Tom, The oilcloth cap was changed from black to gray in November of 1914. There was even an homeland version made from felt made in early 1915. According to regulation, the cap began to be replaced by Pickelhauben in the Spring of 1915 for the mobile Landsturm, with the immobile Landsturm battalions in the homeland remaining the only ones to continue their use. Finally, in June of 1918, due to the lack of this waxed canvas, it was ordered that all the remaining caps were to be withdrawn and the immobile Landsturm supplied with Pickelhauben. Within weeks of the Prussian Erla?, the Saxons and the Bavarians followed suit. Chip