Dak m40 rifle regiment

[msteve21]

Robert Lubstein DAK M40 cap for Rifle Regiment. The green eyelets possible dates it as either 1940 or 41 manufactured. Came across it, on display in a regional Victorian museum (Australia) last week.

Attributed to the Australian Vet who acquired it from a German POW. Going by the condition of the cap, the German looks to been captured the day he landed in Afrika

MSteve

[BenVK]

Cigarettes are expensive these days but I'll gladly swop a packet of mine for this cap.

[RGD51]

Gorgeous Lubie in green twill..... aint it pretty. Thanks for the look!

Robt.

[OSS]

Beautiful cap, the soutache seems to be Reseda green, a variant green Waffenfarbe with a blue/grayish tinge.

[Tim O'Keefe]

One look cap even from these photos with the poor lighting. IF the POW left Tobruk he could have been part of the 8th MG Bn that was almost wiped out April 13/14 Easter weekend 1941 & had only been in Afrika a couple months. They wore a similar green which i would define as weisengrun the shade used by the early Krag/Schutzen units. My understanding is reseda is more a lime green, ala the PzGr units later. Though it can be found on 1940 dated caps. Of course it's just as possible the cap was found in a depot originally...

Thanks for posting

[nzef1940]

Very interesting and thanks for posting.

[OSS]

One look cap even from these photos with the poor lighting. IF the POW left Tobruk he could have been part of the 8th MG Bn that was almost wiped out April 13/14 Easter weekend 1941 & had only been in Afrika a couple months. They wore a similar green which i would define as weisengrun the shade used by the early Krag/Schutzen units. My understanding is reseda is more a lime green, ala the PzGr units later. Though it can be found on 1940 dated caps. Of course it's just as possible the cap was found in a depot originally...

Thanks for posting

Google "Reseda" green, they will show you the color of this soutache.

[Tim O'Keefe]

Interesting source this "google". Was using Dal's book "RAA" as a source. As google has the correct shade, we know the Herr sometimes had a different perspective. For instance hellgrun (light green) was darker in shade than weisengrun or reseda.
Perhaps it was mixed up in translation

The lighting distorts the color of the soutache in the photos imo.

This document captured by the Allies may shed some light on the subject.
Though the Germans changing the name of the green used by the Rifle/PzGr units three times doesn't help.

[msteve21]

Dak m40

Here another Rifle Regiment cap that's on display at Cairns Tank Museum, Queensland , Australia. Veteran war souvenir, classic DAK cap with lots of character

I'm visiting the museum tomorrow and will take some better photos. Unfortunately the one below is displayed in a persplex box with not the best lighting for taking photos. However the soutache is same colour as the one from Cairns
Msteve

[Tim O'Keefe]

Yes thats the one. Thanks for posting and look forwards to more photos

[90th Light]

I love the caps shown here on display in Australian museums Finding such a cap in a museum is a real highlight of any trip to such a venue

When comes to green soutaches, we have the best research in the world on this subject right here on WAF;

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...t=Reseda+green


A direct quote from this link;

"Through my research I eventually learnt that this light green (hellgrün) while still in the process of being introduced was itself about to be replaced by the much lighter lime green (resedagrün) at the time in 1940 when the first tropical uniforms were being manufactured for the DAK. The evidence for a change over at this time is to be found in the mix of greens on the tropical uniforms issued in 1941, whether made in 1940 or in 1941. I understand from German sources that the decision to replace the hellgrün with resedagrün came about because of the rapid expansion of the Panzerwaffe in 1939/1940 and the consequent need to recognise the Schützenregimenter as an arm of service in their own right.

During the mid-1980s while I was still working on finishing “RAinA” it was unclear in my own mind just who in the DAK wore which green colour piping on their caps and shoulder straps. I did not understand the reason for the existence of two distinct shades of green on caps and shoulder straps. I was looking for some organisational niceties around this confusing situation. The few reference books I had access to ion the mid-1980s did not offer any explanation for this puzzle that tallied with the evidence I had of two shades of green Waffenfarbe. I could extend that figure to three shades if I were to include grass green or wiessengrün, a different colour I had found on a couple of caps and shoulder straps that seemed to fall between the other two shades of green piping. How could I explain the presence of two (or even three) shades of green piping? (I have assumed that the grass green shade may have been issued to members of Motorcycle Battalion 15 but I have not been able to tie any examples I found to a battlefield connection with that unit.)"


Thus we have;

1/ light green (hellgrün)
2/ lighter lime green (resedagrün)
3/ grass green (wiessengrün)

All explained in the above link

Chris

[RGD51]

Here another Rifle Regiment cap that's on display at Cairns Tank Museum, Queensland , Australia. Veteran war souvenir, classic DAK cap with lots of character

I'm visiting the museum tomorrow and will take some better photos. Unfortunately the one below is displayed in a persplex box with not the best lighting for taking photos. However the soutache is same colour as the one from Cairns
Msteve

Looks like a Schlesische Frankenstein in tan.

Robt.

[Larry F.]

Fantastic examples!

Here's another: https://virtualgrenadier.com/sale_item.php?iid=5944

NOTE: To be fair to membership, this is my cap and is currently being sold by Virtual Grenadier. Moderator, if posting this is in violation of forum rules, please remove my post. Thank you.

Larry

[msteve21]

M40 dak

Love your cap Barry, if I win the lottery, it's the first thing I would buy

Called in to the Cairns tank Museum today, they very kindly removed the cap from the display cabinet so I could get some better photos. Nice surprise to see a period repair to the rear of the cap.

Robt, your are correct, its a 41 dated a Schlesische Frankenstein in tan.

First photo is it sitting on the only remaining example of a Panzer 1V AUSF E

Thx Chris for the link, very informative

MSteve

[kammo man]

Thats great that the museum let the cap be handled and placed on the Panzer.
Very sporting of them.