| Darrell B D Day | 16 Apr 2021 5:29 a.m. PST |
I'm guessing this is a Soviet pilotka, original or repro, I don't know. It has the number 60 inside.
Can anyone narrow down what it may be? Arm of service; ranker; nco; officer etc? Thanks DBDD |
| Oddball | 16 Apr 2021 6:23 a.m. PST |
I've got one that looks like this (although too small to wear), mine is Cold War era standard enlisted man cover. |
Marc33594  | 16 Apr 2021 6:35 a.m. PST |
Uniforms of the Soviet Union 1918-1945 by David Webster & Chris Nelson shows this as an "Armor Troops Officer pilotka or overseas cap dated 1939" The source goes on to state "Colored piping for the respective branches was introduced in 1935. Enlisted personnel didnt have distinctive piping." it also says "For a time NCOs were permitted to wear branch color piping without the cloth star". By the way this is based on my interpretation the color is red. If it is "rasberry" piping instead it would be infantry not armor. Further complicating things a shade of red was artillery! This just looks the most like the photo of the armor officer one to me. |
| John Armatys | 16 Apr 2021 7:20 a.m. PST |
The "60" is almost certainly the size (60cm). My guess is original Soviet cold war era army surplus – there were a lot of them around at arms fairs in the UK in the 1990s. |
| Cuprum2 | 16 Apr 2021 8:59 a.m. PST |
Officer's field cap of the sample in 1935. Red piping suggests that this headdress could have belonged to an officer of artillery, armored forces, or a medical service. But until 1940 officers of armored troops had uniforms from cloth steel-gray. So the chance that this is a tanker's headgear is small. With the outbreak of the war with Germany, colored edging on uniforms was canceled, but previously made items could be used for some time, gradually disappearing.
The number 60 really means the size of the headgear. |
| Marc33594 | 16 Apr 2021 10:38 a.m. PST |
Thanks as always Cuprum. I thought the pattern and all was more correct for WW II period then more modern. This is most probably a reproduction given its excellent shape. |
| Martin Rapier | 16 Apr 2021 11:29 a.m. PST |
That looks very similar to my repro WW2 infantry officers pilotka, albeit with different colour piping. Mine has 58 inside it as that the size of my head. The badge looks suspiciously like a post war one, but that is quite common on repros. |
| Darrell B D Day | 16 Apr 2021 12:02 p.m. PST |
Thanks for the input. DBDD |
| Cuprum2 | 16 Apr 2021 5:53 p.m. PST |
Before the war and during the war, headwear fittings were made of brass, copper or steel sheet. In the post-war period – from aluminum alloys. So it's not so difficult to distinguish))) |
 Legion 4  | 21 Apr 2021 7:10 a.m. PST |
I have one of those as well … but it is too small for me … 🙁 |
