History

In 1944, a one-piece cap insignia with both the death’s head and eagle insignia was introduced for wear on the M43 cap. These trapezoidal shaped pieces of cloth were originally machine woven, but in late 1944 an embroidered version was introduced to save material.

Initially they featured a skull with two rows of teeth, but this was eventually changed to a skull with only one row of teeth.

The cloth base was in field-grey or green, but insignia for Panzer units were manufactured with a black base to match the Panzer caps.

The trapezoid insignia was either cotton thread embroidered on wool or BEVO machine-woven.