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A.E. F. ‘Trench’ & Overseas Caps


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Photo No. 76: Of interest here, is the fact that Captain Eddie Rickenbacker is wearing British RFC style caps with plain buttons on the left and with regulation U.S. buttons on the right.

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Photo No. 77: Front view of two tailor made British RFC style caps as worn by a soldier in the 26th Infantry Division (left) and by an member of the AEF Air Service (right). Note that the right hand cap’s curtain and buttons were purely ornamental as its curtain was never intended to be folded down.

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Photo No. 78: From left to right: RFC style caps worn by men of the 474th Aero Squadron, Tank Corps, and Motor Transport Corps.

Left hand photo courtesy of the Brennan Gauthier-Portraits of War.wordpress.com collection

Center & right photos courtesy of the John Adam-Graf collection

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Photo No. 79: From left to right: RFC style caps worn by men of the Motor Transport Corps, Knights of Columbus, and 301st Tank Battalion.

Center & right photos courtesy of the John Adam-Graf collection

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Photo No. 80: From left to right: RFC style caps worn by men of the District of Paris, 1st Army, Air Service, and 33rd Infantry Division

Left hand photo courtesy of the Charles Thomas collection

Center photo courtesy of the National WW I Museum

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Photo No. 81: From left to right: RFC style caps worn by men of the 32nd Infantry Division, 301st Tank Battalion, and 1st Army, Air Service.

Right & center photos courtesy of the John Adam-Graf collection

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Photo No. 82: In addition to wearing private purchase trench coats, two of these Red Cross men have donned British RFC style overseas caps.

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Highland Glengarry

At the time of posting, there is no evidence that this pattern of cap was ever worn by AEF personnel

The textbook definition of a Glengarry is that it’s a Scottish cap with straight sides and a creased top that is decorated with a pom-pom and short ribbon-like ‘streamers’ at the back. It is in fact a distant relative of the traditional Highland bonnet that came to be known as the ‘Tam O’Shanter’.

 

The Tam O’ Shanter was a knitted or cloth bonnet decorated with a pom-pom or ‘Toorie’ on top. It was made in just one size and therefore required a ribbon around the brow, which tied at the back, whose purpose was to adjust the cap’s size.

 

Over time, the voluminous Tam O’ Shanter became smaller in size, more formal in appearance, and it sometimes had a diced band. This style of cap was eventually called a ‘Balmoral Bonnet’. Initially, the dicing was the result of a contrasting color of tying ribbon passing in and out of view through the slots of the blue bonnet’s headband.

 

At some point, the Balmoral Bonnet was adopted as the official undress cap for all Highland regiments. It was worn until the mid-19th century when it was replaced by a foldable version of the Balmoral Bonnet. The new folding cap was called a Glengarry.

 

Legend has it that the Glengarry was designed by Alasdair Ranaldson MacDonell as part of the uniform for the Glengarry Fencibles – a Lowland regiment he raised in 1794. Initially the Glengarry Bonnet was worn only by Lowland regiments, but it later became the official undress cap for all Scottish regiments in the British Army when the Balmoral Bonnet went out of fashion.

 

Photo No. 83: From left to right, is the Tam O’ Shanter, Balmoral Bonnet, and the Glengarry Bonnet. Note the red ‘toorie’ can be seen on two of the caps, and the tying ribbon or ‘streamers’ is visible at the rear of the Glengarry.

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Photo No. 84: When war with Germany broke out in 1914, the Scottish Glengarry was still the pride of the British and Canadian Highland regiments. Early in the war the dark blue Glengarry was worn with a red and white diced band that was known as ‘Vandyking’.

 

There is no proof that the early war Glengarry was worn as a trench cap by AEF or USMC personnel during the Great War.

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Photo No. 85: This blue Glengarry Bonnet features the traditional dicing, toorie, and streamers. It also bears the regimental badge of the Gordon Highlanders.

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Photo No. 86: When the nature of combat became such that the colorful pre-war uniforms and headgear were deemed to no longer be practical in the trenches, a ‘drab’ Glengarry Bonnet replaced the blue bonnet with red and white dicing that was worn with pride on the parade ground.

 

This example hails from the Toronto Scottish Battalion which fought on the Western front as part of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces from August 1916 until the cessation of hostilities. The shape and design of the drab Glengarry mirrored that of its red, white, and blue counterpart.

 

Although there’s no proof that the subdued Glengarry was ever worn as a trench cap by members of the AEF, it is possible that it could have been worn by elements of the AEF serving under the command of the British Army.

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Makeshift & Improvised Overseas Caps

Improvised caps were worn by AEF personnel from November 1917 until a regulation Overseas Cap became available in 1918

There’s no way to know for sure whether or not the following examples of makeshift, improvised, provisional or possibly regulation headgear were actually intended to represent either a trench or an overseas cap. However, a handful of photos have turned up showing various caps that may or may not have been worn in place of a trench or overseas cap.

 

If anybody has any thoughts or theories or hard information about any of the following caps, please post it if you do.

 

Photo No. 88: This Fez shaped cap of unknown origin appears to have some sort of ribbon, bow, insignia or growth attached to its front. Why it was worn or what it was intended to be is not known.

 

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Photo No. 89: This photo of an American sentry taken circa 1919, taken in occupied Germany shows another Fez shaped cap that was probably acquired locally.

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Photo No. 90: This Doughboy peeling potatoes is wearing the crown of a campaign hat that has been separated from its brim. Similar campaign hat/skull caps have appeared in other period photos of Doughboys.

 

Photo courtesy of the Charles Thomas collection

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Photo No. 91: This soldier was posted to one of the Army’s Midwestern training camps. He’s wearing olive drab mechanics coveralls and either a makeshift overseas cap or a regulation cap whose purpose is unknown.

 

Photos courtesy of the National World War I Museum

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Photo No. 92: The unusually tall Doughboy in this group of 35th Infantry Division men is wearing an unusual pill box shaped cap. It’s possible that it could be the very plain, first pattern U.S. made overseas cap. It’s also possible that it’s a tailor made cap with an unusual shape.

Photo courtesy of the National WW I Museum

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Photo No. 93: The caps worn by these hospital orderlies loading wounded soldiers into an ambulance are similar in shape and style to the cap worn by the giant in the above photo. Are they U.S. first pattern overseas caps or some sort of hospital orderly’s cap?

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1909 Winter Field Cap

Worn as an improvised Overseas Cap by AEF personnel from November 1917 to 1919

When no overseas cap was available, the 1908, 1909 or 1914, pattern Winter Field Cap was sometimes pressed into service as an improvised overseas cap.

 

The Winter Field Cap, Specification No. 999, was adopted on September 30, 1908 to replace the 1902 Muskrat Fur Cap (Specification No. 824). The cap was made from 7 ½ to 8 ounce to the yard cotton khaki duck (standard shelter tent duck) and was lined with 16-ounce to the yard olive drab kersey wool. Between the outer cotton duck shell and the inner woolen lining, the cap was interlined with 6 ½ ounce to the yard canvas padding. The Winter Field Cap was described thusly in the 1908 dated Quartermaster Corps specifications:

 

Skull cap with extension forming a cape reaching to the shoulders and meting in front, covering the throat, and tying over the chin with two pieces of tape attached to the cap. Visor two and three-eighth inches deep (2 3/8), of the same material sewed on the front of the cap (cape and visor to be worn up or down as desired, with the tape tied across the front of the cap when up).

Office of the Quartermaster General, Specifications for Winter Caps, page 01, September 30, 1908

The tape for tying was made of one-half-inch wide olive drab cotton. The interior of the cap also had a 1 ¼ inch olive drab mohair serge sweatband and a white contract label was stitched onto the cap’s interior lining.

 

A second pattern Winter Field Cap, Specification No. 1047, was adopted on October 9, 1909. The only difference between this cap and the Specification No. 999 cap was that the 6-cord khaki cotton No. 36 thread used on the first pattern cap was substituted with 6-cord khaki cotton No. 70 thread. Otherwise the two caps were identical.

There was a third pattern Winter Field Cap, Specification No. 1215, adopted on September 1, 1914, which at the time of posting I had no information explaining how it differed from its predecessors.

 

Photo No. 94: When the winter field cap was worn as an improvised overseas cap it was reversed and its visor was folded up and secured in that position by means of the tape ties across what was now the back of the cap. Three examples of the winter field cap impersonating the overseas cap are shown from left to right, a Doughboy from the 92nd Infantry Division wearing the winter cap at a welcome home parade in 1919; another sketch drawn by Captain Wallace Morgan depicting the winter cap worn backwards in the AEF, and an unidentified soldier wearing the winter cap back to front.

Right hand photo courtesy of the John Adam-Graf collection

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Photo No. 96: These Doughboys posing with a motorcycle and sidecar at a stateside training camp are all wearing reversed winter field caps.

Photo courtesy of the John Adam-Graf collection

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Photo No. 97: American Doughboys in France practicing their map reading skills with the assistance of a British Tommy, all are wearing the winter field cap as a provisional overseas cap.

Photo courtesy of the John Adam-Graf collection

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Photo No. 99: This squad of Doughboys in training at a stateside cantonment are all wearing improvised winter field-overseas caps.

 

It was suggested that the winter field caps were sometimes reversed at the request of the photographer, as the cap’s visor often obscured or prevented the soldier’s face or faces from being seen.

Photo courtesy of the John Adam-Graf collection

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Photo No. 100: For a period of time the winter field caps were lined with blue woolen material salvaged from obsolete Indian and Spanish American War blankets and service coats. The two colors of dark blue and olive drab woolen lining are shown side by side. At the time of posting it is not known when the practice of utilizing the blue wool lining began or when it ended. I did however; once own a 1913 dated winter field cap with a blue wool lining.

 

Left hand photo courtesy of the Trenchrat collection

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