Camo Cap

[bwanek1]

Well, I guess there's a good argument for and against this idea. I mean, just look at all the different shades of "feldgrau" cloth that was used. Not exactly uniform was it.

No, it was not, but there you are talking about material produced by multiple manufacturers in huge quantities for many different uniform items over a long time period. There were bound to be differences over the years between and within manufacturers' material based on different dye lots, raw materials, etc.

Even with standandard BeVo SS cap insignia, there were large variations in thread material and color. The early artificial silk was later replaced by cheaper cotton and the thread colors varied based on what was available at any given time. However, here, we are talking about insignia which were produced in small numbers for a single uniform item for an extremely brief period. The opportunity for/likelihood of variation is considerably smaller!

[Mark Holden]

If my memory serves me German wartime Industry was a 'cake and arse' party until SPEER gripped it in 1943, until then it was lots of little concerns doing the work in a pretty disfunctional fashion.

Personally I think to much BS is talked about the camo cap, heavily reproduced yes undoubtedly and amply shown on this Forum, but also widely worn and produced during the period. There is too much 'if it ain't like mine its wrong and suggesting just one manufacturer made every cap to exactly the same specs, even the allies could'nt manage that in our uniform production and we won the war!!!! This is the same school of thought that thinks that SS runes are embroidered to a set standard and one grade of wool was used as the backing cloth.

As to no vents on the cap being a 'red flag' many many period pics exist showing the lack of them.

All my humble opinion of course. Personally I see nothing wrong with Martins Cap.


Happy New Year one and All

Mark

...except that these light green ones don't look to me like they are made with green thread; they look to me like they were dyed (uneven color, etc.). Also, you are presuming that during wartime Germany they had stocks of thread of (until that point) unused colors. Lastly, for something which was used so briefly, I would find it not only unlikely that multiple manufacturers had been engaged to produce it, but that they would be so different in color (unlike the Germans to be so ununiform). Still, I can't rule it out.

[Basil]

However, here, we are talking about insignia which were produced in small numbers for a single uniform item for an extremely brief period. The opportunity for/likelihood of variation is considerably smaller!

Although the insignia were only 'official' for a couple of weeks, that doesn't necessarily mean that lots of them weren't produced. If I was ordering insignia, I would try to order a reasonable amount to fulfill present and predictable future needs, and I doubt I would have been able to predict that the insignia would be withdrawn from use after a couple of weeks. There are plenty of examples of SS insignias of various types that were produced in bulk but not worn, or not worn very much: much of the Dachau insignia was never or only rarely seen on actual uniforms. I would agree however that this tends to reduce the possibility of too many batch variations.