Hitler Youth HJ summer caps - when were the cloth eagle and the cloth diamond introduced?

crack

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Hi guys, just hoping someone can answer this one for me. When was the cloth eagle introduced on these caps? I seem to remeber that it was rank-related ie only those with (or above) a certain rank were allowed to wear it? Also, when was the metal diamond on the cap replaced by the cloth version?
 
Hi crack,

Just a bit of background on these caps: the HJ-Sommermütze was introduced on the 10th of Feb 1936. At that time they were known as the 'HJ-Lagermütze' and they were intended for use by HJ units/groups during tented camps or stays at youth hostels. They were not permitted for wear at any other time other than by leaders attending tented leadership courses. The caps only came in one configuration at that time i.e. there was no special colour designating the Oberbann or indeed Flieger-HJ, Nachrichten-HJ etc so all of these caps had red (Hochrot) cords. The material used for the cap was "Hemdenstoff" so, shirt material. The caps all had cloth eagles and a metal diamond. The designation had changed from HJ-Lagermütze to HJ-Sommermütze by July 1937 when the DJ began to wear them after the black DJ cap (DJ-Schiffchen) was discontinued.

The HJ-Sommermütze is mentioned again in Amtliches Nachrichtenblatt Sonderdruck 7/38 dated 30.9.1938 which reconfirms that the cloth eagle was to be worn on the caps of HJ members with no rank and also those in the lower HJ leadership. However, I see a note in the regulations (appears to be from 1939) stating that only lower leaders wore the cloth eagle (rank range: HJ-Rottenführer (DJ-Hordenführer) to HJ-Oberscharführer (DJ-Oberjungzugführer). We do see summer caps with unpicked eagles from time to time and this change may well be the reason for that i.e. a boy with no rank would have had to unpick the eagle in order to comply with the later regulation.

Cloth diamond replaces metal HJ cap badge: Reichsbefehl RJF 42K dated 17.5.1940 is shown in brackets after a line stating that the diamond was now the cloth type but as I don't have that Reichsbefehl I can only assume that this was the date on which the cloth diamond was introduced. Edit: see post 4 below - cloth diamond in use from Jan 1940.
 
Wow, thanks very much for the in-depth answer Garry. All is clear now
 
Thanks Wilhelm. You guys are so exact, I'd have been happy with just the year :)

Thanks again to both of you!
 
I believe the NPEA whould have a black backing .
 
Can I also add a question to keep this thread alive?
What about the regulations behind the red RZM tags in caps?
Was this just in the early years?

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Hi there,

The Red RZM was only on early caps before 1939, 1940 0nwards had the brown coloured RZM, see photos in your other post.

Best regards...Ewan
 
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