Dutch volunteer cap

[C. Kleijn]

I want to show you the only Dutch volunteer visor cap I have ever encountered. The veteran, who is also still alive, served in "Wiking" and "Nederland". He bought this cap in Holland. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of the inside or other detailed close-ups, but it is a great cap in my opinion. Other opinions are most welcome. Hope you enjoy.

Cees

[Gary Wood]

Cees,
nice cap but is the band green?
cheers
gary

[Ludwig]

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Very nice and don´t bother about the green band.

I have seen quite many peaked WSS-caps with green band.
Not uncommon among the Finnish volunteers.

[prorege1]

Same with the Danish W-SS volunteers, they often placed a black band on top of the army-green band. Nice cap!

[Kuifje69]

Dear Cees,

Nice Cap

I understand this cap is not yours (yet)?

Best regards,

Rene

[Olli Wikberg]

Hi all,

Very nice nice cap indeed. As many of us most likely know, not everything was "textbook" during the war As said above, eg. Finnish volunteers used what they could find. It was not easy to find proper uniforms and insignia during the war. Heer caps were widely used, either unaltered or with correct type SS wool band fitted. Same goes with insignia. Nice cap

Regards

Olli

[Dennis S]

I had a NCO Waffen SS Cap I purchased from a vet that had a black type of dye applied to the green band. It wasn't even a real neat job. Good skull and eagle. Unfortunately I sold it because I felt no one would believe it.

[Ludwig]

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Not even the guy who bought it?

[Gary Wood]

While this practice as you say goes on you will have to then understand that collectors scepticism will always be present as at the end of the day they are just army caps with ss insignia applied, and in these cases cast iron province would be needed to support the cap are there any photos of this type in wear? Any more surviving examples to show?

cheers
Gary

[Ludwig]

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Of course there will be more "dutch", "danish" and "finnish" WSS-caps around after this.

[Gary Wood]

Of course there will be more "dutch", "danish" and "finnish" WSS-caps around after this.

Yes i bet there will!

[prorege1]

I don't know if there will be more like this after Cees posted an original cap with a provenance...

The excuse(s) with foreign volunteer material has been there forever, unfortunately. When a dealer/collector/seller cannot explain some sort of odd unknown variation or just a plain fake piece of insignia, helmet, tunic or cap then it's always conveniently described as an exotic "foreign volunteer" variation, so this is not a new occurence.

[Olli Wikberg]

If you look at period photos in various books you can easily recognize how widely SS men (not just volunteers) used items related to other branches of service. This practice was in my opinion more common among foreign volunteers. Look at photos of Estonian or Latvian volunteers for example. But we can't forget that there was a shortage of almost everything during the war almost everywhere in Europe. If a soldier wanted to have a Schirmmütze when going for a home leave, he bought the Heer cap if the correct SS version was not available etc. I have personally heard this story from many veterans, and there are a lot of similar stories. We just have to study the items more carefully as the fakers know this fact also. I know it is not always easy to say if a cap has been altered to SS version during the war or later by a crooked faker/dealer/collector. This makes collecting even more exciting and sometimes risky too. Not everyone has an access to original caps etc. from veterans either.

Kind regards

Olli

[DeMil]

Here in Norway we never find Wehrmacht visor caps converted to SS visor caps.
I know many nice SS visor caps in Norway, both NCO and offisers, but all are normal SS visor caps with the black band.
I have seen some Finish SS visors ex. Wehrmacht.
But way the Norwegian volunteers had more posibilities to buy normal SS visor caps and did not have to buy a Wehrmacht visor cap and put on the SS insignia, I realy do not know.
Some opinions ?

Regards
Derek

[Dennis S]

Not even the guy who bought it?

Your right Lud. If you have a piece that doesn't conform you hate to have to hear it from the peanut gallery.

Ps I missed part of your reply before the edit.