Waffen SS Officers Overseas Cap – Removed Insignia

Product Description: This Waffen SS Officers Overseas Cap is a very nice example of an extremely desirable field cap. It is a typical private purchase officer cap, made of fine tricot wool in an attractive shade of light greenish field gray. The fabric is fresh and clean, with no moth damage and only extremely slight age toning. The edge of the turn-down flap retains the original silver bullion officer braid piping, which has been correctly double-stitched to the reverse of the fold. The front of cap shows the impressions of the SS skull and eagle insignia that were once sewn to it; these were carefully removed, causing no damage. Inside, this Waffen SS Officers Overseas Cap is lined with a fine cotton twill fabric, which shows no wear. The lining has a single size stamp of “53” in black ink. This is a very appealing and rare SS cap, that remains in outstanding, near mint condition.

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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