Original German WWII Heer Military Police or Recruiting EM/NCO Visor Crush Cap by Willy Sprengpfeil – dated 1940 Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. This is a very good condition German WWII EM/NCO Infantry 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 wool with a forest green band and a traditional high front, with matching Orange-gelb (Orange-yellow) piping along the top edge and flanking either side of the band. This is the Waffenfarbe (corps color) used by both Feldgendarmerie Military Police as well as Recruiting and replacement (Wehrersatzwesen) troops.

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 visor / peak on this cap is black-finished single piece leather, or possibly pressed paper, and does not have any stitched vorder.

The cap is lined with tan light satin fabric and still has the original celluloid diamond. The manufacture date and maker name are still fully visible around a logo under the diamond.

1940
Nordd. Uniform-Mützen-Fabrik
Willy Sprengpfeil. Hamburg .19

“Nordd.” almost certainly is short for Norddeutsche, so the company name would be “North German Uniform Hat Factory Willy Sprengpfeil”.

The brown leather sweatband is present, and is in great shape, with just light staining and wear. The cap seems to be about a size 56, and does not look to have been worn much. Unfortunately the stitching holding the black fabric band that the sweatband is attached to onto the cap is missing on the left side, having deteriorated.

Overall condition simply shows light service wear. There is no major mothing or other issues to note. This is a very nice, high quality German Heer EM/NCO 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.