Does anybody know what type of sheepskin cap Sergeant Carter wears on Hogan’s Heroes? It appears to have a bill like a ball cap but also has sheepskin ear flaps. Did the Air Force issue such caps in WW II? Where can I get one?
I recall all the branches had something similar for the European Theater of Operations in winter.
Check with the auction sites. Must be lots coming out of attics as the veteran ranks shift into smaller homes for retirement.
He wore a sheep-skin hat which was issued to air crews of bombers (the fleece lining provided warmth in the high altitudes in which the bombers flew). The authentic WWII hats are faily collectible, so they can be quite expensive if they are in good condition. The good news is that someone is making decent reproductions of the hat. The bad news is that I do dont know who or how you can find them.
After I got my fleece-lined bomber jacket (which I adore and live in in winter) I sought high and low for the hat you describe. Avirex/The Cockpit offered two variations – see below – via their mailorder catalog several years ago; I do not know if they still do.
(Avirex is the brand. The Cockpit is the name of their store/catalog here in NYC; they also have a Avirex factory outlet store with INCREDIBLE bargains on closeout garments in Long Island City, Queens, but they never seemed to have the hat(s) there so I paid full price)
B-1 goatskin pilot’s cap - #Z82163 $49.00
Shearling gunner’s cap - #Z81167 $49.00
Cockpit order line - 800/ 354-5514
(ALL this info is about 5-10 years old, so be warned)
The great thing about the cap is that you can flip the brim up like the real gunners did when they pressed their machine guns close to their faces to aim and fire!
Good luck.
Hello, dg. Was the above info any help???
Hey Stuyguy,
I couldn’t find the avirex cap, but now that I know what to call the thing, I found one at garciaaviation.com. They call it a B-2 Gunner’s cap and it is a reproduction. It is $79.00. My story sounds similar to yours in that I got a B-3 Bomber Jacket for Christmas and I want to complete the ensemble. Thanks for the help!
Devin Giddens
dg, I used to have matching gloves, too (LL Bean sold them as “Flying Tiger gloves”), but I left them on the subway. Damn. If you ever run across an outfit that sells a pair of fleece-lined gloves that match the jacket/hat, please let me know. Thanks.
Stuyguy:
Further research has revealed a website called "History Preservation Associates at http://www.historypreservation.com. They carry extremely high quality jackets and hats made by a company in England called Eastman Leather. They offer a pair of what they call Type A-10 intermediate flying gloves. They are not sheepskin, but they are apparently identical to the original. They also have the best looking gunner’s cap that I’ve seen on the web. They’re a little pricey, but the quality on the pictures they show is astounding. They also have some interesting original jackets that are not for sale that they use as patterns.
Thanks again,
DG
Correction: The site with the cool vintage jackets is http://www.lostworldsinc.com.
DG