Military Caps & Helmets

Peaked caps

A combination cap or peaked cap is a form of headgear worn by the armed forces of many nations and also by many uniformed civilian organizations. In the British Army these are called Forage Caps (or more fully "Cap, Forage, Peaked"). In the Canadian military, they are known as forage caps. In the United States military, they are commonly known as service caps, wheel caps, or combination covers in the Naval services.

The cap has a crown, a band and a peak (in British English; visor in American English). The crown is one colour, often white for navies, light blue for air forces, and green for armies, and may be piped around the edge in a different colour. The band can be one colour, often black, or can be striped, vertically or horizontally. Most caps have some form of cap device (or cap badge). In the British Army, each regiment and corps has a different badge. In the American armed forces, the cap device is uniform throughout the branch of service. The peak or visor is short, historically made of leather, or in newer caps may be a shiny plastic. Sometimes it is covered in fabric.

Royal Navy officers and Petty officers today wear a cap with a white cover in No. 1, 2 and 3 Dress, originally only worn in tropical climes the white cover was adopted for all areas after the Second World War.
Royal Marines wear a white topped cap with Blues. The Royal Marines Band Service also wear this cap with the Lovat Uniform and Barrack Dress.

Most Regiments and corps of the British Army wear a forage cap in Numbers 1 and 2 Dress, the exceptions being:

• The Royal Tank Regiment, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, Army Air Corps, Parachute Regiment, SAS and Intelligence Corps who wear berets.
• The Royal Regiment of Scotland who wear a regimental Glengarry with cock feathers taken from the former ceremonial uniform of the Royal Scots;
• The Royal Irish Regiment who wear the Caubeen;
• The Brigade of Ghurkhas who wear a round Kilmarnock cap in No 1 dress and the Slouch hat in No 2 Dress
• The Queen's Royal Hussars who wear their tent hat in No 2 Dress.

It has a cap band which may be coloured (red for all Royal Regiments and Corps) a crown which may have coloured piping or a regimental/corps colour and a patent leather peak and chinstrap. The chinstrap is usually secured above and across the peak and secured at each end by a small button of the appropriate Regimental or Corps pattern.

Officers in some regiments are also required to wear a Khaki version of the Cap, often called the "Service Dress Cap" with Service Dress (the Officers' No 2 Dress) and/or Barrack Dress the design of this dates back to the cap worn in the field until replaced by the steel helmet during the First World War.