Original German WWII Army Heer Artillery EM/NCO Schirmmütze Visor Crush Cap – Size 55 1/2 Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. This is a fantastic condition German WWII Heer Army Artillery EM/NCO Schirmmütze Visor Cap, with a lovely “Crushed” shape. This “saddle-form” shape is highly desirable, and later in the war caps were made without stiffeners, so they would have this shape from the start. The cap shows high quality fabrication, made with typical Heer army feldgrau (Field Gray) green / gray “whipcord” wool with a forest green “badge coth” band and a traditional high front.

The visor cap has matching Hochrot (Deep Red) piping along the top edge and flanking either side of the band, the Corps Color (Waffenfarbe) for Artillery, as well as General Level Officers. As this is an EM/NCO cap, this is definitely for an Artillery, Assault Gun, or Heavy Flak soldier.

It is decorated with a well detailed BeVo style silvered aluminum eagle insignia on the peak and and an open silver BeVo embroidered wreath surrounding a tri-color cockade on the band. The cap does not have a chin strap, and there is no indication that it was made with one. As the chin straps were not really used, they were omitted sometimes, especially on the EM/NCO versions, which did not need the bullion strap to denote officer rank. The vulcanfibre visor has a smooth black leather-look upper, exhibiting minimal wear along the edge and is brown on the underside.

The inside of the cap is lined with cream colored sheer fabric, most likely rayon or another type of faux silk. There are traces of the stitch marks for a sweat shield on the top, however the plastic shield is completely gone, as is the stitching. The tan leather sweatband is in good supple condition and is unmarked, showing only light wear. There is just a bit of seam pulling on the front.

Condition is very good to excellent, with the main issue being the missing sweat shield. The rest of the cap is great, with the expected patina of age. The colors are vibrant, there is no major moth we can see, and there is little to no wear on the exterior.

This is a very nice, high quality German Heer EM/NCO Artillery peak visor cap, offered for sale in very good condition with a beautiful saddle-form shape. Ready to display!

The visor cap (Schirmmütze) was an important part of the headgear worn by German uniformed military, civil, paramilitary and political organizations during the Third Reich. This was the standard cloth headgear worn as a part of the service uniform. Visor caps were worn outdoors as well as indoors, and were often required to be worn by all personnel on duty. Visor caps were made in versions specific to each organization and were often further differentiated through the use of insignia, colored piping, or style of chin cord, to indicate rank, role or branch. The insignia used on these caps ranged from simple stamped metal emblems, to elaborate hand embroidery. Visor caps were issued to enlisted soldiers and NCOs in the military and in some other organizations. Officers had to purchase their own hats, and lower ranks could choose to purchase caps that were of a higher quality than the rather basic, issue examples. The private purchase caps were generally made in very high quality, with fine materials. A wide variety of fabrics were used, from Trikot and doeskin, to heavy wool, or even lightweight white fabric for summer wear. In the military, issue of these caps was generally suspended shortly after the outbreak of the war, but they continued to be worn by some troops until the end of the war.