Germany, Heer. A Rare Armoured Cavalry/Reconnaissance Officer’s Visor Cap With Schwedter Eagle Tradition Badge, By Erel

(Schirmmütze für Offizier der Aufklärung/Kavallerie). A rare and high quality visor cap for an Armoured Cavalry/Reconnaissance Officer, constructed of field-grey wool. The cap features reinforced side walls, fully lined on the exterior with a dark green doeskin wool cap band. The top and bottom edges of the cap band are trimmed with golden-yellow wool piping, with an identical band of identical piping fully surrounding the crown. Pinned onto the peak of the cap is an insignia consisting of an aluminum Wehrmacht eagle clutching a wreathed mobile swastika. Measuring 65 mm (w) x 28 mm (h), the eagle retains both of its reverse attachment prongs. Pinned onto the cap just underneath the eagle is a bronze Schwedter Eagle insignia, consisting of a Prussian-style imperial eagle clutching a sword and sceptre, overlaid by a banner bearing a raised inscription of “MIT GOTT FUER KOENIG UND VATERLAND” (“WITH GOD FOR KING AND FATHERLAND”). Measuring 25 mm (w) x 25 mm (h), the badge is secured in place with dual reverse attachment prongs. Just underneath the tradition badge is a tricolour cockade constructed of a blackened and silver non-ferrous metal base with a red magnetic metal mesh centrepiece. The cockade is surrounded by an aluminum oak leaf wreath, with the insignia measuring 70 mm (w) x 45 mm (h). Each side of the cap band bears a pebbled magnetic metal button, securing in place a decorative chinstrap constructed of multiple rows of twisted and rolled silver aluminum wire. The chinstrap is adjusted with dual sliding knots of identical construction and rests upon a protruding black vulcanfibre visor, finished in a glossed black on the obverse and in a matte light brown on the reverse. A 50 mm-wide sweatband fully lines the circumference of the interior, and is perforated with an array of ventilation holes near the forehead. A golden-brown rayon liner encompasses the interior, with an intact transparent plastic moisture guard stitched onto the crown. Dual “EREL” maker marks are located on the interior, with an embossed mark on the left side of the sweatband, and a second silvered mark set underneath the moisture guard. The cap measures approximately 245 mm (w) x 165 mm (l) x 172 mm (h). Minor signs of material fatigue are evident to the visor and outer rim of the crown wool, but this rare and high quality cap is in an overall extremely fine condition.

Footnote: The Schwedter Eagle tradition badge traces its origins to 1815, when the insignia was awarded to 1. Brandenburgisches Dragoner-Regiment Nr. 2, garrisoned in the town of Schwedt in the Brandenburg region. Units of both 6. Kavallerie-Regiment and Kradschützen-Bataillon 3 were located in Schwedt at the outbreak of the Second World War, and continued the tradition of wearing the badge on personnel headgear. 6. Kavallerie-Regiment was transformed into a number of different units between 1939 and 1940, becoming a fully mobilized armoured reconnaissance unit, and included Aufklärungs-Abteilung 33, 34, 36, and 79. Notably, 33 served in the African theatre, while 34 was effectively destroyed in combat in 1944 in the Belarusian SSR.