were recovered unused , and brought back by veterans . The insignia used for the other side = brown were not so lucky , these are virtually non-existent like complete camo caps are ..

Here is an original set of unused green insignia ;

Remember that all of these very rare green and brown camo insignia were made during
>> 14 days only ,
by one and the same maker =
they are all of EXACTLY the same pattern .. !

[Winkelman]

The camo BROWN side , on caps of :

1. Mr. Dave Delich
2. Mr. Bob Hritz
3. Mr. Jim Toncar - this cap may not count since it is not entirely complete

I know that I should not be envious ..