Officer Panzer Officer Overseas Cap

Product Description: This Panzer Officer Overseas Cap is an outstanding and beautiful example of a very rare and desirable field cap. It’s made of an early, fine grade black wool. It’s not an upgraded enlisted cap, but was tailor made for an officer, out of the finest materials. There are no moth holes or other damage to the black wool, and no fading. The front of the cap boasts a wonderful set of insignia, with a flat wire Panzer officer cap eagle (which is itself a rare item) that has been hand applied with the skill one expects of a period original tailored piece. The cockade is a bullion type, that is also wartime hand sewn as is typical for these. The correct pink “Russia braid” branch soutache is correctly applied, and makes this a desirable early cap- the soutache was eliminated from these after mid-1942. The silver officer rank piping around the edges of the cap is correctly double machine stitched, and is perfect, with minimal age toning. The metal ventilation eyelets retain the original black paint. Inside, this cap has a typical, thin, twill weave black lining, which is size marked “58” in white ink. There is a partial leather sweatband, which is stiff from age. The sweatband is all there, but has a few cracks. The inside is very clean; this cap was only worn very lightly (if at all). This cap makes for an extremely impressive display, and is in excellent condition. It would be hard to find a better example of a rare Panzer Officer Overseas Cap.

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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