Crocheted peaked cap : Bombardier H H Armstrong, 2/3rd Field Regiment, RAA

Crocheted green and brown woollen peaked cap with integrated fold-down flap to protect the ears and neck. To secure the flap in the upright position, small pieces of wire are sewn into the crown and flap to form a hook-and-eye on each side of the cap. The crown is double crocheted in the round and the peak has been stiffened with an unknown material sewn between two sections of crochet. Two small British General Service buttons secure two decorative lengths of chain-stitched black wool at the front of the cap.

Herbert Huie Armstrong enlisted in the Second AIF on 23 October 1939. He was taken on strength at Ingleburn by 2/1 Field Regiment on 6 November before joining 2/3 Field Regiment on 12 December. Appointed to lance bombardier on 23 February 1940 and bombardier on 1 April Armstrong arrived in the Middle East on 31 December 1940 and embarked for Crete on 26 March 1941. First reported missing on 5 June 1941, Armstrong was held at Malemi Prison Camp but escaped from there on 26 June along with NX3480 Signalman Hayden Farleigh James, NX8611 Bombardier Lewis James Lind and WX57 Gunner Frederick Stanley Sharpe. On the night of the escape the men walked ten miles before meeting a Greek civilian who took them to the village of Roumita where the Australians were hidden and fed for ten days. Lind then suggested the group push on in the hope of getting away from Crete however the other three thought it was safer to remain in the village. Lind decided to push on alone on 8 July and by the end of August had made it back to Allied lines. Armstrong, James and Sharpe were recaptured with Armstrong officially confirmed as a prisoner of war on 11 November 1942. He was allocated the prisoner number 27251 and interned at Stalag VIIIB.

Armstrong was moved to Stalag 357 at Oerbke in April 1944. In January the following year, responding to the approaching Russian advance, the Germans began moving many of their Allied prisoners across Germany. Approximately 300,000 POWs were told to gather their belongings and were force marched from stalags during an exceptionally cold winter. Armstrong and the other prisoners of Stalag 357 were informed on 6 April 1945 that they would be moved out. His diary (AWM PR01274) entry for that day was optimistic: '... even if they get us on the road, I don't think it will be for more than a few days'.

It was, in fact, closer to a month of marching that included travelling more than 500 kilometres from Oerbke to Rettingen. After the end of the war Armstrong was recovered and arrived in the United Kingdom on 15 May 1945. He embarked from Liverpool, England, on 30 May and disembarked in Sydney, Australia, on 7 July. His rank of bombardier was confirmed on 13 August. Armstrong was discharged at his own request on compassionate grounds on 21 September 1945.