Description
Physical description
Side-cap of field-grey cloth with woven eagle & swastika and diamond-shaped red/white/black cockade badges in woven BeVo style. An inverted soutache of white is sewn to the front.
Label
This form of cap was worn as an alternative to the steel helmet on all occaisions apart from when the peaked service dress cap was appropriate (die schirmmütze).
Introduced in 1934, this form of field cap was standard issue to all branches of the Heer (army), although officer's versions were not adopted until 1938. The coloured branch of service soutache indicated the man's corps, for example white waffenfarbe: infantry; red: artillery; lemon yellow: signals; rose pink: armoured; black: (assault pioneers. Armoured troops (panzertruppe) adopted their own black version of this cap to wear with the special black uniform from 1940 whilst Mountain and ski troops adopted the special Bergmütze mountain cap.
History note
The M1938 Field Cap, or Feldmütze, was issued to all non-commissioned ranks of the German army from 1938 and worn by all branches excluding Gebirgsjäger, Jäger, and Panzertruppen, who preferred their own distinctive headdress. Initially the cap was decorated with an inverted 'V' of Russia braid, mounted to the front, the colour (waffenfarbe) indicating the man's branch (e.g. white for infantry, red for artillery, black for assault pioneers). In July 1942 an older version of the M1938 was re-introduced into service and this cap was distinguished by having two buttons to the front, placed vertically, and upgraded with a combined eagle & swastika and cockade badge, sewn to the upper front. Whilst the popular M1943 Einheitsfeldmütze (Universal Field Cap) entered service mid-war, examples of the M1838 and M1942 caps continued to be seen until 1945.
Officer versions of the M1938 cap were of higher quality cloth and decorated around the crown with silver wire braiding, whilst those worn by generals were decorated with gold braid.