WWII RAF Visor - Favorite Piece

[Jim Maclean]

This thread cracks me up! What on earth is a crusher cap?

I spent 10 years of my life in the R.N. standing underneath a peaked cap and never heard of a crusher cap. If it means it can be squeezed as you show then we wear nothing else.

Absolute fantasy I'm afraid, the only thing we ever did was to remove or shorten the stiffening grommet.

[LeeG]

Hi Jim,
A 'crusher cap' is a style of cap privately purchased by officers of the US Army Air Force during World War II. It is slang for a cap made by makers like Bancroft, Dobbs or Luxenberg and was a modification of the standard US Army officer's cap in that it could be easily rolled up and put away in your pocket, or wherever, hence the 'crusher' term. The construction included a thin leather visor that was easily rolled and a collapsable band.

So, you might ask, is this the only source of so-called crushers? Why no, in fact the Wehrmacht issued the famous Alter-art cap which followed a long tradition of crushable visor caps for German officers going back to the Great War. These Alter-art caps went out of official use early in the war, but were extremely popular and in demand amongst German officers (especially SS officers) later in the war as it gave a jaunty veteran look. In fact, the crusher look was so popular amongst US and German personnel that standard issue visors were very often 'crushed' to mimic the beloved USAAF and Alterart caps.

This brings us to the subject of this particular thread. Apparently the love of a crushed visor was not limited to German and American personnel. It seems that in the Royal Air Force (the first posted cap) and even in the Royal Navy (my post) officers enjoyed that 'crushed' look. This love seems to have even gone so far as to have encouraged the private sale of almost certainly unofficial Bancroft-USAAF-style crushable caps complete with thin leather visor and collapsable band as illustrated in one of my other posted caps.

So that is the crusher story and its relation to the Royal Navy.
Best regards,
Lee

P.S. I would like to add that during the Great War, the British may have had one of the earliest forms of a 'crusher' with the standard 1917 'trench cap' issued to all NCO and OR troops replacing the stiff standard visors of 1914.

[LeeG]

a Bancroft USAAF crusher...

[LeeG]

a Wehrmacht alter art ...

[LeeG]

a Great War crushable trench cap

[LeeG]

and, yes, a truly Royal Navy, truly crushable cap --

[vicjoy1945]

Hey Guys !!

Beautiful visor caps !!

Vic

[crushercap17]

Lee,
Those are some great caps! I've got a penchant from USAAF crushers, hence my userID, and that Air Corps crusher you've got is beautiful!


Beau

[Jim Maclean]

and, yes, a truly Royal Navy, truly crushable cap --

Old thread but that cap is totally wrong.