Simple little add here. This is a metal, bakelite and cloth roundel or cockade in the national colours used on enlisted men’s soft caps in all three services. In this case the KM Donald Duck cap below was missing one when I got it, although it had the slots where one would have fitted. An easy cheap fix, unlike most of the rabbit holes I go down.
I have field caps for the Luftwaffe and Heer and have been looking for a KM one for a while. This one came relatively cheap from a trip to Belleville although it is missing its cockade on the front. I will look for one of these in the meantime but I am happy with the look of this. Note, the post-war hats are almost identical except that the inside liner is white in colour.
I have had my Prussian Infantry Pickelhaube for about 10 years and in all that time have only see two of the cloth field covers for them. This one was just last week and I snapped it up now that I know how rare they are. In the photos you can see it still has its fastenings intact. You can also see that I had it on backwards. Ha.
This is my Army version Feldmützen, essentially similar to the Luftwaffe one I have elsewhere on this site.
This is an original M42 helmet with a completely spurious paint job. Someone has tried to make it into a HJ helmet, hence the diamond decal. I have no idea where they got the colour paint from. Ha! Aside from that it’s a lovely helmet in an extremely small size, in fact it seems a child’s sizing.
This is a cloth cap with a rough fibre lining. The sweatband is leather and there is some kanjii stamped into one side. On both sides there is the name Calvin scratched into the leather.
This is my M40 Luftwaffe field cap. What can I say, I like it, my wife wants to know why I need so many hats.
Here is a NCO or Private soldiers Pickelhaube from the 16th Prussian Infantry Regiment. The helmet is marked 1896, frequently the last inspection date. It is also marked IR.16 1896 2C I.G. and something like R?6961B. The old guy I bought it from said his uncle had got it after WW1 when he subscribed to a War Bond drive in New York.
