Legion Condor Overseas Cap Insigna

[valsente]

Hello Guys,
I've recently bought this Legion Condor overseas cap which presents a double-tress rank insigna for an Unteroffizier but I'm perplex about the silver star added. Which rank does it indicate?

[airborne_steve]

That looks like a Spanish fieldgrade officers rank for major. Not sure why it would be on a NCO hat?

Steve

[valsente]

That looks like a Spanish fieldgrade officers rank for major. Not sure why it would be on a NCO hat?

Steve

The cap should be a Legion Condor as for the following pics:

[Francisco V.]

Six pointed stars are for officer; eight pointed for senior officers and four for generals.
There are not seven pointed stars in spanish regulation so that rank insignia it is not spanish.
I'd be very cautelous with LC stuff without solid provenance. Cap itself could be good but IMHO most LC garments were made locally; also makes not sense to mark with ink stamp the german maker when german were extremetelly careful to hide his involtment in Spain.
Just my oppinion.
Cheers

[valsente]

Six pointed stars are for officer; eight pointed for senior officers and four for generals.
There are not seven pointed stars in spanish regulation so that rank insignia it is not spanish.
I'd be very cautelous with LC stuff without solid provenance. Cap itself could be good but IMHO most LC garments were made locally; also makes not sense to mark with ink stamp the german maker when german were extremetelly careful to hide his involtment in Spain.
Just my oppinion.
Cheers

Hello Francisco,
thanks a lot for your usefull information. This cap comes from an important and serious US Auction House which offer full warranty for its items. In "Legion Condor" by Roger James Bender, I read that uniform supplies for the Nationalist troops were a problem in the early months of the war since the inland textile factories were all in Republican hands. Major handrick wrote: "They ( the Legion uniform ) were in color and cut similar to the Spanish uniform, but if one met a group of German volunteers, he knew not only from the fecial features and posture, but also from the uniformity of their dress, that they were not Spanish."
It means that the German had arrived in Spain well dressd with German clothes.

[Francisco V.]

Cap

Hello,
I have Bender's book and it is basic, good for starters. First german legionaries came disguised as tourist with not any uniforms, just white suits, surplus from the Olimpic Games of Berlin that had to be wasted since they made to germans more conspicuous when had to keep their secrecy.
Trautloft one of the first germans to arrive in August 1936, tells how he was shot down and bailed out dressed in white tennis attire including shorts pants.
Handrick came much later and they have the chance, with his high pay to buy tailored uniforms.
There was important textile factories in the red Catalonia, but did you see the Nationalist to fight bare nude? Nationalist Army equipped and dressed over one million troops and obviously had no problem to dress a handful of germans. There are a lot of photographic evidence of german wearing the spanish model 1926 tunics or similar but with wooden bottoms, typical of spanish Army. For sure their caps also are of spanish manufacture.
In the other hand, I had the chance to exam genuine german M35 LW helmets left here by LC after the war (they were in use until the 80's when modern kevlar ones were introduced) and surprisingly has not any maker's mark; no dome stamp, no marked liner, no marked aluminium band, and no marks in chinstrap, when in that date all german stuff were profusely marked as per regulation. Is for this, that surprises me that your cap is maker marked. If german ordered garments in Germany I am sure they could take care to not reveal clues...
just my humble oppinion of years collecting LC stuff but I may be wrong...
there are still too much to investigate but common sense makes me raise red flag sometimes.

Cheers

[jacques]

Could it be a RAD overseas cap ? LC members were equipted with such uniform when returned home and to attend the June Berlin parade.

[NickG]

Could it be a RAD overseas cap ? LC members were equipted with such uniform when returned home and to attend the June Berlin parade.

My thoughts exactly! Issued while back in the Reich (for the parade) these would have German stamps...Not sure why it has 7 points on the star...

[Willi Z.]

Hello,
I have Bender's book and it is basic, good for starters. First german legionaries came disguised as tourist with not any uniforms, just white suits, surplus from the Olimpic Games of Berlin that had to be wasted since they made to germans more conspicuous when had to keep their secrecy.
Trautloft one of the first germans to arrive in August 1936, tells how he was shot down and bailed out dressed in white tennis attire including shorts pants.
Handrick came much later and they have the chance, with his high pay to buy tailored uniforms.
There was important textile factories in the red Catalonia, but did you see the Nationalist to fight bare nude? Nationalist Army equipped and dressed over one million troops and obviously had no problem to dress a handful of germans. There are a lot of photographic evidence of german wearing the spanish model 1926 tunics or similar but with wooden bottoms, typical of spanish Army. For sure their caps also are of spanish manufacture.
In the other hand, I had the chance to exam genuine german M35 LW helmets left here by LC after the war (they were in use until the 80's when modern kevlar ones were introduced) and surprisingly has not any maker's mark; no dome stamp, no marked liner, no marked aluminium band, and no marks in chinstrap, when in that date all german stuff were profusely marked as per regulation. Is for this, that surprises me that your cap is maker marked. If german ordered garments in Germany I am sure they could take care to not reveal clues...
just my humble oppinion of years collecting LC stuff but I may be wrong...
there are still too much to investigate but common sense makes me raise red flag sometimes.

Cheers

Very informative post Francisco!

[Scott C.]

Some 8-point Spanish rank insignia for reference...