Please show your Tropical caps

[ReichsHeini]

tropical skull

Yoy Don't see many of these pattern skulls

[ReichsHeini]

eagle

Here is the tropical birdy. Most of the WSS tropical caps either never had an eagle or it was removed. This is an especially nice one too.

[ReichsHeini]

Tropical caps

Here is the lining in khaki. While some of these WSS tropical caps have vents, some have faux ear flaps, some have a dark red lining but all have a central seam sewn through the lining.
Jerry

[Alain]

a KM cap, usually KM caps have green interior, usually ...

[Alain]

from inside
Amicalement - Alain

[Ostmark]

I never wanted a Afrika uniform in my collection, but i have got most of the stuff as a gift, and now i have a complete Africa uniform ...

Here are 2 pics

[Ostmark]

On the sidecap the triangle is removed, you can still see the traces

[Alain]

Bonjour Ostmark

On your sidecap, is it not the trace on a removed pipping we can see on the left?
Amicalement - Alain

[Mark Gibson]

Here is one from my collection, 41 dated and a little salty. Has had the soutache removed as can be seen in the pics.

[Mark Gibson]

Close up of the insignia. A little nick can be seen just to the right of the cockade which is a hole from the removal of the soutache. The same nick on the left side is not visible in this shot.

[Mark Gibson]

interior

[Mark Gibson]

interior markings

[Ostmark]

Bonjour Ostmark

On your sidecap, is it not the trace on a removed pipping we can see on the left?
Amicalement - Alain

Correct ... triangle is the wrong word (my english is not the best , but iam
still learning )

[Ralph Heinz]

Grommets

Mark Gibson's photo of the interior of the grommets and their washers again shows the extreme corrosion seen on caps made by Schlesische in Frankenstein. Every cap I've seen by this maker shows this trait. I have two by this same maker: one bleached completely white and the other very faded olive green. I think the zinc grommets and washers reacted to the harsh soap (lots of lye) used to wash them and/or to the bleaching agent used to bleach some to white and this accounts for the corrosion and pitting.

A few years back, some collectors started the rumor that fakers had taken original grommets out of tropical sidecaps and reinstalled them in fake billed field caps. Don't believe it. When metals are bent under force (when these grommets are "set" using one of several different methods using different types of setters) their crystaline structure is changed, making them more brittle. Zinc is a brittle "pot metal" to begin with. You can't unbend the "prongs" into a perfect circular tube again (so they can be slid back out of the convex washer), then reset them into another cap -- without breaking and marring the metal substantially which would make any attempt to do so very obvious -- it would look like you used a "roto rooter."

On Mark's cap, one of the prongs was broken off when it was originally set or during use -- this is typical of the poor quality zinc alloy used by this maker. Two other major suppliers (Emil Schebeler and Carl Halfar) of these tropical caps during the same year used grommets of a different alloy that didn't corrode nearly as badly and the prongs were set differently curling over in more of a mushroom shape without the long prongs seen on Mark's Schlesische made cap. The point of all this? -- there are legitimate variations because these makers and the suppliers of the raw materials were scattered all over Germany and several occupied countries. Everything isn't exactly alike or "text book" because it came from many varied sources.

Schlesische made caps were coveted by some of the troops because they were not dye fast -- the olive color was more easily bleached white giving the wearer "der alte Hase" look. Also Schlesishe was just one of the makers who tucked the ends of the soutache into slits cut above the stitching line above the bill. Some makers folded the ends of the soutache under the front surface of the caps so that it was then sewn down when the bill was sewn to the cap. Again, this is a legitimate variation just like the fact that some makers sewed two lines of stitching around the bottom edge of the bill and others used two lines.

[Patrick Dempsey]

Superb postings!

Hi all,
this is turning into one of the most informative threads i have had the pleasure to read in quite a while. The information and images being posted are superb.
Thanks for taking the time to post gents .

Patrick.