Description
Product Description: This Tropical Heer Overseas Cap is a very nice piece, that does not appear to have ever been issued. The exterior of the cap is made of lightweight cotton twill fabric with an attractive olive tan tropical color. This fabric shows no wear, and no holes or damage, with only very light areas of slight discoloration from storage. The front of the cap is adorned with a complete set of original factory applied insignia. The Heer eagle and cockade are both Bevo machine woven, in tropical colors. They are affixed to the cap with straight machine stitching. There never was any soutache, as this was deleted in mid-1942 before this cap was produced. Inside, this Tropical Heer Overseas Cap shows a textbook red cotton twill lining. The lining shows a couple of small areas of soiling from storage, but no wear. It’s well marked, with the name and address of the maker, Hans Brasst in Magdeburg, as well as “1142” likely indicating production in November 1942. This cap was originally size stamped “55,” which has been crossed out and a new size stamp “54” added on the other side, perhaps before leaving the factory or at a depot where it was inspected. This is a very fine and attractive cap that would be difficult to upgrade. The condition rates as excellent plus.
Historical Description: The “sidecap” was a part of the uniform worn by nearly all military, paramilitary, political and civil organizations in the Third Reich. It was a narrow hat that could be folded flat and tucked into a belt or haversack. This was, at the time, a very stylish type of uniform cap; in the German Army, it replaced the round “pork pie” style of field cap used in the Great War. The German name for this cap, in most organizations, was “Feldmütze”- field cap. Despite the name, it was often worn as a daily service cap by postal workers and other personnel who would never be deployed to the field. The men and women who wore the sidecap gave it the nickname “Schiffchen,” meaning little boat, due to its shape. The sidecaps were made in the same type of fabric as the uniforms, in the uniform color particular to each organization. The sidecaps were adorned with branch-specific insignia, usually bearing some form of the German eagle and swastika national emblem. Many sidecaps also bore red, white and black national cockades. The insignia were usually embroidered or woven, but metal devices were used on some caps as well. Officer caps generally were distinguished by silver braid along the top edge and/or on the upper part of the flap at the front of the cap and were often custom tailored from fine fabrics. The German military, and many other organizations, had broadly replaced the sidecap with a new, more practical cap featuring a brim, by 1943. But the sidecap continued to be worn by some troops until the end of the war.
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