Question on the field cap

[Axel]

I personally have not yet been to the bundeswehr and am highly curious as to the significance of the stripes/rank marks on the back of this field cap:



If anyone might know if this is German tradition, when this began for the German military or its possible meaning this would be exceedingly helpful to me.
Thank you

[Collectinsteve]

I've not seen anything like that before, however a friend of mine in the DSO said that when they were in Afghanistan they got rid of the shoulder rank and put metal Dienstanzug rank on their collars. They did this to reduce the chances of a sniper identifying targets by rank.

Sorry I can't be of more help!

Steve

[steve 82]

The removal of rank from the shoulders is commonplace in some other armies also. In such circumstances, marking the rear of caps provides a practical way of distinguishing between troops when they are facing away from you.

Steve 82

[Towarish]

I personally have not yet been to the bundeswehr and am highly curious as to the significance of the stripes/rank marks on the back of this field cap:

Its quite common for NCO's and EM's to have their rank on the fieldcap.
I used to have my "stripes" on my cap as well.

[Gordon Craig]

Axel,

Interesting picture and new information to me. I could have looked at that same picture for some time without seeing those small stripes.

Regards,

Gordon

[allen]

US Army personnel used to sew "cat eyes" on the back of their field caps but I've never seen rank on the back - only on the front. Maybe it's just this guy's thing?

As an adjunct to Collectinsteve's post, the Russians did the same thing when they were in Afghanistan, for the same reason.

[Towarish]

US Army personnel used to sew "cat eyes" on the back of their field caps

In the German Army its pretty common around basic training units to sew cat eyes on the caps and other gear (rucksacks, suspension system, helmet cover)

[Alesandro]

Hi,

i´ve seen this often in my BW time.

If you wear a Splitterschutzweste or a Bristol no one can see your rank, same problem from looking behind. A german seargent or officer will always leed his group/ platton in front of them and his soldiers can see the rank only this way.

In my KFOR time I wear my rank in american style at the back of the fieldcap, for the other Nato Soldiers - nobody knows the german ranking system, but all know the american rankings.

But this is nothing official in german army - it´s just toleratet.

[hoover]

Yes, that´s like we did in the early 90´s. During international excercises we wore the German rank badges and the ranks from the countries we were, like Norway, the Netherlands, France, Belgium etc.

Also I wore the old flat rank badges (Oberfeldwebel then) out of the 50´s on my cap. It was a sort of tradition.

[Axel]

Very interesting suggestions. Thank you all for the insightful replies ^^

[uscob]

In the German Army its pretty common around basic training units to sew cat eyes on the caps and other gear (rucksacks, suspension system, helmet cover)

I had lots of equipment marked with Cat eye style duckt tape. Not easy to clean it.

[uscob]

Hi,

i´ve seen this often in my BW time.

If you wear a Splitterschutzweste or a Bristol no one can see your rank, same problem from looking behind. A german seargent or officer will always leed his group/ platton in front of them and his soldiers can see the rank only this way.

In my KFOR time I wear my rank in american style at the back of the fieldcap, for the other Nato Soldiers - nobody knows the german ranking system, but all know the american rankings.

But this is nothing official in german army - it´s just toleratet.

My friend told me that in kosovo they switched over to wear additional US ranks to prevent confusion as the Americans allways thought that a OG is a Captain because of his stripes.