Coastal Artillery Overseas Cap

Product Description: This Kriegsmarine Coastal Artillery Overseas Cap is without a doubt one of the finest examples I have ever owned. It’s an absolutely textbook, all-original piece, in pleasant, lightly worn condition. This Kriegsmarine Küstenartillerie “Schiffchen” overseas cap was made in occupied France, something more commonly seen with Kriegsmarine headgear than the other Wehrmacht branches. The cap is constructed of a typical wartime field gray wool. The surface shows slight wear to the nap. The front of the cap has a complete set of insignia, with a national colors cockade and a German Navy eagle in gold on a field gray backing. Both are Bevo machine embroidered and factory applied. The cockade is machine stitched and the eagle is neatly hand stitched as was often done. Inside, the cap is lined with gray cotton fabric. Slight wear has obscured the maker mark and date, but it is a typical circular stamp as seen in French made caps. The word “Paris” can be made out in the stamp. There is also a size stamp, “56.” This desirable Coastal Artillery Overseas Cap is a gorgeous display piece. It rates as near mint.

Historical Description: The “side cap” 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 side cap gave it the nickname “Schiffchen,” meaning little boat, due to its shape. The side caps were made in the same type of fabric as the uniforms, in the uniform color particular to each organization. The side caps were adorned with branch-specific insignia, usually bearing some form of the German eagle and swastika national emblem. Many side caps 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 side cap with a new, more practical cap featuring a brim, by 1943. But the side cap continued to be worn by some troops until the end of the war.

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