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WW2 Khaki Crusher cap ?


Squale69
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I believe like I stated before that the number under the bill is a “laundry number” or at least in the sense it’s used as an identifier for the person it belonged to.  I’m also sticking with what I said about it being real and WWII issue.  For an officer’s cap, yes often times it does have an identifying number beginning with the “O-“ number.  That said, I’ve also seen some officer items where they marked an identifying number or laundry number just like most enlisted men did, using the first letter of their last name and the last four digits of their officer service number.

 

Like dmar836 stated, “it’s possible the cap could’ve belonged to an enlisted man and the officer’s eagle added later by collector.”.  Also, like P-59A stated, “once an enlisted man graduates from the aviation cadet program his enlisted number is replaced by his officer number.”.   

 

P59-A stated that “Guys marked their stuff for a number of reasons.  They call it a laundry number for a reason.  They also used the number to keep track of their gear.”, which is true.  He further stated the numbers are not the same, which is true.

 

AustinO stated, “RE the laundry number, since it’s an officer’s cap, it would not be searchable.”.  That is not entirely true.

 

I was able to search all Air Corps officer numbers for anyone with a last name beginning with a “C” and whose officer number ended in “1267”.  There were two candidates I was able to come up with.  Their names and number are below.  What’s really interesting about these two officers is they were both shot down and both of them became prisoners of war.  What’s even stranger, and more so, coincidental, is the fact they both appear to be taken to the same POW camp, that is, Stalag Luft 3 Sagan-Silesia Bavaria (Moved to Nuremberg-Langwasser) 49-11, and they both spent time there until liberated.  Oliver was taken prisoner on July 10, 1943 and Chester was taken prisoner on March 22, 1944.  Oliver was liberated on May 19, 1945 and Chester was liberated on June 1, 1945, some 13 days after Oliver.

 

In any case I believe the officer’s cap belonged to one of these two servicemen.  From here I don’t know how you would exactly be able to tell which one the cap belonged to.  In either case, since it’s most likely the cap belonged to one of these persons, both of whom were POW’s, that may add value to the cap, although I’ll leave it to whomever to decide how much value.

 

I’m going to post what information I’ve found on these beginning with Oliver, then Chester.

 

This has been an interesting discussion and I appreciate everyone’s comments as I believe all of it helps solve the mysteries of items such as these.  Thanks…Matt

 

 

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