M34 Panzer Overseas Cap with Soutache

Product Description: This M34 Panzer Overseas Cap is a very appealing, 1941 dated example, factory made for issue to an enlisted soldier or NCO. This cap retains the original pink soutache, indicating issue to a member of the Panzer branch. The soutache was deleted from Heer overseas caps in June 1942, and examples that retain this attractive early feature are particularly desirable. The exterior of this handsome cap is made of a fine black wool fabric. There is no mothing or other damage to the wool. The front of the cap has a complete set of Bevo style machine woven insignia. Both of the insignia are the green backed style normally used on field gray caps, which is a feature that has been noted on other caps found like this that are also dated 1941. The eagle has been machine stitched with zig-zag stitching, while the cockade is neatly hand sewn. The eye-catching pink soutache is machine sewn, and correctly punched through the front of the cap. Inside, this M34 Panzer Overseas Cap is lined with a typical ribbed cotton twill material. There is little or no evident wear. It’s well marked with ink stamps, with the size of 57, the depot and year code of E 41 for “Erfurt” and “1941, and a stamp from a maker in Arnstadt, with the maker name partially illegible. This is a really nice cap, and not an easy piece of headgear to find. It’s in outstanding, near mint condition.

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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