Original Item: Only One Available. This cap is a lovely "salty" service used example of a German WWII Wehrmacht Heer Army Cavalry Officer Schirmmütze visor "crush" cap, with a fantastic saddle form shape. Made with flexible leather visors and no crown reinforcement, these were quite flexible, and easily took on the iconic shape. Many consider these to be the "true" crusher cap, flexible enough to almost be folded up, especially since it has a burlap side support, not fiber. The wear on this cap gives it a fantastic well broken in look that is impossible to duplicate, though it has suffered the lost of 90% of the sweatband, with just a bit still present by the visor.

It features the typical feldgrau (field gray) "doeskin" weave wool gabardine construction with a flaschengrün (dark bottle-green) "badge cloth" band and a traditional high forward crown. The cap has matching matching Goldgelb (Golden Yellow) piping along the top edge and flanking either side of the band. This is the Waffenfarbe (Corps Color) for Cavalry, as well as reconnaissance and armored reconnaissance units with cavalry traditions. It is decorated with a well detailed silver wire BeVO machine embroidered eagle insignia on the peak and and an open silver BeVo embroidered wreath surrounding a tri-color cockade on the band. Considering the amount of wear on the cap, the insignia are in great shape, showing minimal staining, and the silver threading is still bright. There is some wrinkling to the wreath, but that's about it.

The cap does not have a chin strap, and there is no indication that it was made with one. As the chin straps were not really used, they were omitted sometimes, and the rank would be indicated by the style of insignia. From what we can gather these caps were really only used by officers, and the bullion insignia would indicate an officer. The black leather visor is still in very good shape and supple, showing a lovely pattern of checking and crazing on the top and bottom, caused by age related deterioration of the leather finish. It is still firmly attached to the cap.

The cap is lined with lovely black rayon twill faux silk, as often seen on officer caps, and it shows dirt and staining from use. The original celluloid sweat shield is still partly present, but very torn up, with the stitching mostly gone. There is a it of an old maker logo visible, but we were not able to identify it. As mentioned previously, most of the sweatband is missing, with just some of the forehead are still present.

A great "salty" example of the classic hat worn by German Cavalry Officers in WWII. Very impressive and ready to display!

The German Schirmmütze Visor Cap:
The visor cap (Schirmmütze) was an important part of the headgear worn by German uniformed military, civil, paramilitary and political organizations during the Third Reich. This was the standard cloth headgear worn as a part of the service uniform. Visor caps were worn outdoors as well as indoors, and were often required to be worn by all personnel on duty. Visor caps were made in versions specific to each organization and were often further differentiated through the use of insignia, colored piping, or style of chin cord, to indicate rank, role or branch. The insignia used on these caps ranged from simple stamped metal emblems, to elaborate hand embroidery. Visor caps were issued to enlisted soldiers and NCOs in the military and in some other organizations. Officers had to purchase their own hats, and lower ranks could choose to purchase caps that were of a higher quality than the rather basic, issue examples. The private purchase caps were generally made in very high quality, with fine materials. A wide variety of fabrics were used, from Trikot and doeskin, to heavy wool, or even lightweight white fabric for summer wear. In the military, issue of these caps was generally suspended shortly after the outbreak of the war, but they continued to be worn by some troops until the end of the war.