Early SS-VT Overseas Cap

Product Description: This early SS-VT Overseas Cap is an outstanding and likely field worn example of this extremely desirable cap. The exterior of this cap is made of a typical, high quality, densely woven wool. It’s in an attractive medium field gray shade. The wool surface shows light wear that exposes the textbook fine yarn and plain weave in some areas. There are a few scattered moth holes, smaller than a match head. This cap is complete with its original insignia. The front of the cap is adorned with a silvered steel Totenkopf button that shows no indication of ever having been removed. Most of the original finish on the button is intact, with moderate wear and some oxidation. The side of the cap has a correct triangular eagle, which is a typical machine embroidered on wool example. The eagle shows wear that matches the rest of the cap, and is factory machine applied to the flap with straight machine stitching. Inside, this cap is lined with a tan cotton twill fabric. It’s well marked, with the size “56” as well as the round maker mark of the Hamburg-based maker Clemens und Wagner. This early SS-VT Overseas Cap remains in excellent condition, and is a choice example of a hard-to-find piece of SS cloth headgear.

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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