Description
Physical description
Field cap of police green wool with a semi-rigid cloth peak of ski-cap style, with machined one-piece cockade roundal badge above a police eagle badge of BeVo form. A matching pair of field-grey painted metal stipple pattern buttons are attached to the front, securing the drop-down curtain to the upright position.
Label
A popular item worn by non-commissioned ranks of the police regiments. Such caps were favoured for field wear by those branches deployed on operations in occupied countries:
The Schutzpolizei (a branch of the Ordnungspolizei) were the regular uniformed police stationed in larger towns and cities within the Reich, whereas those serving with one of the Polizei-Schützen-Regimenter, or 'Police rifles regiments' were a para-military force that operated in occupied countries on security operations, of which there were 28 in the East alone (46,000 all ranks). Dressed in their conventional police uniforms they were supplemented with Army issue equipment and worked mainly behind the lines where they participated in anti-partisan actions, prevented sabotage, guarded installations and maintained law and order. The darker side of their work was revealed when they assisted the SD Einsatzgruppen on their notorious sweeps of the population to find Jews and other 'undesirables', gaining a brutal reputation. However, some served in front-line combat and fought particularly well, for example those that defended the Kholm Pocket in 1942. In 1943 all Polizei-Schützen-Regimenter were renamed and became SS-Polizei-Schützen-Regimenter. The final formation was formed simply as the Polizei Division in 1939 and composed mainly of members of the Ordnungspolizei who were drafted into service and initially carried out occupation duties in Poland. Involved in the 1940 invasion of France, the Division was later placed from the responsibility of the police to the Waffen-SS in January 1941, later fighting on the Eastern Front. In February 1942 it was re-named and became a formal part of the Waffen-SS and changed its police insignia accordingly.
Printed (inside)
60 R B Nr. 0/0550/0118 744