The late war economy Erel, did they exist?

[stonemint]

Here is a late-war Erel that has the logo inked in:

[jacquesf]

Here is my TSD. I am a believer. Jacques

[stonemint]

Nice one, Jacques. I was on the fence with these until I got my Nebel, which showed period wear. The boxed hat just proved my theory.

IMHO, the Allies raided an OKK depot which had a lot of undistributed OKK M-45 Erels, and that is why so many are unissued. Same is true with the late-war quality LVA (LW) visors, most of which appear to be Erel and Halfar.

[jacquesf]

I followed a similar approach and got the TSD to have an in hand look. That convinced me, especially as there is definitely wear on it. The later find with the box also confirmed this believe. I will however from a personal collection preference not pursue the unissued ones. Jacques

[kapitein]

This late war Erel was found in its original shipping box with its cav uniform!

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=568894

I'm convinced !

Kapitein

[stonemint]

Yes, and apparently the capture date was sometime in late '44 , meaning these hats were made prior to '45.

Link to the hat thread:

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=568942

[stonemint]

Ian posted this soldbuch he owns in the M-44 tunic thread. What is notable is that the Soldbuch destroys another urban legend, ie, that visors were not issued after 1944.

To the contrary, this officer candidate was issued his on February 12, 1945:

[stonemint]

A late war Schupo Privat on Ebay right now. Note the visor is not the standard Vulkanfiber, but is of the type used on the last-ditch OKK Erels which are the subject of this thread:

Neither of the logos are inked in. Note the absence of the little perforated vent holes in the sweatband:

[Koguryo9]

Chris,

Would you say this type of caps you posted above preceded the type of caps that Nick used to start this thread? I mean those visor caps with the "rollover" type sweatband and no EREL marking on the sweatband? And when did the small perforated vent holes start disappearing from EREL caps? 1942ish?

[jacquesf]

I think they are definitely earlier than the late war Erel's. Their sweatbands are very typical. Is the visor shown on the latest cap not one of the first pressed paper ones? Jacques

[BaselA]

E-stand cap from this afternoon - definitely fits the bill for one on these. Even has the typical Erel roman numeral size stamp.

[stonemint]

Late-late war Erel Pz on Ebay right now:

& to answer the questions I have received, no, I do not know why the sweatbands have CW 1938 markings--all I can theorize is that these were old stock kept by Erel or purchased from a source when they ran out of (or decided to stop making) their patented sweatbands:

[Koguryo9]

Another Panzer visor, not exactly the kind of late war visors that started the thread, but late enough (late 43-44?)

[stonemint]

Mint late-late war Erel on Ebay right now:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/ws/eBayISAPI....705310207.html

Well, the market has rebounded for these--the above Signals just went for
EUR 638.88 ($830.22)

[stonemint]

Weitze has this unissued M-45 GS/Vet visor for 1600 Euros: