Original Item: Only One Available. This is a great example of a Luftwaffe Engineer Corps M43 Einheitsmütze Wool field cap, with a great lightly worn look. The cap is constructed of blue/grey Luftwaffe Fliegerblau (Flyer's Blue) wool, and has the correct "fold down" skirt for colder weather. It features two pebbled aluminum buckles to the front, securing the skirt, which in general was rarely folded down.

The peak of the cap has a very nice embroidered cap eagle sewn on, though no cockade, as this would be covered by the skirt. There is piping around the top of the cap, the correct schwarz (black) Waffenfarbe (Corps Color) for Baupioniere and Luftwaffen-Pioniere (Construction & Luftwaffe Engineer Corps).

The interior of cap is blue gray cotton, which is standard for this type of cap. It has light sweat stains around the edge, and a blue leather forehead pad in the front. There is also a great name tag sewn to the top, which reads 𝕳𝖔𝖗𝖘𝖙 𝕬𝖕𝖎𝖙𝖟 - Horst Apitz in German Fraktur Typeface. The visor is still in good condition, though the cardboard stiffener definitely has become quite rippled.

The exterior is in great shape, and still has all of the fuzzy "nap" of the worsted wool weave. It has faded/aged a bit, which can be seen when folding down the skirt, but it is still in great shape. Ready to display!

The M43 Einheitsmütze (Unit Cap) is a variety of "Ski Cap" and was based on the Bergmütze (Mountain Hat) used by Austrian and German Gebirgsjäger (Mountain Troops) during WWI. Germany had adopted it in 1915, and after the war it spread throughout the military.

The skirt that surrounds the cap is made in the same wool as the cap, and can be folded down over the ears, though this was rarely done outside of the Mountain troops, which had a double-thickness skirt. The skirt has a small dip in the front quarter with a divide secured by one aluminum button which is covered by an embroidered cockade. The small section in the front quarter was built shorter to show the insignia, and cover the wearer's chin or mouth, without disturbing breathing by covering the nose. There were also later M43 caps, such as those used by the DAK, that omitted the skirt entirely, as it had little use in the desert heat.