German Army Forestry NCO/EM's Visored Field Cap M43
CATEGORY: Version
SKU: 20.GOR.01.01.03.04.003.000
Estimated market value:
Estimated market value:
Forstschutz (Forestry Protection) M43 field cap, constructed of smooth field-grey wool. The cap features fold-down panels providing neck protection which, when not to use, are secured to the cap by two dark green bakelite buttons on the left flap meeting reinforced buttonholes on the right flap. Pinned into the peak of the cap is a Reichsadler-style German national eagle clutching a wreathed mobile swastika, constructed of silvered bronze and measuring 55 cm (w) x 35 mm (h). Underneath the eagle sits a tri-colour cockade with a red felt centerpiece, measuring 22 mm in diameter. The cap features a protruding visor with cardboard reinforcement, with the obverse constructed of forest green wool, bands of which also adorn the top and bottom of the cap and panels. The interior features a 40 mm-wide brown leather sweatband securely held in place by a row of machine stitching. The interior also features a complete, padded, grey rayon liner stitched in a diamond pattern. The cap is unmarked and measures 155 mm (w) x 283 mm (l) x 135 mm (h). The visor reinforcement has a single crack, and there is some soiling evident to the sweatband, but the cap is in an otherwise extremely fine condition.
The Visored Field Cap M43 was introduced on June 11, 1943 and became the standard cap for all troops. It was also known as the Einheitsfeldmütze (standard field cap). The cut is the same as that of the “Bergmütze” (mountain cap), albeit with a longer visor, and it has the same design for flaps, which are affixed by two buttons at the front and could be lowered to cover the face in the form of a balaclava.
The cap was made of cotton and cellulose fibre, but in comparison to the earlier field cap model it was made of 70 to 90 percent cellulose fibre, making the material more coarse. On occasion this cap will have ventilations holes, just like the earlier models, but most were produced without any due to easier fabrication.
Enlisted men and NCOs wore no piping on their caps. Piping was silver-coloured for army and administrative officers, and gold-coloured for general ranks and administrative equivalents.
The buttons were grey for enlisted men and NCOs, made of pebbled aluminum for officers, and gilt for generals.
The embroidered insignia, the red, white, and black cockade in a wreath of oak leaves and the national eagle above it, usually came on a one-piece grey-green trapezium. It was made with silver-coloured wire for officer ranks.
The versions will significantly differ in weight depending on climate and local conditions.
The term M(odel) 43 has been given to this piece of headgear by collectors and has no official character.
Caps worn by forestry personnel were like the standard caps in most ways, however NCO/EMs wore them with dark green piping. Forestry officials with the ranks of Forstbeamte through Landforstmeister wore silver-grey piping, and beginning with the rank of Oberlandforstmeister piping was golden-yellow.
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