Field cap
A field cap is a textile military or paramilitary headgear. It is worn by members of almost all armed forces , both in combat operations , when the situation does not seem suitable to wear a helmet (e.g. snipers , tele scouts ), and in any other situation. Some specimens are also suitable for wearing under a steel helmet / combat helmet (e.g. the "Jeep Cap" of the US Army).
In most armies , headgear is part of the full uniform; from what u. a. the "duty to wear a hat" is derived. Field caps are mostly in the same color or camouflage pattern, often made of the same material as the rest of the soldier's clothing. Field caps can be equipped with badges or cockades as well as name tags.
Many field caps are easily z. B. to be stowed in trouser pockets in order to be available to the soldier at any time. In some armies the field cap is worn on the belt (between belt and body).
Prehistory of the military cap
Already in the late antiquity was for the Roman legions forage caps introduced, originally from Illyria originating pillei Pannonici . The Prussian Army introduced the first German field caps in 1808 when it was reorganized. The lower ranks , more rarely the officers, wore them as scratches without an umbrella, the officers often as a visor cap with an oilcloth cover . The German armies, oriented towards Prussia, followed suit. After 1871, the peaked cap and the Prussian kitten were also taken over by the other contingents of the Imperial Army . A modernized version was introduced in 1910, made of field gray fabric. The wide band running around the forehead and the piping on the round edge of the cap were kept in the colors of the armed forces or regimental color. For this purpose, two metal cockades were attached to the front of the hat: the lower one, which was located above the circumferential band, showed the respective national colors, the one above was in the imperial colors black-white-red. The field cap M1910 was only worn behind the lines and only up to the rank of NCO. In 1917 an attempt was made to introduce the field cap in a darker version with a green circumferential band that was uniform for all branches of service, but this was not successful until the end due to the difficult raw material situation.
With the establishment of the Reichswehr, the beret-like imperial headgear disappeared for the troops. Instead, in 1919, the peaked cap, which had previously only been typical for officers, was introduced to the crews.
Most recently, the old visorless caps were handed out in 1938/1939 during exercises from stocks.
history
National Socialism
Not until 1938 was a field cap (M38), the little boat , introduced again. This headgear had its origin in Scotland and was introduced into the US Army in 1918. The gray boat of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS had a circumferential flap, which could be pulled down when the weather was nice. The officer's version had a silver-colored piping in the front area of the cap flap, which swings down there, and on the edge of the lid. A soutache corner was sewn onto the flap over the forehead, which showed the color of the weapon. In addition, there was a metal or embroidered cockade in the imperial colors of black, white and red in the corner. In the Waffen-SS, instead of the cockade, there was a skull and crossbones. The woven sovereign eagle was sewn onto the corner and above the flap. In the front third of the hat there was a ventilation hole ringed with metal above the flap.
On July 21, 1942, the M42 field cap was introduced, which was very similar to the M38 field cap. Instead of the soutache angle, however, two metal buttons had been sewn on to each other,
In the second half of 1943 the M43 uniform field cap was introduced. She was supposed to completely replace the shuttle, but this did not succeed until the end of the war. As a mountain cap , the unit field cap was already in use in a very similar form by the German mountain troops. They had adopted the type of hat from the Austro-Hungarian troops of the First World War. The gray field cap for the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS (black for the Panzerwaffe) had a longer peak and, unlike the mountain cap, no ventilation holes on the side. As with the shuttle, there was a flap that could be knocked down all around and was held together by two metal buttons (or later pressed cardboard). The woven royal eagle was sewn on above the buttons and the imperial cockade underneath. In the SS, the skull was mostly on the front and the sovereign eagle on the left. Simplified forms of the uniform field cap, in which German and Italian camouflage fabrics were used, were already used during the war.
Federal Republic of Germany
Federal Border Guard
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With the establishment of the Federal Border Police (BGS) in 1951, which had combatant status in the event of war until 1994 , the M43 field cap was reintroduced in a dark green version. In addition, they wore simplified field caps in the camouflage material splinter camouflage and a little later swamp camouflage . Hats in the swamp camouflage pattern were made for the BGS until the first half of the 1970s. With the general reform of police uniforms in 1976, camouflage patterns disappeared from the holdings of the BGS and the field caps still worn were given the lighter shade of green that is still used today.
armed forces
When the Bundeswehr was founded in 1955, in addition to the uniform field cap, officially the olive work cap, the boat was also reactivated in a form with pull-down protection against the cold for the combat suit -melted hunting suit. With the introduction of the moleskin suit (stone gray) as a work and field suit in the mid-sixties, a boat was also provided, but this was mostly only worn by the ranks of the crew; NCOs and officers wore service boats and later berets.
The “Austrian” field cap has been the standard headgear for field suits since 1990 in five-color flecktarn . But you can z. B. be replaced by the beret when starting . Today, in contrast to the field cap, this is also worn with the service suit. Only in the Luftwaffe has the blue boat and in the mountain troops the mountain cap for their service suit.
When working abroad in southern countries, the field cap is often replaced by the bush hat .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thomas Fischer : The Roman army in the time of the tetrarchy. An army between innovation and continuity? In: The Tetrarchy. A new system of government and its media presentation (2006), p. 124 ff. And p. 130.