Article about: Looking at photos of the siege of Tsingtao, I saw some photos depicting visor caps which appear to have some kind of cover on them. The first two photos show examples where the brim appears
Looking at photos of the siege of Tsingtao, I saw some photos depicting visor caps which appear to have some kind of cover on them.
The first two photos show examples where the brim appears to be covered (on the first photo, you can see the material of the cover traveling above the brim, under the chinstrap.
The third photo shows a group of soldiers who appear to have both the brims and red bands around their caps covered.
The fourth photo is just there to serve as an example of what the caps would normally look like.
Does anyone happen to know whether this was an improvisation or not and whether any examples still survive?
I have never tracked the evolution of the IJA's visor caps in detail, so I cannot say what prototypes they might have field-tested, but the uniform regs do tell in black and white what items were officially adopted.
As far as visor cap covers are concerned, the IJA always had white cotton covers for the crown for the purpose of deflecting the sun's heat waves in summer. These sun covers on visor caps are still part of everyday life in Japan's murderous summers. So the police, students, taxi drivers all put these covers on after the June rainy season ends.
The only time these sun covers for visor hats gave some consideration to concealment was the EM issue versions during the Russo-Japanese War, which was in khaki (officers wore white). But then by WW1, these covers were white and limited to use by generals and bandsmen.
But again, these covered only the crown and never the cap band. The photo with the light cap band and hidden army star can only be showing the white visor cap headband (hachimaki) used to identify the opposing force in a field exercise, as introduced in 1907. As shown below, these covered the entire capband and had kohaze hooks for fitting the cap tightly.
Brim covers never existed, but in trench warfare, it is easy to imagine that sun reflecting off the black leather visor might have attracted unwanted sniper fire, so temporary covering might have been devised, for instance, by using the neck scarf each soldier wore, not to make the uniform collar grimy.
But again, these covered only the crown and never the cap band. The photo with the light cap band and hidden army star can only be showing the white visor cap headband (hachimaki) used to identify the opposing force in a field exercise, as introduced in 1907. As shown below, these covered the entire capband and had kohaze hooks for fitting the cap tightly.
Brim covers never existed, but in trench warfare, it is easy to imagine that sun reflecting off the black leather visor might have attracted unwanted sniper fire, so temporary covering might have been devised, for instance, by using the neck scarf each soldier wore, not to make the uniform collar grimy.
Looking through the photos again, I believe I mischaracterized the covers. Upon closer inspection, the covers only appear to cover the brim and front half of the red bands on their caps. They appear to end just before meeting the hardware holding the chinstraps in.
It looks as though the covers are one piece. How they are held in place, I have absolutely no clue.
Camouflage Covers for the Visor Cap?
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by nick komiya
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