Dear Sirs,

I would like to present for yr attention side
cap what my friend bought on country flea
market in Latvia. I know that officially such caps were not produced by german military industry. But cap looks very truthfully - There is dust in stitching, discoloration of threads and material outside and fresh color inside. It smells like old attic. Of course it is all possible to reproduce. But It has some point what is very diffcult to reproduce artificially in my point of view. The cap has remains of leather sweat band. Leather became dry, hard like a plastic and destroyed.

The other argument in favor of cap - I have
picture of latvian volunteer wearing such cap.
Obviously some local production existed indeed. I can not imagine that enlisted soldier, who can die every hour, was was searching for private tailor to order such cap.

Unfortunately scan was made from book and it is in pdf format. I do not know how to convert image in jepeg. I can send image to interested.

The only thing which is unsertain for me - I do I do not know if zelt material is correct. Pls
help me in this issue.

It is nothing to argue if zelt material is bad.

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This a interesting piece. Officially these don't exist and are received with a lot of scepticism by fellow collectors. I do believe though that these items could have been made, but I have never seen one. So the question: is it real or not, will never be answered.

There's also a picture of Degrelle wearing one in pea pattern

Fred is 'officially' correct... these were not made in the SS-BW system, or via clothing contractor. These could have been made in the field using a zeltbahn; however, to authenticate these you would need a TON OF PROVENANCE... otherwise nobody is going to believe it's real.

Bill

I found pictures of such cap in use in book
"Straume ierautie" published by latvian volunteer.

another

Just because you have found WWII era photos of these being worn, does not automatically mean the piece you have posted is authentic. There were many articles of clothing, particularly camouflaged, that were field-made from other garments or zeltbahns. These are very difficult to prove original and takes considerable provenance.

Bill

The photos prove that such caps were in use. Nothing more. Authenticity is being determined using anoter methods upon examination of each particular item.