Non commissioned officers field grey field cap : 184th Infantry Regiment, 183rd Division, German Army

German Army infantry gefreiter's (lance corporal) field grey woollen peakless field cap (feldmutze). The cap has red piping around the crown and an integral red hat band, which has been covered with an additional khaki camouflage band. A national red, white and black painted pressed metal cockade is attached to the front. The state cockade is missing. A compliance stamp is printed on the off white cotton lining but is unreadable.

Worn by a gefreiter (lance corporal) of the 184th Infantry Regiment, 183rd (Prussian) Division, German Army, who was killed by 3 Platoon, 'A' Company, 24 Battalion, AIF, in the attack on Ville-sur-Ancre on 19 May 1918. The gefreiter was wearing the ribbon bar of the Iron Cross. The 183rd Division had recently been reinforced by 19 year old boys who were not of great fighting value and the brunt of the fighting was borne by the NCOs who fought bravely to the end. The Australian platoon was led by Lieutenant Eric Henry Edgerton MM and bar, who was killed in action on 11 August 1918, aged 21 years, and awarded the Distinguished Service Order on 16 September 1918. Edgerton is buried in the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery at Fouilloy. The details of the action in which this cap was captured are recorded in the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18, Volume VI, The AIF in France 1918, pp.117-123 & 134-137.