HJ winter ski cap?

**Fiore** · 06-22-2022, 06:51 PM

Hello friends,

Didn't know whether to post this in the HJ forum or here, since it is a cap after all - and I have a fair few threads started over there today anyway

So here goes: grateful for any comments or opinions on this purported HJ ski cap.

To be honest this one could be hard to say one way or the other, but personally I don't like it - most genuine examples I've seen, in photos etc., seem to have a buckle holding the flaps at the front rather than the two-button configuration here. Interior is unmarked. It is definitely old - plenty of wear and staining - and it has 'the smell' (you know what I mean). But seeing as how it merely has an (unmarked) HJ pin-badge stuck on the front it could really be anything; I know this style of cap was manufactured across the Germanic world for many decades, including post-war. On the other hand it is very small sized, approx. 54 or 55cm, so it is probably for a child, which is a plus.

Thanks for looking!

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 06-22-2022 06:51 PM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**ErWeSa** · 06-22-2022, 08:16 PM

Your observations are correct, I don't know what this is/was, it is, however, no HJ-ski-cap. Could be a post-war Feuerwehr/railway cap etc.

**Fiore** · 06-24-2022, 01:46 PM

Just an update on this -

I've been looking around, and I've seen a few of these for sale advertised as 'HJ M43 feldmutze'. Unfortunately my searches so far haven't yielded any period photos of them in wear, only more advertisements for sale. I haven't been able to find any posted on this forum that I can see. Was there ever such a thing as a Hitlerjugend M43? Or is it a colloquial term that's just been applied to these double-button blue caps?

Interestingly, a detailed inspection has revealed some ink-stamps to the liner crown of this particular example I have, barely visible in just the right light. They have proven impossible to photograph adequately, but I can read:

1944
0/00XX/XXXX
57

...where the 'X's are illegible numbers. So this cap in fact has an Rb number to it, like one would find on field equipment. I wonder what this might signify, if anything?

**ErWeSa** · 06-24-2022, 08:06 PM

There seems to be some discrepancy here: you said, the cap is quite small, but the stamp says size 57. Either it shrank or the stamp is fake or you didn't measure it correctly.

Then the specialists for this kind of cap (which I am not, so beware!) will want to see the inside of the flaps - there shoud be some "loops" there.

What colour is it - in the pictures is seems to be dark blue. That means that it cannot be Luftwaffe (blue-grey) nor Panzer (black) -what is left? Reichsbahn - can't be these looked completely differently. Reichspost/Feuerwehr - can't be, would have had pipings around the crown. So I opt for post # 2.

**Fiore** · 06-24-2022, 08:16 PM

There certainly is a discrepancy between the actual size and the stamp - I assume as you say it either shrank or the stamp is wrong. It's a dark navy blue, with the loops you mention inside under the flaps. Further examination reveals the remains of some threads and a faint outline of where a cloth insignia was once sewn to the front, where the HJ diamond is now - so, whatever it was/is, someone obviously just threw a HJ pin on there and passed it off.