Korean War POW Ski Cap

[Hsin C.]

Recently, a nice and rare ski cap showed up on ebay and it was listed as WWII piece. I found a few good pictures that showed good evidence linking that ski cap to those that were worn by PVA soldiers that were going to be repatriated to Taiwan in 1954. I posted the information to a few groups on facebook. 

 

The seller did not mention in the auction itself, but he did tell me that the hat came with a uniform from a vet that served in 24th Infantry Division. From what I quickly researched about the division, they never went to China during WWII but was involved in Korea. He left the Korea part out of the description.

 

I included a close up of a hat worn by a POW (notice the patches are anti-communist slogans). Some similar features between the photos and this hat are the large convex hat badge, simple buttons, white double stitching on the edge, green color (Taiwan was adopting US style uniforms) and long flat visor/bill (WWII examples were curved, sloped, and shorter than the ebay one). There are other photos showing some examples of light colored and dark colored buttons used on other b/w photos. Probably another good indicator is the HBT material. I always have believed HBT was used post war, and used more so on Taiwan.

 

A friend said that it looks like a modern production hat but with an original insignia, which reminded me to take a look at some hats that I have from the 1950s. The double stitching and HBT material are very similar. I feel that this hat is original to the 1950s and not WWII period. 

 

Anyways, just my thoughts about this example. Hopefully, who ever bought the hat will learn of its true and unique history.

I will post some 1950s examples later.