Documented Genuine Tropical DAK M41 Hat

[markohno]

It seems challenging to find fully documented original German WWII tropical or DAK gear to compare undocumented finds against. So this post of my M41 Tropical hat may be of interest. My father was in the US 63rd Signal Operations Battalion and was among the first US units to enter Vienna Austria in June 1945, after it's capture by Soviet forces April 13. 1945. They initially stayed in the Schlos Cobenzl/ Cobenzl Castle in the 19th district of Vienna for the first couple weeks. He was subsequently on detached service to go back and forth into the Soviet Zone to maintain communications equipment at Tulln airport. On arrival at Cobenzl they found the body of a recently deceased german soldier with field gear in a dormer attic room of the building. My father, currently 88, perfectly remembers taking this German soldier's M41 tropical hat and french compass, before the rest of his gear was rounded up and burned, and his body (which had started to stink) was disposed of. I do wish he had also taken the soldbuch, but he just picked these items up as potentially useful, rather than as souvenir hunting. Cause of death was unclear (but likely starvation or suicide), and the soldier was probably holed up trying to avoid capture by Soviet forces. While the M41 tropical hats are usually attributed to DAK troops, my guess would be that this particular one in 1945 was more related to use of the tropical uniform as authorized summer dress for German troops in southern Italy, and perhaps the soldier was from the displacement of army group C and other German troops from Italy, or was an Austrian soldier in the German army trying to get home. I recall wearing this hat once in a while while playing in the neighborhood. probably around 1963-1965. Only remnants of the leather sweatband remain, but I suspect I removed the cracked bits as a youngster to make the hat more comfortable to wear. Former owner had a small head. I will post a couple groups of reference pictures and would like to hear if members find these useful.

[markohno]

A couple more composite photos of hat construction

Here are some construction details of the hat, No markings inside. If anyone needs to see other details let me know.

[afrikasandman]

awesome cap with rock solid provenance, very cool that your dad picked it up. This one is too late to be a DAK cap, its a 2nd model M40 not a M41 tropical cap. The sweatband was placed on later produced caps, I believe 42 onward (Mark G or NZMARK could confirm this for sure). Likely used Italy, Greece or Southern Russian. There are a ton of pics of soldiers in the Sudfront wearing 2nd and 3rd model tunics in those areas and im sure some of them wore them into France and what not as well. What we refer to as tropical web equipment was widely used in all theaters especially as the war progressed. Either way its a great later cap. Matt

[NZMark]

Matt's correct.
The cap is a late manufacture m40 (NOT m41). With the remains of the sweattband in place (and no evidence of a removed soutache) it dates the cap as no earlier than late 1942, but the cockade & grommets strongly suggest 1943 onwards.
I've owned m40's with sweatband's cut or completely removed to suit the wearer's requirements, and I imagine the oilcloth version to have been quite irritating in wear.
There are abundent period photos of m40's (and tropical uniform) in wear in France and even later in Germany itself during the last phase of the war...
Valuable in an historical context to have the provenance!
Best Regards,
Mark

[barry1954]

Super M40 cap
Barry

[Tim O'Keefe]

Agree with the others. Nice tropical cap but it has nothing to do with the DAK. More of these caps were worn in Russia or the Sud Front then in Afrika.