In October 1955, the People's Liberation Army changed its uniforms, and the 55-style military uniforms replaced the 50-style military uniforms, and the troops from top to bottom, from marshals to privates, all began to replace with brand-new military uniforms. The soldiers were overjoyed, and the military appearance was completely new.
The title of the People's Liberation Army has also changed, originally it was a commander-combatant, then a cadre-soldier, and now an officer-soldier. When the vast number of soldiers received the 55-style military uniform, they found that the biggest change in the military uniform was that the "liberation cap" that they had worn for many years was canceled and replaced with a "boat-shaped cap".
The boat-shaped hat is indeed a new thing for the soldiers of the People's Liberation Army, not to mention that they have never worn it before, and they have never seen it. Some people have only seen Soviet soldiers wearing such boat-shaped hats during the Great Patriotic War from Soviet films. The People's Liberation Army 55-style military uniform has introduced this kind of equipment, and its real intention is twofold: one is that the boat-shaped hat is a common military hat style for soldiers from all over the world, and Chinese soldiers want to be in line with the world, and they can try it in clothing style (the navy uniform is in line with the world); Second, the style of the 55-style military uniform basically imitated the Soviet army at that time, and the soldiers of the Soviet army all wore boat-shaped hats, so the Chinese soldiers also wore boat-shaped hats.
In the beginning, there was a situation where I just wanted to make the boat-shaped hat a new thing, and try it among the soldiers to see if everyone would get used to it quickly. Unlike in the armies of some Western countries, generals and soldiers are issued with boat-shaped caps. I remember that Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia often wore a boat-shaped hat and was also very spirited.
At that time, the number of PLA soldiers was huge, and it was impossible for millions of soldiers to change all of them to boat-shaped caps overnight. By the end of 1956, all the soldiers of the unit had basically completed the 55-style military uniform and put on boat-shaped hats. From the freshness and inadaptability of the soldiers at the beginning, to the unsightly and inconvenient later, and then to the later nostalgia for the liberation caps they once wore, they all reflected that the boat-shaped hats were not as good as the liberation caps.
To this end, in July 1958, the Central Military Commission held a meeting to discuss some problems existing in boat-shaped hats and five-five-style military uniforms, fully listened to the opinions of officers and men at the grassroots level, and made a "Resolution on Revising the Clothing System." One of them is that the boat-shaped caps of army and air force soldiers have been changed to liberation caps.
Considering that it was too wasteful to abandon all of them due to the large number of boat-shaped caps produced by the military garment factory that year, it was decided to replace the liberation caps in 1960. However, there was a strong demand for the replacement of the boat-shaped caps, and by the summer of 1959, all the boat-shaped caps were abolished. In this way, the boat-shaped cap armament unit was only three short years (1956, 1957, 1958).
The texture of the boat-shaped cap is very strong, it is made of thick truck cloth, it is hard and scraped, and it is easy to fold, but the PLA fighters do not like it.
The liberation cap is sewn with the same fabric as the military uniform, the fabric is very thin, light and easy to deform, and the cotton texture is easy to fade. After changing to a good fabric, the liberation hat is lighter and thinner, and it is easy to fold.