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https://www.collectrussia.com/DISPITEMWINDOW.HTM?item=39918
Item# 39918   $1,200.00  Add to cart   Show All Images   Download PDF
Artillery Officer Pilotka Side Cap, dated 1938.

In napped olive-green wool with red piping. Black cloth star at the front designates the branch as artillery. The wool material of the cap is of distinct pre-WW2 - early-WW2 type, very tightly woven with just a slight nap. The sweat band in thin rubberized canvas is also of a characteristically early kind.

The cotton liner shows a stamp of the workshop in the city of Kharkov named "In Honor of the 13th Anniversary of the October Revolution" with a size 54 (approx. US Size 6 ¾ / Small). Next to the maker's stamp is a faint but fully legible quality control stamp showing th

In napped olive-green wool with red piping. Black cloth star at the front designates the branch as artillery. The wool material of the cap is of distinct pre-WW2 - early-WW2 type, very tightly woven with just a slight nap. The sweat band in thin rubberized canvas is also of a characteristically early kind.

The cotton liner shows a stamp of the workshop in the city of Kharkov named "In Honor of the 13th Anniversary of the October Revolution" with a size 54 (approx. US Size 6 ¾ / Small). Next to the maker's stamp is a faint but fully legible quality control stamp showing the 13 / IV (April 13th) 1938 date of manufacture.

The cap is in outstanding, excellent condition - almost unheard of for the Red Army headgear of pre-WW2 vintage. The wool exterior is exceptionally well-preserved. There are no moth holes or bites to the olive-green wool - in and of itself a very unusual case - just the slightest moth tracks to the nap that can be found only at very close inspection. There are some small moth nips to the red piping that are visible only at close inspection when the top is unfolded and are completely hidden from view when the hat is displayed. Both the interior and exterior are very clean, free of the usual sweat stains or significant soiling. The sweat band is not overly dry and shows only a modest amount of wear.

Hats of this type were worn by the Red Army officer cadres who bore the brunt of the Barbarossa offensive in the first months of the Patriotic War. Relatively few of them survived the German onslaught, and only a tiny fraction of their field uniforms can be found today. Any such uniforms are very rare, but to see an original 1938-dated Soviet side cap made of wool in as great a condition as the example offered here is practically unheard of. This piece represents a unique opportunity for the advanced WW2 militaria collector.
$1,200.00  Add to cart