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WW2 German helmets, visor hats, M43 hats, overseas hats, Afrikakorps pith helmets, and other German headgear |
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| Waffen SS Dress Fez | |||||
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| 1GH-1. In 1941, Germany successfully subdued the Yugoslavian military; this resulted in the formation of the Independent State of Croatia, which included the province of Bosnia-Herzegovina. As Germany proceeded with operations, on several fronts, as well as the occupation of conquered territories, military manpower became a crucial issue; in 1943 Germany decided to recruit a division of Bosnian Muslims, which ultimately became the 13th Waffen-Gebirgs-Division der SS "Handschar" (kroat. Nr.1), which was predominately made up of Muslims from the Bosnia-Herzegovina region of Croatia. Because the "fez," was traditional Muslim headwear that dated back in history to Bosnian regiments in the Hapsburg Empire, Reichsführer Himmler authorized the "fez," with SS style national eagle and SS skull to be worn by SS Muslim units. This dress uniform example is constructed of a slightly coarse maroon fur felt material; the top center of the fez has a short maroon tassel, through which a black, multi-strand, tassel is attached; on this example, the black tassel is secured directly to the back of the fez by two loops of black thread, which hold the tassel in place. The front of the fez bears a silver-gray SS eagle, with swastika, machine woven on a black background, above a silver-gray SS skull, machine woven on a black background; the insignia are machine stitched using black thread with the proper bright red backing thread. The interior is properly unlined and has a ¾-inch wide, black, textured leather, sweat band machine sewn to the bottom inside edge of the fez. There is as white cloth tag with the number "55" stamped in red, indicating the size; the tag is located on the underside of the sweat band at the joint of the ends of the sweat band. The red felt is in Vg condition and exhibits insignificant age, minor soil toning, as well as light wear to the fabric nap and some insignificant moth tracking that is almost not worth mentioning. The insignia is in excellent condition showing very light age toning. The interior is a little dusty and has some age toning the sweat band heavily aged, worn and some of the black surface finish on the sweat band is worn to tan base leather in some spots; there are some vertical tears in the leather but the band is still all there. The stitching around the edge of the sweat band has come loose in some spots but not enough to be of any problem. The original owner has stitched part of the sweat band using green thread, which can be seen in one of the expanded images. All in all this is a textbook example of an SS fez that actually shows signs of honest age and use. A scarce and very unique piece of WW2 German SS headgear. Vg. $1250.00 SOLD | |||||
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