Germany, Heer. A Tropical EM/NCO’s M35 Overseas Cap, by Hans Brandt

(Heer Schiffchen M35 für Mannschaften). A well-preserved Heer EM/NCO’s tropical M35 overseas cap, constructed of olive-drab cotton cloth. It is fully surrounded by fold-down side walls which slop downward toward the front. The crown is flanked on each side by a ventilation hole which is reinforced with a light brown painted metal grommet. Stitched onto the peak is an insignia consisting of a brown rayon backer bearing a machine-embroidered silver-grey Wehrmacht eagle clutching a wreathed mobile swastika, measuring 70 mm (w) x 25 mm (h). Directly below the eagle, the lower front features an additional insignia in the form of light brown rayon backer bearing a machine-embroidered tri-colour cockade, measuring 30 mm (w) x 30 mm (h). The cockade is surrounded by a postwar-applied red rayon soutache, indicating distribution to Flak/Artillery personnel. A multi-piece red cotton liner fully encompasses the interior, while the crown is stamped with a maker’s mark of “HANS BRANDT, MÜTZENFABRIK, MAGDEBURG”, topped by a size mark of “57” and situated above a manufacture date of “842” (August 1942). The cap measures approximately 27 cm (l) x 11 cm (h) when folded on a flat surface. It demonstrates some issues consistent with age and modification, including the loss of frontal stabilizing stitching owing to addition of the soutache, as well as some soiling of the base material. This cap, retrieved from the infamous Austrian “beehive hoard” of surplus Wehrmacht tropical headgear in the 1970s, remains in a near extremely fine condition.